If it isn't one thing, it's another

Haggis McBagpipe

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RE: If it isn

It sure was news to me. Here I was thinking that earth would come crashing to a halt one day when either a) the sun finally blinks out once it gets really old and tired of it all, or b) a thought makes it through to George W. Bush's brain (a very volatile situation that would be).

Now it turns out we have a whole other galaxy stopping by for a visit. An explosive and, if anybody actually survives it, a most memorable visit.

It makes me wonder, though: Since we, as a species, are destined to be wiped out, why do we worry about the things we worry about?
 

Andem

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RE: If it isn

Yesterday it was the Soviet Union, today it's Bush, tomorrow it's the Milky Way... Next thing will be Mars Attacks!
 

Haggis McBagpipe

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Re: RE: If it isn

Andem said:
Yesterday it was the Soviet Union, today it's Bush, tomorrow it's the Milky Way... Next thing will be Mars Attacks!

Ain't that the truth! Hey, wait a minute... now I'm hungry for a Mars bar and a Milky Way bar. :cool:
 

bogie

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RE: If it isn

Haggis McBagpipe said:
It makes me wonder, though: Since we, as a species, are destined to be wiped out, why do we worry about the things we worry about?

Because we live for "our" lifetime. And, heaven knows, there might not even be "mankind" when the collision eventually happens. Our "human" existence, here on this planet, is only a blink in the timeline since life on Earth began, so we might just be a miniscule part of cosmic history when this minor event of the universe occurs.
 

Andem

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Argh! Now you got me thinking about chocolate... I think I'm going to go have a chocolate martini :D
 

Haggis McBagpipe

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Andem said:
Argh! Now you got me thinking about chocolate... I think I'm going to go have a chocolate martini :D

Aaaaaack! I LOVE chocolate martinis!!! Have one for me, 'cause I just bet I'm gonna get stuck with just the chocolate bar. :cool:
 

Rick van Opbergen

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RE: If it isn

I agree with you bogie. It's a scary thought that over a billion years or so, people from another planet will send their spaceshuttles to a rock called Earth to discover: 'wait a minute, it's quite possible there was once life on this planet' or something like that. We will be forgotten (?) <SIGH>
 

Haggis McBagpipe

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Re: RE: If it isn

bogie said:
Haggis McBagpipe said:
It makes me wonder, though: Since we, as a species, are destined to be wiped out, why do we worry about the things we worry about?

Because we live for "our" lifetime. And, heaven knows, there might not even be "mankind" when the collision eventually happens. Our "human" existence, here on this planet, is only a blink in the timeline since life on Earth began, so we might just be a miniscule part of cosmic history when this minor event of the universe occurs.

Yes, I believe we are just a blink in time, but until the twentieth century or so, mankind has always lived with the assumption that, one way or another, we would continue forever. I think mankind lived a certain way as a result... they lived for their own lifetime, sure, but there was also a view to the 'bigger picture'. I think a mankind always worked for the future as well as the here and now.

I suggest that the utter and absolute knowledge that we are finite must affecf us at a deeper level than we realize. No matter how hard we work at peace or saving the earth or whatever, it is all for naught. We can build a better future for our children, and our children's children, but we cannot give a future to our species.

People frequently talk of the destructive way we have become, could this be, in part, why? We are, after all, probably the first generation to know, even as kids, that everything will end one day for mankind.

So, I am wondering, does the futility of it all affect how we are? I wonder, has it changed our way of being in some unconscious unrecognizable way?
 

peapod

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No! awareness of futility makes me wanna smell the roses, and keep on dancing....for the little bit of time I was given on this planet. I have a good tune playing right now...makes me happy and wanna be goofy and dance.
 

Haggis McBagpipe

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peapod said:
No! awareness of futility makes me wanna smell the roses, and keep on dancing....for the little bit of time I was given on this planet.

In a sense, taking a 'what the hell' attitude... to which I completely agree (after all, in a way such knowledge sets us free, it is the one thing we most assuredly cannot do anything about). Do you think, though, that others might take the same 'what the hell' attitude but with a more violent turn? Actually, the reference to Clockwork Orange in another thread is apt, for didn't the vicious games of those boys come from that very sense of hopelessness?
 

peapod

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Well I think that was kubricks intention to show the hopelessness. It was afterall right up there on the screen for everyone to see.

A "what the hell" attitude in life, means live life to the fullest, accept the ups and downs...with a skip in your walk...and have good tunes. Appreciate and enjoy all the beauty around you...its there you just have to look for it.

I don't understand violence so what can I say.
 

Haggis McBagpipe

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peapod said:
A "what the hell" attitude in life, means live life to the fullest, accept the ups and downs...with a skip in your walk...and have good tunes. Appreciate and enjoy all the beauty around you...its there you just have to look for it.

I don't understand violence so what can I say.

A 'what the hell' attitude in life is all of - and more - what you say... but it can present in a much darker version as well. What I wonder is, could we be witnessing a marked increase in violence in the world and in the heart itself that is somehow tied to the underlying understanding that none of it matters in the least?
 

peapod

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Funny how kubrick was treated for making that movie, when you consider how it is today. Things have progressed. The junvenile delinguency in bowler hats, seemed mild compared to mans inhumanity to man, you see these days. I think kubrick could have made a fine movie about reena Virks killer. This time the gang could be all females. The landscape would be the same tho...gray cold, and anti-human. He really did makes some great films didn"t he...
 

Haggis McBagpipe

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peapod said:
He really did makes some great films didn"t he...

Yes he did. He is one of my favourites.

So, do you think we are witnessing, to some degree, an increase in violence in the world and in the heart itself? Do you think that it might somehow be tied to an innate understanding that none of it matters in the least?
 

bogie

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RE: If it isn

Nope, not at all. We live in an "instant" news and global-knowledge era. We now see more of what is going on, as it happens. We are less violent than ever before - despite that it appears to the contrary. Study history and see what has happened in the past, when "news" of mass killings, and conquering, took years to reach distant areas of this planet.

We are progressing as a civilization, albeit slow in our eyes - it is a fraction of time in history.

If you were from a distant galaxy civilization, exploring the Universe, would you make contact with our young, erratically violent, and evolving society? I think their notes would be something like "Come back in 1000 years and see if they have evolved yet - avoid contact until then".
 

peapod

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I think you are right bogie. I think the world was much more violent in the past, a few history reads will tell you that. But now we get to see these things on big screens. After being bombarded with these pictures constantly, you become less and less shocked at what you are seeing. The violence becomes more common place. A famous quote:

The medium is the message" because it is the "medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action."

As far as nothing matters, well that would be a very empty place. Love matters. The love you have for your family, your friends, your planet and most of all for your own life.