Slaves to the system

[James S]

Yes I think in general we have become slaves to commercialism.

OK, so who wants to be first to throw away their PC, their microwave, fridge, TV, DVD player, stereo, car, electric or gas heating, airconditioning, go without their hospitals and supermarkets, move out of or sell their homes and live off the land as people did thousands of years ago.

Gotta admit, it has some real appeal, but not terribly practical!

I think the trick is not to reject this society we live in, as it has many benefits, but in your own personal way treat our Mother Earth with respect and consideration, and live a life that you feel will impact our environment as little as possible. Get enough people doing this and we might see the global change necessary to stop the surface of this planet becoming a toxic wasteland.

James.

[twstedrage]

Yeah I think I was going a little too extream but I think we need to do some changes and I think we are far too advanced for the monitary system we live on. Also I think there would be less obsolete stuff getting thrown away if the comercialism would stop. Anyways my point was I think we need change and wanted to know what other people think. I like you reponse on one way of change and I think that it is a very good start.

[Aries]

I agree that our system needs a change. But it wont happen, simply because certain organizations and the Government wont let it. We are making them massive ammounts of money. I notice the pollution, and our craptastic way of life, and I would like to change it and live better, I would like to help the Earth and bring it back into a better situation. Yet all I can think about most of the time is whats going to happen at work tommorow? Will I hear any good songs on the radio today? What am I going to do today? Things along those lines. The brain washing that we have been subjected to our whole lives makes it very hard to change.
As of now if I had to give up all of my things and live off the land I would be pretty screwed. I hate the system yet it is the only thing I know, so picturing anything else seems far fetched.
There has been many inventions that could have already had huge helping impacts on our world. But the above mentioned partys will not have it that way, so unless we change everything and start over we are pretty much stuck.
My two cents.
-Aries

[Nagual]

The problem is that those in power don't want this change...  Just look at all the environmental laws (passed by Clinton) that Mr Bush threw away to be nice with his capitalist friends...  But, on the other end, there are still too many people supporting them by by example buying those stupid SUVs!

The problem is lobbying by big businesses...  As long as politics are allowed to receive $$$ from big oil/wood/construction/weapons/chemical companies, there won't be much change.  And the worst part is that they exploit other countries too (oil/wood companies in middle-east/africa/south-america).

[kakkarot]

if you don't want to be a part of the system, don't be. just break away from it.

~kakkarot

[Aries]

How could you break away from the system? Its easier said then done.
-Aries

[jason]

"it's a bittersweet symphony,that's life/you're a slave to find money,then you die"-the verve.

[!]

[beavis]

To escape the system, you must live in a jungle and/or die.

[kakkarot]

it may be easier said than done, but it's still easy to do if you actually get off your butt and do it rather than sitting there thinking it's so hard to do [].

a lot of things that people say are "easier said than done" aren't even difficult to do. it just takes *effort*. try it some day, you'll find that actually trying to do something get's it done a lot faster than just sitting around saying it can't happen [|)]

~kakkarot

[twstedrage]

Some things are easier said then done. Try preaching change to people and they laugh at you. Other things are easy to do though. Like I drive 4cyl engines that polute less and get better gas milage. I wouldn't mind having a hybrid, but they don't make it for a truck. I would ride a bike but well I live in phoenix, az, it would take forever to get to work. It would be nice to have one of those hydrogen gas powered vehicles, but still you are depleating the earth of hydrogen most likely. I recycle and throw away as little as possible. However my work doesn't care, 1000's of water bottles and batteries get thrown away daily and they don't care and mentioning recycling does nothing. So it is alot easier said then done, most of the time you just preach to deaf ears and stubborn people that just don't care. For the most part if we got rid of the greedy people in power, we could make alot of changes without changing our life alot. We chould switch most of our generators for power over to wind, water and sun powered. Car could be hydrogen or battery powered. Right there would get rid of most of the polution.  However the only time this will happen is when the oil reserves run out.  But I think the only way would be revolution and a showing of a better way to people before a change would happen soon. So yeah, it's alot easier said then done.

[need]

It's seems that somehow we are killing off planet earth but how many of us have to be told this, do any of us feel it or have truely direct evidence of it, it's one thing to know for yourself and another to be brainwashed by the press and accompanying lobbies. How can we know anything is the truth unless we absolutely know the truth, if we know the truth are we able to act upon it or do we have the means.

I keep thinking about the bottom line in this world and it all comes down to money, not too many people are seeing the connection between money, family, society and an upside down sense of values. If they do see it they don't know correct methods to change it, if they do change it, would it be perfect !?  Not  surprisingly spirituality is also for sale. But are you getting what you pay for. Do you know what you want. Do you know from a commonsense perspective or are you following the tune of others.

[volcomstone]

the future for our current greed filled, hedonistic human race seems rather bleak,

I think it's Ironic somehow, that we are essentially sucking the blood of the earth (metaphorically) and burning it, which makes the earth even sicker.

[NEone]

::shrug::
well, here's my 2 cents worth =)

I don't really think that "giving it all up" and living subsistently is really the way to go for society in general. I mean, if you spent all your time harvesting your crops and raising your livestock, not to mention trading for goods you needed, there wouldn't be any *time* for spirituality. That's why we do things in a society, it gives us all more time overall. Now, the problem is what we do with that time.

The ancient greeks would sit there and think. You could actually get pretty far sitting there and thinking in ye olde greek society. They had people do this b/c they felt this would better humanity with the knowledge/reason they discovered. They also liked watching plays and being entertained =) Nowadays sitting and thinking to better humanity isn't really the best profession to get into, mainly because our society (meaning the Europe and all its derived cultures such as the US, Australia, New Zealand etc) doesn't see immediate profits in supporting people on "sit and think" quests. We still like watching "plays" now, though they're televised and more readily available.

So what've we replaced philosophy with? Consumption. We buy fun little worthless things and whoever dies with the most toys wins.  I don't really think you can change that aspect society, but if you can just say "screw that, *I* still feel that spirituality is a worthwhile cause", then I think you're moving in the right direction. Just don't quit your day job =)

As for the environment, I think that we're closer now than we ever have been to fully realizing and controlling our impact on the environment. Again, just speaking about European-derived cultures, it's not like the people hundreds of years ago really thought about the waste they created. It's just that everything they used (wood and metal mostly) could easily be recycled, and there really weren't enough of them to cause global problems. I mean, they never sat there and thought "hm... maybe we should burn our fires a little cleaner... I mean if 300 million of us did it at once, it might hurt the atmosphere". Now that we have that many people and we're starting to see the effects we cause, we're starting to become aware of them, which is the first step in preventing more problems.  

I really believe society's starting to turn around. Like I said, we as a species really haven't had much time to fully appreciate our impact in the environment, but the fact that *some* of us can appreciate what's going on... well, it says alot for humanity's potential =)

[findtruth]

Well, I've thought about it, too.  Then I gave up.  There are too many people out there who are comfortable, and they don't care if animals they will never see are killed as long as they get that new whatever they wanted.  I'm hardly materialistic, at all, but a lot of other people are, and yes, we are brainwashed to be that way.  I just keep my head and try to enlighten other people as best i can. (not tht I'm all that enlightened myself)

[need]

Consumerism definitely is the name of the game in this society, now that it's been bought up, money controls almost everything and the need to make money in most cases within this system suggests we are deficient without money, you have to work for it but it burns you up to get it many people experience health difficulties when it's too late only to find money cannot fix them. Coupling the idea of human , and deficiency is very interesting, it means we're empty and always need to fill up. Without money ,you can do nothing , money is the token we use to buy services from others that we could very often not have in any other way. We are group beings we cannot exist alone, one person cannot do everything. Some concepts about money need to be broken down to put it in it's place, to show that beyond sentimental longing for a nice world, money is not the goal of life , that we are forced to accept and are being held hostage to. Some appreciable development in the use of money and it's purpose would really help this planet.

On the issue of mankind. We're living in a very strange place, have you noticed that most everything bad for you is advertised with a smile. See another smile and you want what they have too. But is the product worth it. Too often we see nice on top but nasty underneath.
There was this show on tv, it was about the ten most deadliest predators on the face of the planet,they went through these shocking displays of what all these animals, snakes, spiders do, and for each animal they highlighted the particular part of the world were this animal lived, the last deadliest predator I found the most surprising and one that didn't immediately occur to mind, in that programme man was voted the number one predator on the planet, when they showed where this "animal" could be located they painted the whole planet red, great tv shock value. But lets hope we're more than just predators.

[ralphm]

Yea, I've been trying to get out of the system for 30 years but everytime you turn around it follows you home. The only ones that seem to do it stay perpetually stoned. But it looks to me that they are just joining another system. Maybe if enough of us ignore it it will go away!

[Anonymous]

Actually it isn't as hard as you think to leave society.  There was this guy once who lived in Florida and decided one day that he had had enough.  So he went into the woods and built himslef a little shack and he lived there.  He went into town once a month to get supplies and he sold hammocks on the side of the road.  This is how he managed.  This opened up a lot of thinking time and he became a very knowledgable person.  See so you can leave society and still have time for spirituality.  Also if you want to grow your own food you can make it almost automated.  Growing food for yourself isn't that hard.  If you have an acre then you are set.  The reason why the farmers of old had such a hard time was because they used there food for trade so they needed a lot of food.  Also they weren't just growing crops they were also carpenters, doctors, animal specialist, lumberjacks, managers, tradesmen, metallurgists, repairman, etc.  They had to be able to do everything or they would be screwed.  But if you just want to go out in the woods and have a small garden for yourself and maybe to a little hunting to have some meat then really you won't be that busy.

[findtruth]

That's interesting.  It's ironic how the system brainwahses peopl to think that they would never be able to do that though.  The system and society brainwashes people to think that they need it in order to survive, not the other way around.

[bitkari]

small groups of people have broken away from "the system".

i know of a particular group who live in north scotland and are almost entirely self sufficient (own food, water, power) and only buy certain items that they are unable to make themselves. they live a life that is fairly comparable to a regular 21st-century western community.

the only real problem that i've gleaned from my visits is how they try to manage everyones expectations on how they're group should run.

they do have a fair amount of money tho. a lot was spent in buying the farmhouse, electrical equipment etc. not sure what their total budget was to make it happen.

[need]

The strength of larger communities is their increased chances of creativity, survival, and the garnering and utilisation of knowledge, these qualities are harder to find in smaller communities.

[twstedrage]

Maybe I am a little more sensative then others to the world, but I was wondering if anybody else feels the same? For me it bugs and hurts me to see what we have become and how we slowly kill the enviroment and seems like no one cares enough to change. You go outside and all you see is pollution. If you are in a big city you try to see stars but few are there. We rid our planet of fossil fuels when we could be using effective and better alternative sources. We slowly take over all the natural enviroments. We kill beautiful creatures that are becoming extinct because we believe it makes us better in bed. You try to speak change and you get laughed at. So you work a crappy job day in and day out just to buy goodies you are brainwashed to buy and you work, sleep and get up to do it again. All because we are told to live this way. We throw away tons of trash and instead of getting rid of it or recycling it we put it in a hole in the ground and cover it up. We have lost our uniqueness. Our desire to explore and find the unkown has been turned into a desk job with fake lights that drain your energy away. For me it seems like we work and slave away for someone else's fortune. I try to find what I want to do in this world as a carrer and nothing seems to fit. It's all about cooperations sucking the life out of us. I think it is time for us to change and evolve society into something else, what does everyone else think?