The Greatest Disease On The Planet. The Autobiography of Mankind.

Let's face it.

We're not normal.

Look around. What do you see?

Us.

But that's just what you see. That's not what is actually there.

We're way different than anything else on this planet. We're pretty bizarre. We are very powerful. There are other intelligent beings on this planet, some even utilize tools to get what they want which is usually food. But WE don't just use tools to get food. We use tools to make better tools to get more food than we could possibly need. But we do more than that. All we need is food and shelter, but this is boring, we invent other things to use our creative powers for. We play a game called "let's shoot at each other and see who dies first". Of course we have a reason for doing this, and that is to gain power over our enemy.

Okay, lets veer a little off topic here and stop talking about what all we can do, and start talking about reason. Let's go back in time. All the way back. To the beginning of human history. We have always had problems. There has always been war. And there has always been a reason. There is something at the root of all of our problems that is much more fundamental than the problems themselves. There is a sort of light at the end of the tunnel. It is a bright light. It's bright, but its kind of dirty looking. It's kind of gray. This is the light we are after. This bright gray light. You wanna know what it is? Knowledge.

That's right. Every single problem we have ever had comes down to knowledge. At least that's the good thing we get out of our problems. The problem is, our lives are put in a destructive perspective. Regardless of who you are. We are all subject to this. More dangerous than this knowledge is what this knowledge brings about. And this is more fundamentally the source of all of our shortcomings since the beginning of human history up until we put a stop to our shortcomings right at the source. And that source is materialism.

Materialism, from my perspective, is very dangerous to the human psyche and the world in general.

Nearly no one recognizes their true self because they are blinded by the possession of wealth, material things, and power. Humans are the only living thing on this planet that do this.

Materialism is an illusion. We surround ourselves with material things and enjoy the splendor that they have to offer, but consequently, we forget about nature and lead ourselves to believe that we are separate from it. Forgetting about nature is very dangerous for humans. Some people are so blinded by materialism that they forget that they are in fact nature as well. Now you see the danger in materialism. We completely surround ourselves with unnatural material human creations and we lose our true self as part and one with nature.

Its almost seems like materialism is an invention specifically designed to make us forget our true selves. That's my opinion because attraction to material things whether you are aware of it or not greatly alters your perception of reality. In fact, now that I think about it, it seems like materialism is directly related to all the problems we have on this Earth including but not limited to greed, distrust, control, pride, hate, jealousy, war, etc.

It seems like if you were to take away everything that is not natural besides necessities such as comfortable housing and such, that there would be an automatic sense of equality and oneness with nature. This would lead to a cessation of conflict and a more blissful Earth with highly desirable living conditions. Under the veil of materiality, we are all the same. This would be realized in such a way that I wouldn't have any desire to cause conflict in any way.

This materialism is what separates us from the rest of the planet and is therefore the active destructive force to this planet. So take a second look at your life now. What are you really? Are you as good as you think you are? Or are you a misled slave to a system that you are oblivious to? Human existence is all about knowledge and knowledge is power. The hierarchical structures established by a power system are exactly what is wrong with this world. Nothing more, nothing less. And these power systems are established by materialism.

The wealth we assign to things is nothing more than a thought. Money is just trees, and there are lots of those in my backyard, but that doesn't mean I'm rich, but shouldn't it. The trees are real. The fake values we assign to these trees are not. Its all just a human idea designed to perpetuate the hierarchical power structure.

But there's good news. We have a chance of redemption. I'm not in any way saying we should start running around naked in the forest. We've been given a gift. And we have learned how to strangely dilute this gift and now the product is dirty. But we can change this gray light into a brighter white light. We can take the gift of knowledge and use it to benefit our true selves as nature. You want to do something great with your knowledge and change the world to a positive place. Stop buying expensive jewelry and clothes that make you look cool and start investing ideas and finances to something that will make the world a better place. This is your true key to salvation and the salvation of your children and your children's children. See yourself for what you really are. You are an animal. You just happen to be a smart one. So use your gift of knowledge for nothing more than something positive.

Be the change you want to see in the world.- Mahatma Ghandi

Now you know the pinnacle of human demise. It is up to you to change it into something good.

Brilliant post man! Definitely a good message to send out, nice work.

Where's Phage to debunk this topic with "logic"....

Good post, and very self aware of you.
Are you a bad monkey? Do you not feel the Silver back DNA pulling at you?

Something else to consider:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Most definitely, I agree with you with my whole heart and spirit. Materialism will be our demise. I've grown into that mantra. Yet I can assure you that true disease will kill you and then again it will wake one up.

Been waiting to die for years. It's been a hard trip. But one thing I tell you for sure.....you are right on the bulls eye!

Sure wish I had more friends and family to help me to my journey. No money will make me feel like I'm worth anything. A kind word or someone holding my hand will make me feel rich.

We spend too much time on ourselves. Reach out and grab onto those going through rough times. Karma.... big believer. Death comes to us all. Your riches lie in your friends and family in a spiritual way.

That's so true. Some of us are like a disease among this planet, and its way of showing us how we abuse her is natural disasters. It's like the Earth's immune system is kicking in to rid itself of this virulent problem.

I agree materialism will be the Achilles's heel of humanity if we are not careful. To a degree this is acceptable. The problem is we need to spend more time producing tomorrow's technology, today...and less time wallowing in MilTech and Consumer Production, and more time pushing next-gen energy and space travel. The sooner we can get clean energy that produces significant power - the sooner we can prevent the ruin of Earth.

If there is not any clean energy available? When it comes down to it. Humanity is more important than Earth... -if- we can produce artificial environments. Which we CAN...but we're to busy selling iThings, Five Cars a family, Bling, and Ameridum Idlolz to people to make any real progress that we as a species should be making.

If we were to cut our social product costs and military costs by even 1/4th... the technology needed to fix everything would come so fast...

However, again, I would rather see Earth suffer AND humanity fail - before we flat out "give up" and "go back" to being animals. Because even if we were to release EVERY nuclear weapon, and change the environments for the worse...in the long run? Life will adapt. Earth will recover. If anyone really hates humanity enough to wish "culling" of us - then just toss us in with the Siberian Traps or other, worse events - and have faith that the planet will and can recover when/if we fail...and if we succeed? Everything can be fixed.

Oh I know I will be hated for this post, but this is honestly how I feel. Humanity is the child of Earth. It is our duty to succeed and move to the future.

We are convinced desire is the natural state of humanity. That it's okay to want and want more and more on top of that. So out of greed we accumulate and out of fear of scarcity we refuse to give back as much as we take. Yet a human can only eat so much before becoming full, have so much sex before becoming exhausted, drive only one car at a time, live in one house at a time, wear one set of clothes. Still we accumulate. And then live in fear that someone is going to take what we have. Desire is a sickness.

But If we made sharing the rule rather than the exception there would naturally be enough for all wouldn't there? But then how would we feel superior to one another? We would have to recognize human worth rather than material worth.

The saddest part is the answer is very simple. If we were willing to recognize when we have enough. That moderation is not only healthy but can make our lives happier and less stressful and us better human beings. Instead we build the Golden Corral and gorge until we vomit and then throw away hundreds of pounds of food that we couldn't manage to stuff ourselves with.

Yet I still hold out hope. Maybe I'm a fool. But I suppose I'd rather be foolish and optimistic than wise and bitterly cynical. I've tried both and the former is way more enjoyable. So I keep smiling and praying and loving. It keeps me sane.

Ironically not because of this thread I am on a 3 day fast with meditation and prayer as my sustenance. My small contribution. Wish me well if you would? Thanks

Namaste
Traveler in the Dark

Very nicely done!

*S&F*

I also agree.
Materialism, wealth, money, (now fortune and fame)...
All products of an environment created to separate man from nature.

I will tell you this though, in my opinion:
People are easily influenced.
Almost too easily.
Everything around you has an impact whether anyone realizes it or not.
As a child you are influenced by your peers as to what's "cool" or "not cool".
As an adult, the same influence takes place, but on a larger scale.

I see this world and all it's "luxuries" as stricktly false happiness.
Because once you join the world in buying your happiness, you fall deeper into slumber.

Fact of the matter is, most people don't want to give up their possessions.
At all! They will kick, scream, fight, declare war, etc...

But if we were actually grateful everyday for the most important things first and foremost...
The world would be a better place.

But for some reason, there is an underlying drive, almost a force...to want more.
All through our lives we are taught to strive for more money, nicer cars, or bigger homes.
Better education, faster food, quicker convenient technology...
All these things are really not necessities, but for some reason we are indoctrinated to think so.

I guess that's society today.


That's why I don't care about material things.
Yes they are nice to have but I realize we don't need them.
Also the reason I get into arguments with people who think we do.


I truly find it disgusting how people are so attached to a lifestyle that was created to make the creators rich.
I also find it troubling how people won't open their eyes to see how they are controlled.
And of all things, they are controlled by material things.


Maybe once it is all taken from them, they will see differently?

I wish I had something enlightening to add to this thread, I do not! I only know that we are in a mode of "opposites", where we are told this is "beauty" it is really ugly, where we are told this is "right" it is wrong. Can you see the difference? They say that Nuclear is the answer, it is not! They say that War is to protect the innocent, No, absolutely not!

So many are looking upward for an answer from GOD, but it is the reflection of the sky upon the water that is the true nature of Heaven, in other words it is from within.

Materialism is the same thing, a false sense of "richness" when in fact it is creating a larger void within us all!

S&F

Look upon the waters to the sky above, then you may finally glimpse the real Universe!

Too funny, I thought I had nothing enlightened to share! I should have known better!

This is a wonderful thread. I can see the greed within myself even now, and I feel that I should try to stay away from feeling like I need more and more, and start practising giving


However it does seem rather ironic since I am typing this out from a phone with internet.

This materialism issue is based on the primary objective of the human mind - the achievement of inimitable Identity.

The establishment of Identity is a primordial survival imperative for the existential something, since if that something cannot be delineated as unique and singular from that which contains it, or from all that is contained along with it, then that something cannot actually be said to exist at all. "To be or not to be" is (in a sense) what we're dealing with here.

At the heart of Identity is the contextual make-up (internal context) of the existential something. This brief except from my own book describes the internal context of a single note that was performed by a violinist during a orchestral performance. This shortlist of identifying factors allows this one performed note to physically exist.

When we look at just a short list of unique physical components that came together as the music that was created – the brain-nerve-muscle coordination of the violinist, his hands and his fingers acting upon the strings, the bow drawn across those strings, the strings vibrating and resonating against the bridge of the violin itself which caused the wood to resonate, the sound waves pushing through the open air of the hall, the reverberation of the walls and ceiling that smoothed out the harsh tone of the raw sound of the strings and made it sing as it did, the ears of the listeners, and finally, the minds of each listener at that instant that the sound became music as interpreted by each mind – we have to accept that if we took away any single stage of this list of contributing aspects alone, the result would cause the music in question to either be radically altered, or destroyed entirely.

Then there are the preparatory components. When the violinist struck his first note of the evening, that note was a C#, but to simply state that it was a C# is to lose sight of all that this single note presented to the unique identity of this particular moment. This C# note did not, does not, exist in a vacuum. It didn't simply appear from nowhere to launch this specific performance.

As the first note of a composed symphony, it was selected and placed by that symphony's composer. That choice imbued this C# with all that came about, as historical context, to create that choice. What historical context? Let's see.

This composer lives (or once lived) a life that contributed to the notion of choosing and placing that note in that specific part of the composition. In fact, it stands to reason that the composer spent some time and thought about which note to place in that specific part of the piece, and likely spent considerable time deciding how long the note should last, how loud it should be played, and whether it should be physically manipulated by the musician in such a way as to provide it a specific expressiveness at any point within its existence as a performed musical note. All this thought came as a result of study and experience, as well as the direct impact of those specific events on the inimitable human expression that separates that composer from any other composer – or any other human being, for that matter.

As the definite result of such a causal chain of events – education, experience, consideration, and even the invention and establishment of notes and staff as a form of written musical documentation (if one wishes to run the history of that note all the way back to its origins) – this C#'s historical context becomes a primary identifier when selecting it from any such expression suite for precise examination.

In this case, history is not the only progressive chain that brought this C# to lead off this orchestral arrangement. There is also the direct contribution from the author's own intellectual continuum to consider. That composer provided a full level of intellectual context to that note, and that context grants a distinction to that specific note that is not shared with any other C# note in that or any other musical piece. The identity of that note is affected by that very specific context, and makes that note unique before it is even performed.

Of course, on this particular night, that note was performed, and this isolated it even further as its singular identity was further amplified with the additional impact of the performer. After all, this was an audible note, and not just a conceived note, within this particular composition.

When the violinist struck that note, he added his own contextual contribution to that specific note on that specific evening. This piece was not composed by him, but the creation of that C# note as sound – the physical interpretation of that note by way of the violin as a sound generation tool – was accomplished solely by the violinist. What flowed through the hands and fingers of that violinist as he struck that C# note, represented all that had been his life to that point in time, and the whole of it caused that C# to suddenly belong to him as an artist who had taken the composer's suggestion and had had his way with it – for good or ill, as the case may be.

The years of study, practice, and personal sacrifice; the career that he’d already had, or still envisioned; the surging elements within his own body and brain; all coming together as he hit that first C# and gave its execution his own unique signature. This is the historical and intellectual context that the violinist provided, which combined with the historical and intellectual context that the composer had already provided, to further distinguish this first C# note as a contextually isolated unique whole that expressed the unique identities of both artists in a manner that is both actual and logical.

But there are other contextual layers to consider. There is the instrument itself.

The musician's violin is a rare and valuable model that was produced by a celebrated craftsman who died hundreds of years ago, and since its creation, it has been played by a line of brilliant musicians who've carefully preserved its beauty, its tone and its overall utility. The very fact of its unique excellence, and the history behind that excellence, contributed its own level of context to the sound of this first note, as well as the causal impact on the violinist's psyche (again, flush with critical context) as he skillfully honored this rare treasure with his committed effort to produce that sound.

This blend of circumstantial and intellectual context – somewhat different in nature than the blending of purely intellectual context that two artists in tangential collaboration would contribute to the identity of the piece, but just as powerfully isolating in its impact – was yet another contribution to what had already come together to distinguish this first C# of this particular musical piece.

Then, we must include the actual event and physical environment into the contextual whole, since the note did reach into a real environment during a real moment in time. For this, we must include the environmental aspects of the concert venue itself, the relative humidity of the atmosphere and its impact on the violin's tone and the “carry” of the note within the structure of the hall, the impact of competing and sympathetic frequencies from the other notes filling the hall, and whether people were buzzing among themselves as this note was struck, or even if the hall was full or whether people were still finding their seats. From there we can continue to add contextual qualifications until we run out of atoms and quarks and strings to pick over.

So, where does the artist end and the art begin? I don't know. There may not be a point where one ends and the other begins, and that may be exactly the point. Context identifies and isolates, but it can also unify and relate one unique with another. Our violinist – as he struck that C# – became forever associated with that composer through the contextual confines of what both men contributed to that one note, even as that C# broke free and isolated itself from the whole of reality with its full load of inimitable context, never to be duplicated again as the fact of its existence lives on into eternity.

The artist adds to the whole, while establishing his or her art as both contribution and identification. Of course, as humans we each experience reality in relation to ourselves and to our own need for unique identity, so we focus on the identifying-isolating aspects within the artistic expression, and we look for that point where the art itself becomes released from the artist. After all, that release must exist if we are to take from the artist what we see as beautiful and claim it as part of our own identity.

Did you notice how that passage ends?

Of course, as humans we each experience reality in relation to ourselves and to our own need for unique identity, so we focus on the identifying-isolating aspects within the artistic expression, and we look for that point where the art itself becomes released from the artist. After all, that release must exist if we are to take from the artist what we see as beautiful and claim it as part of our own identity.

This where the issue reaches out and shakes hands with each and every one of us. Here's the Identity issue as we deal with it. Again, another excerpt. After all, if I've already written it out, why write it out again.

In the Material realm, all that exists does so because it works to maintain existence. In other words, it survives, and survival is the only real goal of physical existence. You may see yourself as existing well above the carnal level of survival, but then you aren't a carnal (Material) survival expression, are you. Well, you are, but it's not that simple. Unlike other animals, you're a true hybrid expression – fully Event-centric (Material) and fully Informational – and, with that being the case, what does survival look like for you? After all, the Informational has no real need for a survival expression.

In fact, The Informational itself has no real need for any expression at all, since expression is a means to establish prolonged Identity beyond a finite confine. But then, Identity expression wasn't an issue at all within the informational realm until the information-generating material brain and its Event/Informational hybrid trajectory made it an issue. Dynamic Information crashed the Informational Realm with its own dynamic freedom of active expression; its own unique and inimitable identity. Suddenly eternal Informational Existence was capable of Identity; a true eternal Masculine expression. And isn't that what survival is for you?

Think about it. You buy, you create, you win, you express your opinion, you bring your progeny into this world, and all of it is yours. It all belongs to you. Like a male cat spraying your territory, you mark the world around you, and you make it identifiably associated with you and you alone. Your body, your wife, your husband, your car, your house, your career/job/business/art, your children, your parents, your family, your life, your sickness, and finally, your death. You tag it all, you defend your ownership of it, you care for it, and you push it forward to positively express your ongoing identity through having made it yours.

What you can't own, you've established direct association with. Your school, your community, your church, your company, your friends, your city, your ethnicity, your race, your heritage, your country; all of it establishing and preserving your Identity through your direct membership. Assuring and preserving your existential presence within the environment. Your survival.

You don't exist above the carnal level of survival. No one does. You simply express that survival through your establishment and preservation of Identity. In this next digression, I want to take a look at how the Survival imperative is expressed throughout the existential realm. From the least to the greatest, and how this one imperative drives everything that has been set into motion to succeed.

So, when it comes to materialism, what's actually being accomplished is the establishment of inimitable Identity by an existential Event/Informational hybrid that inherently realizes that Identity is its only real primordial imperative. Whatever the human being collects to itself, and establishes as part of its suite of contextual properties, becomes integral to its Identity forever. It may seem trivial, but even those who dismiss materialism are actively embracing that dismissal as integral to their own Identity contextual suite. In other words; 6 of one, half dozen of another, with neither means of Identity establishment more effective than the other.

Originally posted by NorEaster
So, when it comes to materialism, what's actually being accomplished is the establishment of inimitable Identity by an existential Event/Informational hybrid that inherently realizes that Identity is its only real primordial imperative. Whatever the human being collects to itself, and establishes as part of its suite of contextual properties, becomes integral to its Identity forever. It may seem trivial, but even those who dismiss materialism are actively embracing that dismissal as integral to their own Identity contextual suite. In other words; 6 of one, half dozen of another, with neither means of Identity establishment more effective than the other.

edit on 8/6/2011 by NorEaster because: (no reason given)

But the problem with materialism is, people are establishing their identity with human creations instead of natural creations. People forget who they REALLY are by associating themselves with the human creations. If the human contextual environment was equal to all humans, then humans would have nothing to distract them from the information at hand which could only be derived from pure existentialism. Natural informational context is balanced. Humans interacting with humans rather than rich men interacting with poor. Materialism stains natural existence. You can easily see how identifying yourself with materialistic principles and materialistic social classes that are rooted in human ideas only serve to benefit the informational continuum of the human contextual environment. So it's a man's world, erroneously.

The materialistic foundation is rooted in selfish desires and with that providing the contextual environment makes it seem okay to be selfish, and above all, okay to be materialistic, and in fact it makes it hard to be otherwise.