The Great Unknown

Having spent the past two months pretty much alone in the wilderness during which time on several occasions survival looked unlikely I discovered that what I don't know is far more meaningful and critical than what I think I do know.

The Great Unknown teased me as though mocking the carnal knowledge my mind has processed and memorized over the years of living and learning.

We are bobbing corks upon a vast ocean and in the same way that the ocean accommodates the cork the great unknown accommodates us. We learn to roll one way or another, to float with the current or against, to steady ourselves, and we imagine that we have some degree of control when in reality our lives are forever at the mercy of that which we know nothing of. Human knowledge has increased exponentially over the past 50 years alone yet we only know what we think we know and when it comes to the great unknown we know nothing at all.

The best we can do is make things up We made up God/s and all manner of symbols and philosophies and values and morals which we hold dear. What works for us we use what doesn't we reject. What is working for us now might never have worked 100 years ago, we are forever making up stuff that will work for us now, not necessarily for the future.

The thing to understand is that its all bull#, that some of it is more credible than the rest therefor of some possible value to survival. The only thing that is not bull# is the great unknown.Everything that we 'know' is stuff that we have made up.

Therefor it is pointless to get your knickers into a tangle about the bull# you don't like. Ignore it and go with what appeals to you or make up your own. Or wipe it all away and contemplate the Great Unknown.

One of the best threads I have seen on ATS.
I am sure someone will argue that what you say is wrong but the more they argue against your logic proves what little they really know.

You pretty much hit the nail square on the head brother.......

As Plato says "I know one thing, that I know nothing"

Which is as apt now as it was then

I couldn't agree with you more... where I come from we sum it up by saying..." Tommorrow is not guaranteed for anyone."

That being said, why is this in the Survival area vs Philosophy?

what were you doing in the wilderness barely able to survive??

second line.. inquiring mind wants to know

reply to post by Juran

I don't know about that.
Personally I prefer the beach to bobbing in the ocean.
From there I get a clear steady view of all the other bobbers.

Thanks OP for the great read.
As I see it, this is the ultimate perspective, a subjectively perennial vantage point which one can chose his own reality. With knowledge you gain more creative control, eventually freeing yourself to all possibilities and giving to the confidence necessary to manage another personal dimension.

Veritas Surfeit

reply to post by Surfeit


Even if it means some people consider murder and rape their reality?

Giving people the freedom you talk about is like playing with fire. We are not ready for such freedom as of yet.
We are a collective bunch; maybe you are ready; but your neighbor is not.

reply to post by mwood


I guess I got hit between the eyes by something that was real for a change.

reply to post by AlreadyGone


I feel that life is more about survival than it is about philosophy, you can't have the latter without the former.

reply to post by MrsBlonde


I left everything behind and I didn't want to ever go back to 'back there'. Yet I have come back, I am 'back here' and I ask myself why. All I can come up with is I am not the same person I was 2 months ago but even that is not true. If anything I have drawn closer to who I am as opposed to who I thought I was or thought I wanted to be.But what would I know? I am excited by the possibilities while being aware to the pitfalls of thinking I know anything,

Well you know there was a time when people used to believe a lot of what we would call a lot of nonsense.

When the black death was in the southern states they used to fire cannons at night thinking that would help.

But thanks to Sir Francis Bacon and the Baconian method, for 89 bucks you can get a Wikireader

or download a copy of Wikipedia from WIkipedia, its free, and install it on a lap top, except you will have a difficult time powering it in the wilds.

Clearly it is not all bs because we enjoy using our computers, and using all our wonderful toys. I got a ham radio in the mail today, as a for instance, and no way could I ever make one myself, but for little effort, I can afford to get one thanks to that knowledge base man has built up over the ages.

I will agree that things are not as they appear in this world, but it could be worse.

I should add this too because you know if you get Wikipedia in any form, it has no pictures. The database would be too large to store. Which means you will not be able to identify edible plants

There are a million ebooks for free at that link I just posted that you can use in an ereader. Right now its the great unkown, and you would never be able to read them all even if you got some software that reads pdf files to you in a female voice. But you can look things up if you have to.

Consider how much the earth has been studied in the last 200 years. Before that it was all a big mystery.

reply to post by Juran


Maybe we dont make things up.Maybe we make reality...

lots of alone time like that is good for the soul

I never checked out for two months in the wilderness but there used to be Holy Hermits

in many olden societies who were sought out for their wisdom, guess you figured out how come!

welcome back

Originally posted by MrsBlonde
lots of alone time like that is good for the soul

I never checked out for two months in the wilderness but there used to be Holy Hermits

in many olden societies who were sought out for their wisdom, guess you figured out how come!

welcome back

Didn't he say that we made up God or the Gods? Sounds to me like he didn't go the shaman route but I might be mistaken.

If you want an interesting story, read what happened to Napoleon Bonaparte the night he slept inside the Great Pyramid at Giza.

"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own
ignorance."
-Thomas Sowell

Originally posted by purplemer
reply to post by Juran

 

Maybe we dont make things up.Maybe we make reality...

Yes we do make up reality and then we go on to create what we need to exist in that reality but of course we don't all work harmoniously together in doing this so contention and division ensure that we seldom if ever live in peace.
Yet in our bumbling imperfect human way we do all seem to be slowly, painfully, learning how to come together. This is a truth that can't be ignored and it is so incredible, so fantastic, that one wonders in awe at the majesty of ...of...well, of the Great Unknown.

This helps this forum....How??? Clearly one can see that this is posted in the wrong forum...Damn since my Fav poster had been banned....this forum has become shall I say boring....

Yeah it is hard to know all there is about survival, its why I say take a back up hard copy
of the info with you when you head out.

Modern humans have lost most of their knowledge from their hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

In the right climate, soil type, and water availability survival is not too hard, but survival is not living.

Living is when your life has meaning beyond survival, and that is often hard to do when you spend all
your time and effort just trying to survive.

For food use trapping, learn wild edibles, for shelter know the temp is the same 3 ft down year round
outside the Arctic.

There is much much more of course, but the top of the line survival books cover it all.

This is also another reason why I say do not try it alone, no man is an island.

Doing something like this with someone you are friends with is a shared experience and
solo isolation has been known to drive ppl insane.

Good Luck !!!

Originally posted by Ex_MislTech
Yeah it is hard to know all there is about survival, its why I say take a back up hard copy
of the info with you when you head out.

Modern humans have lost most of their knowledge from their hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

In the right climate, soil type, and water availability survival is not too hard, but survival is not living.

Living is when your life has meaning beyond survival, and that is often hard to do when you spend all
your time and effort just trying to survive.

For food use trapping, learn wild edibles, for shelter know the temp is the same 3 ft down year round
outside the Arctic.

There is much much more of course, but the top of the line survival books cover it all.

This is also another reason why I say do not try it alone, no man is an island.

Doing something like this with someone you are friends with is a shared experience and
solo isolation has been known to drive ppl insane.

Good Luck !!!

I am only replying to this because I don't want it to be the last word on the thread. I did not spend all my time trying to survive, on the contrary I spent my time moving from one place to another and each night I spent under the stars in a different spot which was fantastic apart from the occasional mozzie attack. I went days without food except for an ample supply of strong, black, sweet, coffee which kept me going even though the energy I spent each day was extreme most days. I let the great unknown allow me to survive, I didn't need or want survival information from books or whatever. The point is, survival seemed unlikely on several occasions according to the limitations of my thinking process yet I did survive in spite of my lack of proper equipment or planning. Basically what I did was row a completely unsuitable 3.7 aluminum dinghy several hundred kilometers along a remote crocodile infested coastline without safeguards or preparation or information. I was at the mercy of extreme temperatures, a fickle wind, unpredictable currents, and crocodiles and I seldom came upon another soul except the occasional rednecks campers with their 4wheel drive vehicles who I generally stayed clear of. No man is an Island? Bull#!