The Most Precious Thing They Take From Us

Time is the most important and precious thing of all. I never understand people who can't sit still, relax, look out the window for a while and let their perception of time slow down. I guess it's because they're a product of this perverted society we live in. Many people often need to fill their day with stupidity just so they feel as though they are being 'productive'.

"Free time" "Time is money" "I don't have time for that". So many phrases and saying regarding time. Time is weird...so difficult to pin down and clearly describe yet we all know it so well. We can see it's effects so clearly in the aging process and the changing of the seasons but what the hell is it itself?

I read a numerologist make an interesting connection once:

60 seconds per minute 6 + 0 = 6
60 minutes per hour 6 + 0 = 6
24 hours per day 2 + 4 = 6

666...all day every day...Not sure if there's any significance there but interesting nonetheless.

reply to post by Cythraul


Family roles have also been taken from us. We, in America, have lost our family structure that promotes masculinity and femininity.

READ THIS!

THE ORIGINAL AFFLUENT SOCIETY

www.eco-action.org...

Hunter-gatherers consume less energy per capita per year than any other group of human beings. Yet when you come to examine it the original affluent society was none other than the hunter's - in which all the people's material wants were easily satisfied. To accept that hunters are affluent is therefore to recognise that the present human condition of man slaving to bridge the gap between his unlimited wants and his insufficient means is a tragedy of modern times.

There are two possible courses to affluence. Wants may be "easily satisfied" either by producing much or desiring little The familiar conception, the Galbraithean way- based on the concept of market economies- states that man's wants are great, not to say infinite, whereas his means are limited, although they can be improved. Thus, the gap between means and ends can be narrowed by industrial productivity, at least to the point that "urgent goods" become plentiful. But there is also a Zen road to affluence, which states that human material wants are finite and few, and technical means unchanging but on the whole adequate. Adopting the Zen strategy, a people can enjoy an unparalleled material plenty - with a low standard of living. That, I think, describes the hunters. And it helps explain some of their more curious economic behaviour: their "prodigality" for example- the inclination to consume at once all stocks on hand, as if they had it made. Free from market obsessions of scarcity, hunters' economic propensities may be more consistently predicated on abundance than our own.

...

AND THIS!!

The Contents of Your Daily Life

www.crimethinc.com...

How many hours a day do you spend in front of a television screen? A computer screen? Behind an automobile windscreen? All three screens combined? What are you being screened from? How much of your life comes at you through a screen, vicariously?

Is watching things as exciting as doing things? Do you have enough time to do all the things that you want to? Do you have enough energy to? Why? And how many hours a day do you sleep? How are you affected by standardized time, designed solely to synchronize your movements with those of millions of other people? How long do you ever go without knowing what time it is? Who or what controls your minutes and hours? The minutes and hours that add up to your life? Are you saving time? Saving it up for what?

Can you put a value on a beautiful day, when the birds are singing and people are walking around together? How many dollars an hour does it take to pay you to stay inside and sell things or file papers? What can you get later that will make up for this day of your life?

...

Someone just watched In Time lololol

the whole subject is a much discussed at my home and work/social circles- women's right to work has been usurped into being women's financial and social obligation to work, which has a drastic effect on the family unit, most particularly on the children. as a father and childcare worker i witness all too often children ignored by their parents (both because of the workload addressed by the op and also in pursuit of the all-holy 'career') and left to be 'educated' by state and television. women who actually stay at home with their children for longer than the very necessary minimum after their birth are immediately categorised.
i am writing this from iceland, allegedly the most advanced country in the world in terms of women's rights.

It has always been about TIME!reply to post by Cythraul


Technology was and is advancing in order to render us obsolete. It's always been about people from a nuclear level all along the way to the social collective. Wow, what control some must have... I just would like to know, under whose watch did this occur? This existence and any other in our universe has an opposite resistance; Whether that might be thought or a series of decisions one makes. So if where talking about older than ancient evil, then where was the front line of defense? I'm speaking in terms of the ONE creator the GOD consciousnesses, except rather the actual people behind the scene to counteract the malevolence???

reply to post by NoHierarchy

Good contributions. Read my thread: 'The Dependency Agenda' - linked in my signature. It talks about the move from Hunter/Gatherer to Agriculture and how it may have been a deliberate act of making us dependent, and thus - I suppose - relating to this thread in that our time was consumed by wage slavery since the advent of land ownership.

Originally posted by SamuraiCentury
So if where talking about older than ancient evil, then where was the front line of defense?

I often wonder how far back this goes, and how old and focussed the agenda is. Sometimes I think that the sorrow of our times was an inevitable swing of the cosmic pendulum - merely a huge lesson for us all to learn in our choice to be incarnated on Earth at this time. But sometimes it seems rather unnatural, as though a true evil force does exist and has pushed us into this against the will of our spirit (and God, for those who believe).

I'm not going to share my suggestions for who that malevolent force might be, because it may not sit well with some people and I have no concrete absolutes. But let's just say we've been deceived on a large scale for a very long time. On who's watch did this occur? I think this evil has been attempted on many different watches at many different times. Sometimes it has snuck in, sometimes fought off. But right now, it's been roaming the shadows of our once-safe homes for a very long time - probably since about the time of the Church's establishment in Rome I'd guess.

reply to post by Cythraul


I keep repeating myself over and over again here and dang nab it nobody a listen to me.

We are enslaved and not aware of it.

As each year goes by we find ourselves with less free time, less pay (if we're lucky to have a half way paying job) and having to struggle to make ends meet.

It's becoming obvious (finally) to the once middle class that the American Dream for many is over.

A slave that has no comprehension he/she is enslaved will never rebel.

A prisoner that does not realize they are imprisoned will never try to escape.

Distracted, dumbed down, and not united.

Our country is ran for and by the corporations because they have bought out our government.

WTFU.

reply to post by Cythraul


Starred both your replies.............good insight.

reply to post by ChuckNasty


That in a nutshell is what will destroy us as a civilization.

The central glue holding us together as a species is family.

Originally posted by Cythraul

Originally posted by TiM3LoRd
You want time to smell to roses then stop what your doing and go and smell the roses.

Nice name!

You have a point - sometimes our lack of time is our own fault - no doubt about it. I still watch TV from time to time, hardly any at all, but it's still an inefficient use of time.

As for moving to other countries - it's actually something I have considered. But is it right that we should pushed out of the once-free lands that our forefathers left to us? Yes we need to look out for our own needs, no matter what the sacrifice, but that doesn't change the fact that some very nasty souls have effectively driven us out of our home nations.

It is unfortunate that things have gotten this bad, but the reality is that it IS this bad. Unless we can travel back in time and stop if from happening (which we cant) the only option is to deal with the system as it exists now. And that is put up or leave.

Great thtread, and indeed, time is our most valuable asset. I am too in the exact same situation, i.e. two parents working full time with one child, working almost all day long for almost the whole week.

The obvious solution is to cut down the hours - working 6 instead of 8 hours per day would do wonders.

Nope. It's not time. It's memory. The memory of our ancestors, what they did everyday, how they survived, etc. The history of our culture, how we became the people we are today, etc.

My friends and family are probably sick of hearing me constantly talk about this, but it just always seems to apply to so many of these issues. Yes, things like higher income tax and corporate greed play a role, but our main problem is 2 things:

1. We are not self reliant enough.
2. We rely too heavily on corporations for our needs instead relying on our local communities, friends and neighbors.

Now that being said, that doesn't mean you throw welfare out the window. Many people for one reason or another are not capable of being self sufficient for a number of physical and psychological reasons. But that's another issue.

I would be willing to bet that the average individual spends at least 33% of their income on their mortgage or rent. So that means about 16 hours of work per week goes towards their housing.

16 hours/week x 52 weeks = 832 hours per year x 30 year mortgage= 24,960 hours...

Um how long would it take an individual to build their own home with proper training? I'm thinking less than 25,000 hours.

Now start factoring in other necessities like energy and food and that 16 hours per week number goes to about 28 or more!

Now I realize that not every individual or family can provide all of life's necessities for themselves, but that's what your local community should be for.

Housing, energy and food can be taken care of with local resources just about anywhere on the planet. Considering the state of technology, we should be flourishing! And when you use local resources you tend to respect where they come from. But unfortunately none of us value those things anymore. We value JOBS. Repetitive, mundane jobs that most of us hate, have no real clue as to how valuable we really are and we accept a tiny fraction of the fruits of our labor.

The more self reliant we are as individuals and the more like-minded people we work with, the more time and freedom we can have. That last part is huge. Collaboration is huge. It's just a matter of people getting together.

Originally posted by Reflection
1. We are not self reliant enough.
2. We rely too heavily on corporations for our needs instead relying on our local communities, friends and neighbors.

I think you'll enjoy my thread - The Dependency Agenda (linked in my signature).

Originally posted by Reflection
I would be willing to bet that the average individual spends at least 33% of their income on their mortgage or rent.

...and the rest! Personally, 50% of my income goes on rent. That's living in the South-East of England for you - probably the most expensive real-estate in the World.

Originally posted by Reflection
16 hours/week x 52 weeks = 832 hours per year x 30 year mortgage= 24,960 hours...

Um how long would it take an individual to build their own home with proper training? I'm thinking less than 25,000 hours.

Good thinking. But the problem is, it's not the building of the house itself, it's the land underneath it. That's where the real cost lies and that's why we've been driven to the point of enormous loans called mortgages (incidentally, ever actually thought about the word 'mortgage'? 'Mort' is 'death' in French, 'Gage' can mean 'pledge' = death pledge). Back before all land was owned or managed by a central body like government, a family could simply find a good plot and build. What a sensible way of living. No need to go into huge debt, just work hard to build something and it's your home. We can't do that now because we need to purchase expensive land from someone first. Again, check out my thread 'The Dependency Agenda' - land ownership probably occurred since the dawn of agriculture, which was also a means of making people less self-reliant.

Originally posted by Illustronic
reply to post by Cythraul

 

I concur.

Dad had a simple job working in a printing shop, mom at home had 5 kids to care for, and most all of the household chores. Early in our life she wasn't employed. Around 1960 dad bought a house in a coal mine western PA small neighborhood for about $7,000 and we always had a station wagon car to haul us around in, on one simple wage. The house originally had no bathroom or bathtub, it had a coal fired furnace, and a cellar room that the coal truck could dump coal in for us to shovel into the furnace, one of my favorite things to watch dad do every morning, was watch him load the furnace, I was too young to help. Dad also drove some of the neighborhood people to work with him that were on the way or nearby, including some older women.

The neighborhood was tight niche, and nearly a family, however it took until about 1962 before I became cognizant of things, as I was born in the summer of 1958. However I was saddened watching on TV that President Kennedy was shot in Dallas and rushed to the hospital, so if a 5-year old kid has feeling of their elected President at that age is says something about the community of today's life.

From those humble simple beginnings my dad bought his own print shop in 1967, we move to where it was in 1968, and in 1970 we moved into a 28-room home a couple of blocks from the shop that was likely the home area of the wealthiest old money steel and oil related tycoons around Pittsburgh. The public school system rated in the 98th percentile nationally, and the local Academy was far above the public rating system, we were not afforded, (kindergarden cost the same as my first annual college tuition in 1976, a private 9-semester college).

For me, I worked while attending college because dad couldn't support us finically, but since we learned skills working in his shop it was easy for us to get relatively high paying jobs while in college. Doing that through the yeas and working freelance jobs while having steady employment, I stumble into employment with the world's largest independent R&D company in 1987.

The company was started as an institution for the advanced applied application and research of metallurgy, from the resources as a grant of a rich steel tycoon's money when his wife honored his will after his early death in 1926. The company diversified from metallurgy into most of the energy, life and health sciences, and environmental sustainability R&D areas of science and applied physics. One of my first main clients in collaborative support other than the US Air Force was NASA related R&D, we still support today.

So I remember when a gallon of gasoline cost 38¢, and the pumps had green dinosaurs and red mythological beasts on them, and the fuel was known as a common woman's name back then, and a pack of cigarettes cost less than that. That was before excessive government taxation of basal needs came about before we educated economic dark rimmed glasses wearing paper pushing number crunching geeks, that find a way to exploit the economy that ran just fine without them, until pressure based paper and number manipulating greed took over a real learned and practiced manufacturing skill-based made tangible product that would last usage for generations with modest maintenance. It's not economically viable to sell products that last these days for the growth of modern companies, because today most money grubbing people refuse to roll up their sleeves and do real work to 'fix' things they use themselves.

The reason? Taxes, cost of cronnie capitalism trickling down, eventual costs of over-regulation into everything we do or have. Consider the cost of an apple. Taxes on the grower, the wholesale buyer, the shipper to the wholesale buyer, the shipper for the retailer, the retailer, any brokerage fees for marketing, on and on. All of them pay road taxes, property taxes, employment taxes, capital gains taxes, taxes on the taxes. All bolted into the prices each level charges as they handle that one apple. By the time that $.40 apple gets to your mouth, $.37 is caused by taxes and regulation. OWS should be demonstrating against the govts. not the businesses FORCED to charge what they do, level after level.

reply to post by Cythraul


Thanks, I'll check it out.

You're right, I didn't include land and material resources in the labor hour numbers, but here in the U.S. about 25% is land and materials and 75% is labor. And by using local and abundant materials like cob and strawbale you can get the material costs down significantly, all while creating a much more energy efficient home.

It definitely does require some capital and people have a hard time saving when they are barely able to get by as is. It's definitely not easy.

Those are some pretty brutal real estate costs where you live. It's unfortunate being self sufficient has so many legal obstacles.

Originally posted by Reflection
here in the U.S. about 25% is land and materials and 75% is labor

You're lucky. Here, having watched land and property prices for a few years, I estimate the ratio as 50% and materials/labout 50%. A 0.25 acre land with planning permission here is upwards of £100k ($150k).