God is an Iraqi
POSTED BY: dreamtrove
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 29, 2025 20:41
VIEWED: 12402
PAGE 8 of 12
Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Lim,
You're stuff is a little thick to comprehend.
Prison system bad. Sure, better than endless cycle of retribution. But prison is meant to be preventative, not vengeance. I believe a much better system can be developed. It's believers are gullible, not cynical. Cynicism is the opposite of gullibility.
Huh? This isn't what I meant. I don't like to pull the "you misread me" card, but this isn't what I meant.
Ultimately, sure, the peasantry are to blame for everything, because they are the agents of action. Random Chinese peasants destroyed the environment, specifically, I think I said. This is the effect of a poorly ordered society.
There's nothing anti-chinese here.
1. The peasantry of everywhere are a sample of humans that act according to the social rules set forth locally.
2. There is no difference between the peasantry of China, Nigeria and the United States. It is only the overlying social order that changes, so ultimately only that social order which is to blame.
Yeah, I think we are crosstalking somewhat.
Prison systems should rehabilitate prisoners. Ours does not. I say it's cynical to think that stuffing trespassers into our prison system does anyone any good. As in a belief that 'criminals are lost cause humans who only deserve to be punished'. Our kind of prison system only results in recidivism, and I'm saying it's cynical to not see that is the case. Choosing to call it cynicsm rather than gullibility means that I believe the people who choose to keep this system working have an understanding of the problem, gullible implies they do not understand the implications of their choice. Better understanding now?
You say the peasantry are to blame because they are the agents of action. I say the extremely poor will choose the easiest and cheapest way out of a dilemma that involves longer hours spent in physical effort or money, and shouldn't be blamed for that. Chinese governmental systems for a very very long time have offered nothing to the masses but a big fat stick. It's the social system at fault, not the random Chinese peasant. Plenty of other governments are not necessarily much better, particularly in the 3rd world where the pressures are greatest because the financial wiggle-room is the smallest. China stands out because it is so big, so densely populated and so breathtakingly uncaring in it's abuse of the citizenry. I wasn't accusing you of being anti-Chinese, I was accusing you of blaming the victim when you personally know a number of Chinese citizens, who might have given you other perspectives.
Of course there are other examples where it's first world governments and corporations more visibly on top of the heap of those who should bear the blame, and not (for another example) Brazillian peasants to be blamed for chopping down the rainforest.
Is that more clear?
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But the bulk of rainforest destruction did, at least until quite recently, come from brazilian peasants. Big evil govts. and corporations are also to blame.
I think we see eye to eye for the most part on the problems. It would be interesting to try to hammer out some solutions.
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PS I'm not blaming the victim. Sure, the peasants who destroyed the rainforest are irredemable and evil, but that's irrelevant. Peasants are the same everywhere, and evil people are always in a small minority. Furthermore, the evil among us are generally the least motivated, if someone doesn't harrison bergeron them into office.
The problem in brazil is not that it has peasants, but that it doesn't have land reform.
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I still say it ain't the peasants, they're just responding to economic pressures. Noblesse oblige.
As I wrote above, you're invited to my afterdeath party. I suppose you will think this is just featherheaded bull, but I'll leave the light on.
Good job keeping a thread of such mass from complete disintigration into pointy capitals and pointy fingers. I'm beginning to think the site is starting to settle down. *Shhhh, don't tell the trolls in the BSR*
Gaaak! An emoticon has found its way into my post!
*edit* to remove the emoticon and set it free in the back yard, cause it was bugging me.
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Well, I hope you're right. As long as I get to come back as something not a cockroach.
We call always stir it up a bit by attacking someone :)
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There will be no coming back as a roach! An upward spiral of development, not a chaos of punishment via de-evolution.
I thought about your thread today and the idea of existence ending at physical death.
I was explaining my take on halos to a Jewish friend who was considering buying an angel for her Christian daughter-in-law. My take: a halo is just a visible manifestation of the aura. It becomes visible when someone is just a little farther along the path of spiritual evolution than the average human. Everybody has one, some people's halos are just more visible than others because of their level of personal development. Then after I left her, I thought, yup, even atheists have halos whether they know it or not.
Here's the part where I wander back to the thread topic.
I believe RTL is not just something for one lifetime, or one plane of existence. RTL is infinite. And, here's the really good part; it just keeps getting better.
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Is this something wicca this way comes? Personally, I'm from the Willow school. I like to see spellfire.
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Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Is this something wicca this way comes? Personally, I'm from the Willow school. I like to see spellfire.
Dang, my turn to say I don't understand the thick.
Wicca, I don't know that much about. Naw, this is just plain old Buddhism spiced with a little new age, and a little hindu. I don't think any of the major doctrines have gotten all the pieces right. I was raised Catholic, so that's in there too in an 'ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny' way.
Mmmmm, palak paneer for dinner in a minute too, speaking of Indian.
If you are asking if I am spellcasting (from something -wicked- this way comes), which, really I don't think you are, there's not one chance in the world that I would do anything on purpose to mess with someone else in that way (or even in the regular old mindf* way), and I will yell it from the top of any mountain you choose. On the other hand, you may have noticed I have kind of a bratty sense of humor, but I usually try not to draw blood.
I hope I have avoided the thick.
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I agree.
I think western religions are all essentiall judaism with a new set of shoes. Which is nothing against the jews, but it's kind of ironic that anyone who prides themselves in the cultural tradition of their people would base their belief on something that was pretty much a copy of someone else's.
It's also one of the oldest tricks in the book: Creating the non-choice by creating variations of you and offering them up as choice. Like this:
Are you a Mets fan or a Yankees fan?
That question has the statement built in "You're a New York baseball fan." But almost no one ever catches the subtle ploy.
You're a Pepsi person or a Coke person. (You are an American Cola person)
Etc.
So "You're a Christian or a Muslim" is essentially a plug for "You follow the cult of Yhwh." In religion this game is played many times: "You're a Catholic or you're a Protestent." ie. I "You're a Christian." You're a Baptist or Episcopalian" ie. You're a Protestant. You're pro-gay bishop or you're anti-gay bishop. ie. You're Episcopalian.
But if you step back and take a serious look at the situation, all this "fan of God" thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Yhwh, God of War, worshiped by a handful Iraqi cultists about 3500 years ago or so. Moses broke from the pantheon and told people, only Yhwh, only war.
But who is this Yhwh guy? A lot of people say "Oh yeah, God is good. I worship Him" etc. But you look through the book. God is Bush. He tortures the children, bombs the cities. He hates knowledge, he loves suffering and death. He pushes for genocide many times. He hates the environment. This is a pretty evil religion. From a human prospective, an earth prospective, or just a prospective of progress.
Jesus. I don't really have a gripe with. Jesus had some good ideas, but he was putting reform on top of a really bad religion. The saving grace of jews is that they don't take their religion very seriously, for the most part. Christians very often take it very seriously, and in an old testament sort of way. They are, essentially, still the cult of Yhwh.
I'm a Taoist because I've read a lot of stuff on various religions, and this was the only one I've picked up where I said "Hey, this guy (Lao Tse) really has a grasp on the nature of the universe." Not a feeling I get from the major western religions at all.
I don't know much about Buddhism though. It's the only one I really never got into.
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Quote:Buddah was cool. I discovered Buddism by way of Shaolin.
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
I don't know much about Buddhism though. It's the only one I really never got into.
Chrisisall, would-be-monk
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