Or maybe we're just realizing how crazy it always has been, meaning we'll be getting more in touch with the reality of things and, hence, more sane . . .
I chafed greatly during the days of the unconstitutional tobacco lawsuit.
Tobacco doesn't kill. It shortens life.
Other things that take away life hours: waiting at the DMV, computing your taxes, driving 55 on an Interstate that could safely be 70. Half of the public school experience. Long school bus rides, especially.
Yeah, there are things that kill the body and things that kill the soul. Our regime goes full-Karen mode on the former, while ignoring or even subsidizing/incentivizing the latter. That's why such a significant and growing number of people die "deaths of despair" each year.
It's interesting that it's the precise opposite of Neverland from Peter Pan, which was a place where boys never grew up because they were always seeking adventures and exploring; instead, many of today's boys never grow up because they're not allowed to seek adventures or explore their world in a meaningful way.
Interesting that Jesus warned us not to fear the first death, of the body, but to fear the one who had power over the second death, of the soul. He also said He came to give us life and to the full.
Couldn't have said it better. Life is not mere duration but also experience. Wastage truncates in its own way, and we must put up with entirely too much of that.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. Chief Tecumseh
People fear death, and for good reason--it's the unknown; we don't want to leave the things we love; society has packed it with negative emotions; etc. But when you open yourself up to the unknown (i.e., through spirituality), death becomes a lot less terrifying. It becomes a driver to live a better life. This is something the ancients and those in more modern tribes seemed to understand much better than anyone else.
I think what we’re doing experiencing and going to experience is a mix between things getting crazy and things going back to the way they were.
Maybe one is causing the other, maybe they’re feeding off each other, I don’t know, but I think we’re seeing multiple storms converge onto the same point and merge.
Something is going to happen, but I can’t tell what it’ll be in the short term.
Long term this will probably be better for us, but in the short term I can’t tell how it’ll go.
I like the phrase "chickens coming home to roost" because it implies things coming in from a variety of directions and all converging on a single point. Something is definitely in the air. Those who can, feel it.
We're like a heroin addict. We've been numbed to certain realities of Life, and as a result a different kind of pain has overtaken our lives. Now, we're being forced off the narcotic, so we'll be going through withdrawals that seem like everything is dying (and sadly, there probably will be quite a lot of actual dying, if historical patterns hold), but if we can make it to the other side, we can begin again.
They will only be as smart as our average. Society cuts off us from most of our intelligence. We are so much more than what it allows us to be. We will find that part again. We will have to find it to survive the change coming. We will have to find it to heal from the trauma we will experience from that change.
Those who have healed will show again us how to find it. Humans are amazing. We got this.
Only Christians die at peace. All atheists meet their end with mortal terror. I know, I've seen it many times. It is only faith that makes death another step in existence.
As a former atheist, I believe that faith is such a wondrous multiplier of hope that it is justified in it's own right if you put that faith in God, whether he exists or not. Faith is saying stubbornly you believe he does and you begin to look forward to seeing him and being reconciled to him by repentance.
At the end, the atheists sees only utter darkness, cold and eternal oblivion. The meaninglessness of it all as the atheist defines it is sure to provoke terror when you stand at the precipice and prepare to lose even what little you have in consciousness. Acceptance is so important, you should never stop being grateful for your life no matter how hard or horrible it has been. Remember you were not going to live forever anyway. Best to think of what good things might be awaiting you as the life slips out of you. God promises us there are no more tears or sorrow in that place.
This must have flown under my radar, and I wish it hadn't. Very nicely written and thorough. I also appreciate the link back to my Jimmy Buffet article. Needless to say, as someone who lives the "American Nightmare" you described to its fullest, it's always nice to see that more and more people are beginning to realize what it really is, which is such a far cry from how it was when I first started working. It literally is sacrificing everything - time, ambitions, aspirations, spiritual and personal growth, even (and especially) your health on the altar of "Just a little bit more", and that recompense seems to get smaller and smaller with every passing year.
Thanks! Your Jimmy Buffet article was great -- one of those that raises so many interesting questions that it stays with you -- writing like that is always great to find. And you articulated the reality of the American "dream" wonderfully in your comment. We inherited this massive societal debt from our civilization's Faustian bargain, and the interest payments on that debt are getting dramatically more onerous with each passing decade. More and more people are opting out of the life of racing full tilt on the hamster wheel and getting nowhere, and now there's not even a convincing illusion that any of that will change, so people are just going through the motions, just biding their time till the whole thing goes bankrupt. It's sad, but God willing, there are possibilities for real good on the other side of what's coming. There's no way out but through.
Thank you, I truly appreciate the complimentary words . Unfortunately, you're right - things can only get worse before they get better. For a lot of people, I'm not even sure that opting out is really a bad option, and for some, I'm not sure if there is another option. Not to air my own dirty laundry, but I had to take over a year off from my "career" of choice (that I just kind of fell into, not one I chose) because I had developed such a severe medical condition from stress and sleep deprivation that I almost went blind in one eye. Thankfully I scraped by with only irreparable nerve damage and a slight loss of vision, but it was then that I realized I didn't have a choice but to step away. I wasn't making enough to live independently - was I really going to quite literally work myself to death for a pittance? I spent a while working at restaurants as a bartender because, I wasn't going to live independently anyways - I might as well enjoy what I do, and work a job where I can set my own hours and walk away if need be without suffering the repercussions of leaving a "career" job. Fortunately that's changed but at the same time, there's really something to be said about running that race on the hamster wheel. It quite literally can kill you, and I had to learn that the hard way. I'm glad that more and more people are talking about it and we have this space to discuss it, so hopefully people can save themselves and start looking for alternatives before they get to that point.
Sorry to hear about your vision issues. At least you got out before it got worse. Our way of life is so unnatural (especially when it comes to our own Human Nature) it's sick. We take it for granted because it's all most of us have ever known, but it really is insane.
I have been repeating since 2008, it is an incredibly creative time to reimagine one's existence. Real change rarely happens outside necessity, particularly in the macro, social level. On the personal level, we can take charge of our own circumstances and intentionally generate the kind of change we want. One might argue there has never been a better time for that.
In a sense, the biological energy gets transferred from one organism to the other. But I was thinking about Life more in the sense of our conscious awareness of Being in the world and our Will. In that way, Death wouldn't transfer that consciousness and Will from predator to prey, unless it's like the way it seems to happen in C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, with a spiritual death. Parallels between body and spirit are interesting, though, so I'll have to think more about this. I feel like there's something profoundly true there, that this biological dynamic points towards. In fact, I'm sure there is. Thanks for sharing that thought.
Well, even before that, the infant mortality rate was low by historical standards. If you know about your own family history, I'm sure if you go back to your great-grandparents' generation (late 1800s/very early 1900s for me), they had siblings who died in childhood. It was just a lot more common then. If you don't count miscarriages (not stillbirths, but early-stage miscarriages), I would say it's very rare for people now to have kids die in childhood. I can probably count the number of people I know on one hand who have lost a young child. But that used to be something that was far more common, so much so that it was just a part of life.
And yes, abortion is one aspect of the birth control the ruling elites have been promoting obsessively. Also, getting kids to identify as something that will not possibly lead to procreative sex. Anthony Burgess's "The Wanting Seed" turned out to be prophetic in this regard.
I chafed greatly during the days of the unconstitutional tobacco lawsuit.
Tobacco doesn't kill. It shortens life.
Other things that take away life hours: waiting at the DMV, computing your taxes, driving 55 on an Interstate that could safely be 70. Half of the public school experience. Long school bus rides, especially.
Yeah, there are things that kill the body and things that kill the soul. Our regime goes full-Karen mode on the former, while ignoring or even subsidizing/incentivizing the latter. That's why such a significant and growing number of people die "deaths of despair" each year.
Rendering the world too safe has also rendered it dull and uninspiring.
It's interesting that it's the precise opposite of Neverland from Peter Pan, which was a place where boys never grew up because they were always seeking adventures and exploring; instead, many of today's boys never grow up because they're not allowed to seek adventures or explore their world in a meaningful way.
Does that make this Evereverland?
😁
Interesting that Jesus warned us not to fear the first death, of the body, but to fear the one who had power over the second death, of the soul. He also said He came to give us life and to the full.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Couldn't have said it better. Life is not mere duration but also experience. Wastage truncates in its own way, and we must put up with entirely too much of that.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. Chief Tecumseh
People fear death, and for good reason--it's the unknown; we don't want to leave the things we love; society has packed it with negative emotions; etc. But when you open yourself up to the unknown (i.e., through spirituality), death becomes a lot less terrifying. It becomes a driver to live a better life. This is something the ancients and those in more modern tribes seemed to understand much better than anyone else.
I think what we’re doing experiencing and going to experience is a mix between things getting crazy and things going back to the way they were.
Maybe one is causing the other, maybe they’re feeding off each other, I don’t know, but I think we’re seeing multiple storms converge onto the same point and merge.
Something is going to happen, but I can’t tell what it’ll be in the short term.
Long term this will probably be better for us, but in the short term I can’t tell how it’ll go.
I like the phrase "chickens coming home to roost" because it implies things coming in from a variety of directions and all converging on a single point. Something is definitely in the air. Those who can, feel it.
We're like a heroin addict. We've been numbed to certain realities of Life, and as a result a different kind of pain has overtaken our lives. Now, we're being forced off the narcotic, so we'll be going through withdrawals that seem like everything is dying (and sadly, there probably will be quite a lot of actual dying, if historical patterns hold), but if we can make it to the other side, we can begin again.
Don't worry about the machines
They will only be as smart as our average. Society cuts off us from most of our intelligence. We are so much more than what it allows us to be. We will find that part again. We will have to find it to survive the change coming. We will have to find it to heal from the trauma we will experience from that change.
Those who have healed will show again us how to find it. Humans are amazing. We got this.
Only Christians die at peace. All atheists meet their end with mortal terror. I know, I've seen it many times. It is only faith that makes death another step in existence.
As a former atheist, I believe that faith is such a wondrous multiplier of hope that it is justified in it's own right if you put that faith in God, whether he exists or not. Faith is saying stubbornly you believe he does and you begin to look forward to seeing him and being reconciled to him by repentance.
At the end, the atheists sees only utter darkness, cold and eternal oblivion. The meaninglessness of it all as the atheist defines it is sure to provoke terror when you stand at the precipice and prepare to lose even what little you have in consciousness. Acceptance is so important, you should never stop being grateful for your life no matter how hard or horrible it has been. Remember you were not going to live forever anyway. Best to think of what good things might be awaiting you as the life slips out of you. God promises us there are no more tears or sorrow in that place.
This must have flown under my radar, and I wish it hadn't. Very nicely written and thorough. I also appreciate the link back to my Jimmy Buffet article. Needless to say, as someone who lives the "American Nightmare" you described to its fullest, it's always nice to see that more and more people are beginning to realize what it really is, which is such a far cry from how it was when I first started working. It literally is sacrificing everything - time, ambitions, aspirations, spiritual and personal growth, even (and especially) your health on the altar of "Just a little bit more", and that recompense seems to get smaller and smaller with every passing year.
Thanks! Your Jimmy Buffet article was great -- one of those that raises so many interesting questions that it stays with you -- writing like that is always great to find. And you articulated the reality of the American "dream" wonderfully in your comment. We inherited this massive societal debt from our civilization's Faustian bargain, and the interest payments on that debt are getting dramatically more onerous with each passing decade. More and more people are opting out of the life of racing full tilt on the hamster wheel and getting nowhere, and now there's not even a convincing illusion that any of that will change, so people are just going through the motions, just biding their time till the whole thing goes bankrupt. It's sad, but God willing, there are possibilities for real good on the other side of what's coming. There's no way out but through.
Thank you, I truly appreciate the complimentary words . Unfortunately, you're right - things can only get worse before they get better. For a lot of people, I'm not even sure that opting out is really a bad option, and for some, I'm not sure if there is another option. Not to air my own dirty laundry, but I had to take over a year off from my "career" of choice (that I just kind of fell into, not one I chose) because I had developed such a severe medical condition from stress and sleep deprivation that I almost went blind in one eye. Thankfully I scraped by with only irreparable nerve damage and a slight loss of vision, but it was then that I realized I didn't have a choice but to step away. I wasn't making enough to live independently - was I really going to quite literally work myself to death for a pittance? I spent a while working at restaurants as a bartender because, I wasn't going to live independently anyways - I might as well enjoy what I do, and work a job where I can set my own hours and walk away if need be without suffering the repercussions of leaving a "career" job. Fortunately that's changed but at the same time, there's really something to be said about running that race on the hamster wheel. It quite literally can kill you, and I had to learn that the hard way. I'm glad that more and more people are talking about it and we have this space to discuss it, so hopefully people can save themselves and start looking for alternatives before they get to that point.
Sorry to hear about your vision issues. At least you got out before it got worse. Our way of life is so unnatural (especially when it comes to our own Human Nature) it's sick. We take it for granted because it's all most of us have ever known, but it really is insane.
I have been repeating since 2008, it is an incredibly creative time to reimagine one's existence. Real change rarely happens outside necessity, particularly in the macro, social level. On the personal level, we can take charge of our own circumstances and intentionally generate the kind of change we want. One might argue there has never been a better time for that.
https://williamhunterduncan.substack.com/p/the-law-of-happiness
I think that Death is not just a part of Life, Death is a form of Life, Death is an expression of Life.
If you eat meat, you don't die, rather you prolong your life, as the simplest example.
In a sense, the biological energy gets transferred from one organism to the other. But I was thinking about Life more in the sense of our conscious awareness of Being in the world and our Will. In that way, Death wouldn't transfer that consciousness and Will from predator to prey, unless it's like the way it seems to happen in C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, with a spiritual death. Parallels between body and spirit are interesting, though, so I'll have to think more about this. I feel like there's something profoundly true there, that this biological dynamic points towards. In fact, I'm sure there is. Thanks for sharing that thought.
The low infant mortality rate only started coming into fruition in the 90's. Before that, babies died in their sleep, or there were miscarriages.
Even when we didn't have low infant mortalities, there was abortion. That's been around since the 60's.
Well, even before that, the infant mortality rate was low by historical standards. If you know about your own family history, I'm sure if you go back to your great-grandparents' generation (late 1800s/very early 1900s for me), they had siblings who died in childhood. It was just a lot more common then. If you don't count miscarriages (not stillbirths, but early-stage miscarriages), I would say it's very rare for people now to have kids die in childhood. I can probably count the number of people I know on one hand who have lost a young child. But that used to be something that was far more common, so much so that it was just a part of life.
And yes, abortion is one aspect of the birth control the ruling elites have been promoting obsessively. Also, getting kids to identify as something that will not possibly lead to procreative sex. Anthony Burgess's "The Wanting Seed" turned out to be prophetic in this regard.
White male of the right wing sexual predators are amongst your subscribers. Are you also one?
Another postcard delivered. https://expressiveegg.substack.com/p/postcard-from-the-void
Unfortunately, yes.
Pax Americana.... Where?!
Well, it's gone now.