Hi

[Baruch]

That is 100% true Plu but the fact that I did grow up from that dark stage along my personal evolution means that I don't have to worry anymore unless all of a sudden I decide to behave like a total fool.
Your hero on the other hand is still stuck in that hell.

In Hinduism/Buddhism there is a lowest hell, a Tartarus ... aka Avici Hell.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avīci

This is why there are scoffers and mockers ... they want to do whatever they want, without negative consequences.  I do to ;-)

[Unbeliever]

Sounds like a lot of BS.

There's probably a good reason for that...

[Plu]

Your hero on the other hand is still stuck in that hell.

I dunno, he seems a lot happier with his life than you do. And he's talking to audiences that actually enjoy listening to him, while you're just being played with because people are bored.

[Baruch]

I dunno, he seems a lot happier with his life than you do. And he's talking to audiences that actually enjoy listening to him, while you're just being played with because people are bored.

Happy?  As is alcohol, sex, tobacco, gambling, drugs?  Good stuff if you can get it.  Helter Skelter stoners.

Hedonism comes thru ... lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride ... plus acedia and vainglory.

[aitm]

  But we put quality over quantity ;-)

I feel the need to change my t-shirt to a clean one.

[Unbeliever]

If it feels good, do it!

[trdsf]

Depends on if this thing called a soul actually exists. It most likely doesn't, but assuming it did, your stream of consciousness could continue between lifetimes, even if your memories didn't. Some people think memories do survive reincarnation, though. It's just that those memories are buried and not easily available to the conscious mind. Supposedly, when the Dalai Lama reincarnates, they find him by presenting children with objects that were important to his past self, along with some random assortment of stuff serving as placebos in a sense. The Dalai Lama's reincarnated self is supposed to be drawn to the objects that are familiar to him. Of course, when you have a ton of kids doing the same test, plus having the confirmation bias at play, that test doesn't really serve as proof of anything, but that's how they justify their beliefs.

Pretty much.  Eventually, some kid is going to pick the thing you want to be picked, simply as a matter of statistics.  And all that proves is that statistics are statistical in nature.

For the record, no, I don't think there are souls, nor that there is such a thing as reincarnation.  Just oughta clarify that, to be safe.  :)

[Baruch]

If it feels good, do it!

Correct.  But we don't all feel good the same way.  Individuality and competition (by individual, by class, by nation) slips in.  Virtue signaling is that ... I am justified in my sins (because materialistic progress).  Its a backward justification that suggests "ends justifies the means".  Karl Marx isn't all that different from John Stewart Mill.  Karl Marx is Utilitarianism plus arithmetic that is forward looking, not just descriptive.  Karl Marx sees a double blind in this, unless you eliminate artificial boundaries of nations and class.  Stalin emphasizes class, Trotsky emphasizes nations ... both to be eliminated.  Karl Marx in the meantime, predicting that the surplus profit would go into finance, rather than to labor.

Quantified utilitarianism ... plus the notion that with progress (automation) in the end, the actual cost to make a product or service tends to zero, and that means at any given population, we need fewer and fewer employees over time.  With capitalism (as opposed to socialism) we have no obligation to take care of the unemployed, in fact, we are rewarded indirectly in producing the army of the unemployed.  The incentive is destructive.  At that point, French Revolution steps in and redistributes ... the capital (of automation) and the benefits of automation are redistributed to the whole society rather than just one class.

The anti-semitic view of course, is that finance is parasitic on the bad aspects of capitalism, and that Jews dominate finance (Rothschilds).  In a classless society, there is no religion as well as no class and no national boundaries.  And that is why, having "no borders" is Marxist.  Similarly the notion of progress is Marxist, if you fairly distribute.  Liberal capitalism respects property ownership, resists revolution.  It ameliorates the army of the unemployed by "bread and circuses".

[Arik]

I dunno, he seems a lot happier with his life than you do. And he's talking to audiences that actually enjoy listening to him, while you're just being played with because people are bored.

It is a question of priority Plu.

While your hero spend a lot of his time try to invent all those BS that he later will recite on stage during his rants I prefer to spend my time practicing yoga.

My priority is to reduce the distance that separate me from the goal of life while the priority of your hero is to enjoy his foolish show of rants and at the end having his level of consciousness reduced instead of having it increased.

[Arik]

Correct.  But we don't all feel good the same way.  Individuality and competition (by individual, by class, by nation) slips in.  Virtue signaling is that ... I am justified in my sins (because materialistic progress).  Its a backward justification that suggests "ends justifies the means".  Karl Marx isn't all that different from John Stewart Mill.  Karl Marx is Utilitarianism plus arithmetic that is forward looking, not just descriptive.  Karl Marx sees a double blind in this, unless you eliminate artificial boundaries of nations and class.  Stalin emphasizes class, Trotsky emphasizes nations ... both to be eliminated.  Karl Marx in the meantime, predicting that the surplus profit would go into finance, rather than to labor.

Quantified utilitarianism ... plus the notion that with progress (automation) in the end, the actual cost to make a product or service tends to zero, and that means at any given population, we need fewer and fewer employees over time.  With capitalism (as opposed to socialism) we have no obligation to take care of the unemployed, in fact, we are rewarded indirectly in producing the army of the unemployed.  The incentive is destructive.  At that point, French Revolution steps in and redistributes ... the capital (of automation) and the benefits of automation are redistributed to the whole society rather than just one class.

The anti-semitic view of course, is that finance is parasitic on the bad aspects of capitalism, and that Jews dominate finance (Rothschilds).  In a classless society, there is no religion as well as no class and no national boundaries.  And that is why, having "no borders" is Marxist.  Similarly the notion of progress is Marxist, if you fairly distribute.  Liberal capitalism respects property ownership, resists revolution.  It ameliorates the army of the unemployed by "bread and circuses".

Oh, well if you are in this type of thinking you may like this system that is an alternative to Communism and Capitalism.

https://prout.info/

[Baruch]

Oh, well if you are in this type of thinking you may like this system that is an alternative to Communism and Capitalism.

https://prout.info/

Yes, basically the Third world has to find another way.  Being a cat's paw of Russia/China is not good.  Being a cat's paw of US/UK is not good either.  Having all your people move to Europe or the US, removes the human resource.  Local development, one person, one village at a time.  Not thru over-dependence on import/export.  Unfortunately endemic corruption intervenes.  But corruption is blocked by superior spiritual development, not by consumerism.  Ultimately it all comes down to the quality of one's consciousness.  And that is improved thru spiritual practice.  So atheism won't get you far either.

[Arik]

Yes, basically the Third world has to find another way.  Being a cat's paw of Russia/China is not good.  Being a cat's paw of US/UK is not good either.  Having all your people move to Europe or the US, removes the human resource.  Local development, one person, one village at a time.  Not thru over-dependence on import/export.  Unfortunately endemic corruption intervenes.  But corruption is blocked by superior spiritual development, not by consumerism.  Ultimately it all comes down to the quality of one's consciousness.  And that is improved thru spiritual practice.  So atheism won't get you far either.

Spiritual development doesn't come very easily through reasoning.
It usually come as an absolute necessity when the world seem to collapse around people and that is stupidity but that is how it happen most of the time.

Most people have been so blind that they have let slip down to a dangerous level their morality which in turn gave way to exploitation, hatred, wars, pollution-climate changes and all the rest.

It is only when people realize that we are getting on the road of no return that they are waking up and realize that the materialism that so far they enjoy is ruining our life and the planet of ours but as the old granny said.........BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.

[Baruch]

Spiritual development doesn't come very easily through reasoning.
It usually come as an absolute necessity when the world seem to collapse around people and that is stupidity but that is how it happen most of the time.

Most people have been so blind that they have let slip down to a dangerous level their morality which in turn gave way to exploitation, hatred, wars, pollution-climate changes and all the rest.

It is only when people realize that we are getting on the road of no return that they are waking up and realize that the materialism that so far they enjoy is ruining our life and the planet of ours but as the old granny said.........BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.

I am a student of Zen.  To be woke you have to abandon reason.  But not empiricism, which is broadly interpreted as the sum of all personal experience (as opposed to public narrative).

Marxism and Capitalism both believe in the myth of progress.  But progress has to be humanistic, not materialistic.

[Mike Cl]

  But progress has to be humanistic, not materialistic.

I would suggest that for human progress to be made (and yes, progress is possible) it must be materialistic.  Why?  Because there is nothing else but the material universe.  To base 'knowledge' on anything else is whim and fancy--magic and miracle--there is no 'there' there.  For over 2000 years christianity, for example, has had free reign in the world.  I don't see any progress it has made--in fact, I'd suggest the world is a more dangerous and poorer place because of it (and the other religions of the world).  Their airy-fairy ways; don't use reason only faith for your thoughts and actions--that simply leads to lack of progress and willful ignorance and stupidity. 

[Mike Cl]

Baruch--I forgot, sorry----key stage left--But Hilary................and Obama!!