What is the aspiration of modern civilisation?

Soldato
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People spends their youth and heath to chase money in order to escape the city in the countryside to escape from modern civilisation.

That’s the modern aspiration. It’s like that story with the poor fisherman meeting a millionaire.

So city people want to live in the country?
 
Soldato
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therefore there is no 'solution' because it's not really a problem.
Well, there is one I've read about, and it seems pretty final based on what the texts say about it...

Really though, it's all about getting as many retweets and followers/subscribers as you can in order to go viral. That's all there is.
 
Caporegime
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Getting bitches.
Wealth is the new way of expressing how good your nest is and scaring away other potential suitors.
Acquisition of money is everything.
Competition for resources is everything.
Keeping others from progression is everything.

I missed the point but that's ultimately why civilization..... Also crossbow men and knights.
 
Soldato
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There is none. Western civilisation gradually abandoned it’s grand narrative over the last couple of hundred years but has yet to replace it with anything meaningful, and humans seem biologically wired to be both superstitious, dogmatic and tend towards groupthink; so far collectively we’ve either come up with bad grand narratives (political or social ideologies) or shallow ones (wealth, ‘happiness’), neither of which bode well long-term.

If history is any indication, civilisations that lose confidence in themselves decline and fall apart, and this will happily be sped up by other parties that are not afflicted by the same existential malaise.
 
Soldato
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There is none. Western civilisation gradually abandoned it’s grand narrative over the last couple of hundred years but has yet to replace it with anything meaningful, and humans seem biologically wired to be both superstitious, dogmatic and tend towards groupthink; so far collectively we’ve either come up with bad grand narratives (political or social ideologies) or shallow ones (wealth, ‘happiness’), neither of which bode well long-term.

If history is any indication, civilisations that lose confidence in themselves decline and fall apart, and this will happily be sped up by other parties that are not afflicted by the same existential malaise.

Such as the Chinese.
 
Soldato
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It seems to be to buy more and more pointless stuff, we don't really have any grand ambition for what the western world should work towards do we? Spreading "freedom" ended with the Iraq war.

Personally I've lost interest in buying new shiny things. When I was younger I thought a fancy car and nice house was the dream but the reality is most of us can't afford that and the older I get the idea of having to pay off a huge mortage gets less and less appealing. Would i buy them if i won the lottery, sure.

What i really want is space, not fussed about a big house but to own a bit of land where you dont feel overlooked and can enjoy some peace and quiet would be bliss.
 
Soldato
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I disagree. Never in history have we had such an era of prosperity and plenty.
Quite, but it seems that lots of people don't have much interest in keeping it that way, and a lot of what allowed us to reach this point is crumbling away.

Would love to be wrong about that, but that's how it seems to me.
 

NVP

NVP

Soldato
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Wealth is more of another way of keeping score. The point is there is no way to prevent natural conflict, and attempts at such ideals usually end up producing the inverse of what's aimed for, e.g. commies wanting 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs' end up with murderous genocidal regimes where a few people end up in control of the state, or religious organisations trying to suppress human sexuality in their members end up breeding all kinds of pathological deviants engaging in the most vile perversions, etc.

Try reading about evolutionary psychology, you might find it interesting.
I think I will, thanks :)

Then there can be no equilibrium of power vs peace, just a constant struggle - are we now at a time of least conflict, or merely conditioned to the lifestyle?

Would a strive for power and also peace be animalistic instincts or is one a creation from our own evolutionary success?


You've seen Demolition Man I take it
:D

Getting bitches.
Wealth is the new way of expressing how good your nest is and scaring away other potential suitors.
Acquisition of money is everything.
Competition for resources is everything.
Keeping others from progression is everything.

I missed the point but that's ultimately why civilization..... Also crossbow men and knights.
Your creative way to phrase your points will forever be well received, perhaps wealth is no longer the "new" way and has been trumped by social media followers - although again wealth appears to be a by-product to that also, or is that by-product now a necessity due to this rigid structure?

There is none. Western civilisation gradually abandoned it’s grand narrative over the last couple of hundred years but has yet to replace it with anything meaningful, and humans seem biologically wired to be both superstitious, dogmatic and tend towards groupthink; so far collectively we’ve either come up with bad grand narratives (political or social ideologies) or shallow ones (wealth, ‘happiness’), neither of which bode well long-term.

If history is any indication, civilisations that lose confidence in themselves decline and fall apart, and this will happily be sped up by other parties that are not afflicted by the same existential malaise.
Have we finally lost our confidence? I think this method currently works, but there must be a less consequential way for all.

What i really want is space, not fussed about a big house but to own a bit of land where you dont feel overlooked and can enjoy some peace and quiet would be bliss.
That's my dream. I'm hoping @Housey adds me to his will as he hit the jackpot in terms of location!
 
Soldato
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I disagree. Never in history have we had such an era of prosperity and plenty.
Simply having lots of stuff and money does not make a civilisation, though, and people are very uncivilised about it.
We are wallowing in piles of useless crap, scrabbling to have the highest subscriber count as we make videos of us wallowing in our piles, re-re-re-remaking films and TV programmes instead of coming up with new ones, and just generally stagnating as a society.

Quite, but it seems that lots of people don't have much interest in keeping it that way, and a lot of what allowed us to reach this point is crumbling away.
Coz it was all built on slavery and racism, innit.... like Hans Christian Anderson tales!!
 
Soldato
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and just generally stagnating as a society.


Tell that to Elon Musk. Tell that to Richard Dyson. Tell that to the people creating ever better cameras - dashcams particularly. Tell that to the people outside my flat installing gigabit fibre.

In short, you're being incredibly myopic. Yes, there are people wasting their talents and assets. But there are many who aren't.
 
Soldato
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Tell that to Elon Musk. Tell that to Richard Dyson. Tell that to the people creating ever better cameras - dashcams particularly.
Aside from becoming ridiculously rich from creating a couple of very expensive, yet still problematic, products for people, which just results in us wallowing in even more piles of useless crap... what have these stunningly brilliant saviours actually done to improve society and the basic, fundamental lives of people... and do you not mean James Dyson?

Dashcams - Great, plenty of people can now make a couple of quid advertising money from uploading their crash videos on YouTube, while their insurance companies make a fortune. I'm sure that is a comforting thought to the woman in Africa who has to bury the child that died of starvation, and she'll just lie back and think of Space-X while the local warlord and his crew rapes her tonight...

We still have human trafficking and slavery, rape, murder, racism, theft, and such an apathetic population that their lying governments don't even have to bother covering up their ******** any more, as they just resign and go live off their offshore investments and pensions.

Tell that to the people outside my flat installing gigabit fibre.
In short, you're being incredibly myopic. Yes, there are people wasting their talents and assets. But there are many who aren't.
Well, I actually told it to the people outside my house who are failing to install gigabit fibre, as it's been four years since they laid the trunking and put a box on my wall, but they still can't manage to connect that one little cable to the magic green box 120m away down an empty verge with absolutely no obstructions whatsoever.... I successfully implemented over £330 million in infrastructure investments, yet in the same time period these guys can't even put a cable through an empty stretch of grass?

Perhaps I should send Elon Musk my CV?
 
Associate
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People want power, wealth is that power.

99% of the worlds population will never have that power so 1% control it all and the 99% will do their bidding.
 
Caporegime
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to earn money to buy shiny new things apparently, bonus points if you end up in debt chasing shiny new things

So city people want to live in the country?
probably a lot wish they could retire to a nice big house in the countryside with a big garden and beautiful scenery to explore in every direction
but I'd doubt the majority wants much more than to stay close to friends and family even if the environment is pretty crappy
 
Caporegime
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Among the brainwashed youth it seems to be to tear everything down where utopia awaits them but in reality if they succeed we'll all be living in CHAZ until the power vacuum is filled.
 
Caporegime
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Just LOL if you aren't aiming for LeFort III surgery to get that forward growth that all women lust over.

images
 
Associate
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That's a very atheist/evolution outlook. What about the Bible?

You mean the collection of stories and fairy tales from 2000 years ago written by illiterate goat-herders who didn’t even know the earth went around the Sun and sanctions slavery? That can stay in the fiction section, thank you.
 
Soldato
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:D
Aside from becoming ridiculously rich from creating a couple of very expensive, yet still problematic, products for people, which just results in us wallowing in even more piles of useless crap... what have these stunningly brilliant saviours actually done to improve society and the basic, fundamental lives of people... and do you not mean James Dyson?

Well what about Bill Jobs?

:D
 
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