recalcitrant

Sure, that we are free is a liberating thought. (I'll put aside that just because there may be no ultimate authority doesn't preclude us from being 'free'...there are non-theological arguments for there being no free will.) But like I said in my original post, even if I'm free, how free am I really? I'm not free to dissociate myself from a banker-owned world, where I'm born into debt and I live my life owing people money.

To be honest, it seems better to me to have an eternity mapped out for me than to have my short life here mapped out for me and that's all I get. If you take the purpose of civilization to be a betterment for its members -- i.e. people settle together for protection and other mutual benefits -- then I think it's outlived itself in that regard. We slave, figuratively, to support this massive framework of society and really our only benefit from that is the benefit of being alive. You ARE being judged by something with infinite authority: society. You are judged based on your credit history, whether or not you're paying taxes, and your worth to everybody else, as well as numerous other more superficial things like how you look and how you act. You make decisions based on your own beliefs? Are you sure? And where did those beliefs come from? Once again, they came from society. There's so many things you "believe" in that you don't even realize that to say you choose your own beliefs and how to act on them is incoherent.

Sure, you can choose to believe that, say, eating meat is wrong once you've been presented with evidence to suggest that. But you didn't choose to believe that there is such a thing as "capital" and that things have intrinsic "value", and that value is represented by money and the amount of value is set by this framework called the free market. Or it's set by a command economy. Or, it's set by how much boar meat someone will trade you for the spears you made. We are dialectical thinkers; if we reject the idea that things have value, we can only do so in relation to the concept that things have value. If you wanted to outline some kind of new society where capital and money didn't exist, you'd start with "this is how things would be different" -- the key word is different. You'll never escape that fundamental belief that you had and that you act on thousands of times a day without even realizing it.

My original post was about whether or not the ability to "choose your own beliefs" is even a benefit at all. Is it even a good thing to be here? Is that really a benefit? Or is it just a life of work and debt with no point? Am I an ox yoked to plow a field, and in exchange I get food and a place to eat? So what, right? Just because we can talk abstractly about things like value and beliefs doesn't necessarily mean there's any more value in our lives than an ox that plows a field to fuel our civilization (certainly not its).

It seems to me that the only way to derive value (there's that word again) from existence is to believe that there is some point to it all. What point is there? Well, some say the point is to be happy. Some say it is to be productive. Some say the point is to contribute to humanity. some say the point is to lead a good life because there's an afterlife waiting for you that will be much, much better.

Some say there's no point at all.

Which is it? I have no idea. I'd like to know.

What I do know, or what I think I do know, is that if there was some point to it all, some sort of karmic balance in the end that repaid me for this existence, that would be a hell of a lot better than there not being one. Maybe. Definitely maybe. But as I sit here on a sunday afternoon biding time until I go eat some food (because, ya know, ya gotta) at my parents house, I might as well talk about this. What are my other options?

....the only answer I can think of besides banging my head against the wall and seeing RED...is to be a hedonist and take life to the extreme and keep the thought in the back of your head that you can DIE this very "instant" ... thought begins to break down while receiving a blow job read some Kropotkin and practice "Propaganda by the deed" , ... just say fuck it and grab your camera and goto "WAR" and don't have to worry about the luxury of Mental Masturbation.... I'm 32 and Im still fighting those thoughts day in and day out ... yeah my philosophy degree is really paying off

Ah, and while we may all be hypocrites, it's important to not be in some respects. I just donated $50 to the relief efforts. I urge you to do the same.

Well hello.......

In the style of NIN or Cliff Richard?

You've gotta come to the Vancouver Christmas Party!

I don't hike so much as I walk...
There are foothills and small mts. all around me and I'll head out for a few hours now and then, no over nights or anything. I haven't been camping for umm, like, 17 years. Sad really.

Get yourself onto the SG cookbook thread in SG world... i've posted some hawt recipes in there. cheers for the recommendation, I'll check it out soon. Yeah xmas is blatent consumerism.. but I love the negative reactions references to it get! I only know the number of days because there is a fucking sign up at work.. so it's been mentally skullfucked into my psyche!

Pictures of me dressed as Link for Halloween are still, theoretically, forthcoming.

thanks for the weather lesson.

Well, that was slightly more successful than I thought it'd be. 2000 words already! Granted, I started with a snippet that I had written earlier, but still, we have progress.

Link = totally cool. That is all!