Wierd thoughts on life.

[trekgeezer]

I think this quote from Babylon 5 is a good philosophy toward life. 


"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."

Marcus Cole

[Patient7]

To actually sit back and consider the possibilities of the true extent to which reality exists is enough to get you institutionalized. Ignoring or questioning the basic building blocks of the world we live in makes one's head spin. Has anyone else ever looked at their hands, moved them around, and felt this weird sense of "detachment" from yourself? Like you weren't so much yourself, but in control of someone or something else?... or maybe I just play too many video games and the concept of controlling a character's every movement and decision has fried my brain. 

I actually tried that, it feels kinda cool, religiously speaking, I think that it is because the soul is perhaps around the body and that's what's really moving what would otherwise be wandering souless flesh.

Perhaps we're all player in a really elaborate video game. Just waiting around to see just how many quarters our player has.

Whoa. Cheeze, if I'd been high when I read that, my mind would've been fairly blown... then I would've eaten a pile of brownies. I just hope that when I'm on my death bed, whoever's holding my controller remembers ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A Select Start. 

Neat idea Cheeze an as for Anubis, I would prefer me being in a fight and my controller remembers any fatality from Mortal Kombat, prefferably Sub-Zero's ability to freeze a person, rip off his head, then throw the head back at the person.

I wonder if ants realize we are here? Think about it.... an anthill,inna backyard. So puny that they don't realize they are on a huge planet with giant a***oles blazing away at each other in a "cosmic" war....

Or that Earth, is merley an electron ,spinning around the nucleus of an atom that comprises the make-up of some piece or gene of a huge living creature...a housefly or dog. Mebbe earth is an atom in a cosmic pile of mashed sweet potatoes,or dog sh1t. Or mebbe the atoms in a piece of dirt are little tiny worlds....with subatomic life forms on it. Or...mebbe my little cartoonie brain has had  too many bottles of booze float threw it....

I wonder if ants realize we are here? Think about it.... an anthill,inna backyard. So puny that they don't realize they are on a huge planet with giant a***oles blazing away at each other in a "cosmic" war....

Or that Earth, is merley an electron ,spinning around the nucleus of an atom that comprises the make-up of some piece or gene of a huge living creature...a housefly or dog. Mebbe earth is an atom in a cosmic pile of mashed sweet potatoes,or dog sh1t. Or mebbe the atoms in a piece of dirt are little tiny worlds....with subatomic life forms on it. Or...mebbe my little cartoonie brain has had  too many bottles of booze float threw it....

I want Earth to be in a pudding cup.

I don't believe any of this is real.  Why?  A few reasons.

1.  It's illogical to be in conflict with each other when living in harmony feels nice and works better.  Yet we wage wars against other countries and let people treat us badly without speaking up.  Why?

2.  Paris Hilton is famous for doing nothing.  And yet scientists and doctors and people who have real value in society are paid pittance and not acknowledged. or celebrated  Why?

3.  I'm 42, exercise for at least an hour EVERY day, eat moderately and yet I have a constanty daily struggle to keep my weight at a reasonable level.  What the hell is that about?

4.  Everything is so expensive and we rely so much on other people do provide us with our basic needs.  It's not that hard to ensure everyone lives in decent accommodation and has enough space where they can grow some of their own food.  Being out in nature is more beneficial to our wellbeing and yet we rarely do it.  Why?

5.  In it's our natures to be social and to want to find love and comfort in another.  We're all looking for it but we never find it.  Why are so many people commitment phobic, selfish and nasty. 

6.  In the time since I was a child, quiet alone time has become a thing a of the past.  But quiet personal time centres us and keeps us on an even keel emotionally.  I look around me and shops, television, the internet, mobile phones, email, they're all designed to be on or open 24/7. Seriously, who needs a chocolate bar at 3 am when you should be sleeping and recharging for the next day?

There's heaps of other things that don't make sense about this life.  But I won't go into them.  I'm sure everyone has things they say "huh?" to all the time.

One last thing.  The rule of the natural world is order and structure and symmetrical patterning.  It's the easiest and simplest way.  Human life is nothing like that, so how come we've worked so hard to move away from that?

It's okay, because everyone who is not me is acually a robot run by a shadow government as part of a giant experiment to see if carbon-based life forms are actually tenable. I'm figuring, based on my life experiences, that we're probably not that good of an idea. Oh, and I shouldn't have posted that, as it reveals that I have discovered the Grand Conspiracy, thereby negating the experiment. It's been fun, y'all.

Derf, I will give you a warning, don't go into the panel truck, trust me.

And I'm just concerned with which CD to buy next.

Find one that has Elias by Dispatch, that'll eliminate all your worries.

Thanks for all the posts, and don't forget about the episode of Futurama when it turned out to be a dream and Bender questioned reality.

Just always remember that you're all figments of my imagination and so are all the movies you know and love  

[Allhallowsday]

Yes, and that's the basic plot of the Kilgore Trout story "Now It Can Be Told" in Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, too.
Careful: that idea made Dwayne Hoover go crazy! 
And in case Trevor is around, here's Vonnegut's fine drawing of underpants from that novel:

I much prefer VONNEGUT's drawing of "...where the babies come from." 

[AnubisVonMojo]

I think this quote from Babylon 5 is a good philosophy toward life. 

"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."

Marcus Cole

Wow Trek, you've just singlehandedly made me wish I'd watched Babylon 5... though I might add it to my NetFlix queue now...

[CheezeFlixz]

I think this quote from Babylon 5 is a good philosophy toward life. 

"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."

Marcus Cole

Wow Trek, you've just singlehandedly made me wish I'd watched Babylon 5... though I might add it to my NetFlix queue now...

It's 5 years and there are movies and all must be watched in order, it's a story. Year 4 IMHO is the best year.

Here is a link to the viewing order ...
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Babylon-5-1098/Babylon-5-Viewing-order.htm?zIr=5

It well worth watching, another one is Farscape that should be viewed in order, at least the early episodes.

[Jack]

Another big thumbs up for Babylon 5.  Probably my favorite TV show of all time.  I think I watched the whole series about 5 times before I finally got a little tired of it.  Thirdspace is one of my favorite sci-fi movies ever.  And now I haven't seen the show in a few years - definitely time to get the DVD's!  They're pretty inexpensive too.

[trekgeezer]

Here's another one for you from CitizenG'kar (Andreas Katsulas) referencing the Shadow War

"G'Quan wrote: 'There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.'"

   -- G'Kar in Babylon 5:"Z'ha'dum"


"G'Quan wrote: 'There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.'"

   -- G'Kar in Babylon 5:"Z'ha'dum"




I would advise anyone watching Babylon 5 for the first time to bookmark this site http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/  All the episodes are referenced as far major story arc points. All the episode pages were put up the week the ep was shown and include comments by J. Michael Straczynski  the creator of the show and writer or 94 of the 110 episodes of the show.  It is literally a novel for television.

I got the complete series and the movie collection this last Christmas and I'm  now in season 3 of rewatching it. 

[ER]

The original poster began this thread in 2008 by speculating that reality was an illusion (something the Hindus do literally believe, by the way: Maya).

Well I find reality to be....real, but I believe God created life everywhere and in all forms amid the multiverses to be entertaining across eternity. We are God's sea monkeys, TV soap, bad movies, NPCs on a video game, red shirts, cherished pets, and science project, all rolled into one.

I do.

[Allhallowsday]

The original poster began this thread in 2008 by speculating that reality was an illusion (something the Hindus do literally believe, by the way: Maya).
Well I find reality to be....real, but I believe God created life everywhere and in all forms amid the multiverses to be entertaining across eternity. We are God's sea monkeys, TV soap, bad movies, NPCs on a video game, red shirts, cherished pets, and science project, all rolled into one.

I do.

I would give you two rolls of toilet paper if you would tell me why a sudden spate of really old threads are suddenly revived.

[chefzombie]

The original poster began this thread in 2008 by speculating that reality was an illusion (something the Hindus do literally believe, by the way: Maya).

Well I find reality to be....real, but I believe God created life everywhere and in all forms amid the multiverses to be entertaining across eternity. We are God's sea monkeys, TV soap, bad movies, NPCs on a video game, red shirts, cherished pets, and science project, all rolled into one.

I do.

uummm...you should maybe watch "supernatural" from the time carver shows up. 

[lester1/2jr]

in college I read Susan Sontag's "Illness as metaphor" and I still think about it


the focus of the book is on two diseases: cancer and TB in the early 20th century. TB was viewed as the disease that artists and other people who drank deeply of the cup of life got, whereas Cancer was for cold hard people who were afraid to live.

Sontag was a writer and socialist, a REAL one not the kind you find on campuses today, and had lung cancer so she was like "hey wait a minute". She found that this understanding had permeated our culture. A while back I talked about this with a young woman and she assured me people with TB had "beautiful deaths" whatever that means.

The right/ left discourse is filled with this philosophy, that the left is caring while the right is mean. It all sounds crazy and yet...I can't write it off completely. 

[Alex]

Well, something that was said to me years ago was that if you wanted a government that could make money, vote for the right. If you want a government that looks after people vote for the left. Watching politics over the years, I have found that hard to argue against for the most part. For me, good governance would be a mix of both, but thats another debate.

[lester1/2jr]

are liberals less likely to catch cancer than conservatives? its a ridiculous question but I bet most people would say yes

[RCMerchant]

I don't think disease have politics- so I would say 'NO.'
But like you said- that's a stupid question. Why would anybody think not is beyond me.
What really confuses me is why anybody would join a 'party' in the first place.
Just seems like they make everything from illness to hair length or what kind of food you eat political.
It's just stupid. I hate political parties.  I can wrap my head around some religion- but modern political figures are all salesmen. I don't trust the breath that comes out of their mouths- left or right. I just b***h about Trump lately, because he's a f**king idiot as a leader and an a***ole human being, not because he's a Republican. If it makes anyone feel better, I couldn't stand Bill Clinton or his wife either. Running around with his dick out.  And she just walks around smiling like a Glenn Close psycho.
And yes- I do think a lot more investigation into her bulls**t was warranted. I also think Trump is getting away with crimes, much worse than anything even Nixon committed.
I don't trust any of them. But I grew up in the Nixon era.

[lester1/2jr]

RC - did you see Andrew Gillum? he was almost governor of Florida and he was just caught in a scenerio that would make GG Allin blush. Politicians are strange people


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illness_as_Metaphor

"At the time that Sontag was writing, the fad in alternative cancer treatment was psychotherapy for the patient's supposed "cancer personality". According to these proponents, patients brought cancer upon themselves by having a resigned, repressed, inhibited personality. By undergoing the often blame-filled psychotherapy offered by some groups, such as the Simonton Center, the patient would overcome cancer by consciously choosing to give up the emotional benefits he or she created the cancer for, and be healed.[5"