Posted May 24, 2011
GamezRanker
Disagreement Verboten!
GamezRanker Sorry, data for given user is currently unavailable. Please, try again later. View profile View wishlist Start conversation Invite to friends Invite to friends Accept invitation Accept invitation Pending invitation... Unblock chat Registered: Sep 2010
From United States
Tulivu
Surndr & Die
Tulivu Sorry, data for given user is currently unavailable. Please, try again later. View profile View wishlist Start conversation Invite to friends Invite to friends Accept invitation Accept invitation Pending invitation... Unblock chat Registered: Nov 2010
From United States
nondeplumage
32 Bit World
nondeplumage Sorry, data for given user is currently unavailable. Please, try again later. View profile View wishlist Start conversation Invite to friends Invite to friends Accept invitation Accept invitation Pending invitation... Unblock chat Registered: Sep 2010
From United States
brother-eros
darkness beckons
brother-eros Sorry, data for given user is currently unavailable. Please, try again later. View profile View wishlist Start conversation Invite to friends Invite to friends Accept invitation Accept invitation Pending invitation... Unblock chat Registered: Jul 2010
From Canada
Posted May 25, 2011
Demut: What about the mindset? Take the Aboriginal people of Australia. They have respect for nature and think that even trees and rocks should remain as untouched as possible. Where do we find that kind of thinking in contemporary major societies? In some social eco-movement niche at best.
crazy_dave: Actually Aboriginals have been in Australia for just shy of 50,000 years and they may have caused mass extinctions when they arrived there too though it is in dispute over exactly when or why those extinctions happened. So while now everything looks to be in equilibrium, but it almost certainly wasn't when they first got there and expanded. Eventually our own peoples will reach some equilibrium and you do see some evidence of prominence for respect the Earth coming into the social consciousness - perhaps often not a lot from the conservative political spectrum though even there it is not absent. In fact "being green" has become quite a selling point these days. I would say that Environmentalism as a whole is no longer a fringe movement and is quite mainstream.
I will be the first to argue against the exploitation of one society by another, but a nostalgic imagining of past societies is not accurate, as crazy_dave mentions, the Australian Aboriginies are well known by current fields of research as causing environmental damage on a massive scale when they first arrived, not only the extinction of animal species but of entire ecosystems - which is why so much australian flora survives fires now, they're just the only things that are left, ie, survivor bias, as nondeplumage's post. This is also true on a general level with many, many more civilizations annhilating themselves than surviving. Take into account that the australian aborigines spear people to death when dealing with tribal law, and this still happens today in tribal societies in the Northern Territory, and I don't think they seem as utopian as we would like to imagine.
The point is we can't just dream of a beautiful past to return to, we have to make it happen, work towards a better future.
This said, there are countless problems with societies of today, I agree with that sentiment completely.
Demut: Exactly. USED to be. But in order for advanced societies to emerge it takes millions and millions of years.
nondeplumage: Mars used to be like Earth for longer than Earth. Shakespeare - Macbeth
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
nondeplumage
32 Bit World
nondeplumage Sorry, data for given user is currently unavailable. Please, try again later. View profile View wishlist Start conversation Invite to friends Invite to friends Accept invitation Accept invitation Pending invitation... Unblock chat Registered: Sep 2010
From United States
Demut
デムト
Demut Sorry, data for given user is currently unavailable. Please, try again later. View profile View wishlist Start conversation Invite to friends Invite to friends Accept invitation Accept invitation Pending invitation... Unblock chat Registered: May 2011
From Germany
Posted May 25, 2011
brother-eros: Shakespeare - Macbeth
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Hey, I remember that from class. Still, I’ll have to disagree with Mr. S. on this one.To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.