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An odd cycle...
Nimrod4154
Member Posts: 864
Ok well everyone should already know this cycle but i will list how it goes
You are born. You are getting ready to learn to talk and walk.
You can talk and walk. You are now preparing to go to school
You are in school. You are now preparing to go to college
You are in college. You are now preparing to graduate
You graduate(we will assume it is a bachelors) You are now preparing to find a place to live and find a job.
You find a place to live as well as a decent paying job and on the way you marry your wife.
You are now 50 years old as time flies bye. You are now preparing to retire
You retire(Assuming Your 60+). You are now preparing for death. You want to make people happy, try to accomplish things that you always wanted to, and leave your family with money.
You die. Your money goes to your close family and you could not accomplish your life long dreams.
Ok so basically life is always preparing for the next step if im correct? This is a bit pointless but i for one think that this cycle is very repitive. You always have to prepare for the future. Now im wondering why i made this thread but I just want other people's views on thi cycle.
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Comments
of course there are some people who's life is like one of these:
1.You are born. You are getting ready to learn to breathe. Abortion comes along.
or another:
1.born
2. in school
3. out of school now and into a minimum wage job in which you will end up the rest of your life
here's my life though:
1.born
2.go to 20 different schools since I move around every day of my life... finally take my GED so basically I don't graduate
3.in college. preparing to burn my books.
well.. hope that's been a little informative, but I'm pretty sure it's just babbling.
"Put your foot where your mouth is." - Wisdom from my grandfather
"Paper or plastic? ... because I'm afraid I'll have to suffocate you unless you put this bag on your head..." - Ethnitrek
AC1: Wierding from Harvestgain
yes nimrod these are the questions that made me an insomniac for most of my childhood and in highschool. Exactly what is the point. If you work from 9-5 (more like 8-5 now), then by the time you get home it's 5:30. Considering you get up at 7:30, you would have to go to sleep at 11:30 to get 8 hours. so now you have 6 hours. More than likely you will spend half of that paying bills, cleaning, running errands.
Exactly what is the point? In hunter gather societies people work an average of 15 hours a week to get food. They spend the rest of their time crafting, telling stories, singing songes, playing music and indulging in psychoactive substances. In agriculture societies (or am I thinking of something different like horticultural?) you dont spend much more time working per week. We work so hard to achieve "stability" and for material wealth, but all these material things do nothing but requiremore time of us to learn how to use them, maintain and clean them. Even if some are entertaining what is the point if you have no time to use them. And all this advancement may extend the length of our lives but not the quality. The only part of our extended lives that we are not enslaved is in our old age when we (most) are impotent, weak, unable to achieve our dreams, and sickly.
The sad part is so many people work even more and even harder than you or i and can't even fulfill their basic needs because capitalism is dependant on both sides; there must be those at the bottom, If they could spend their time instead gathering or producing their own food...but instead they bust their ass and are still hungry at the end of the day. And Americans think that we have earned what wealth we have (or some of us have), when in reality we are built upon the exploitation of other countries and incredibly cheap labor constantly lowering the standard of living for them. We are less than ten percent of the earth's population using 80 percent of it's resources.
And people cannot even return to a simpler life. What few indigenous peoples and primitive cultures still exist, well their environments are being destroyed. Areas where they once could extract everything they needed for life are being destroyed to create a factory that only produces one thing, and usually something for our entertainment. They have no choice but to work in these factories as well as they have no work skills or experience. People think that if you work harder you are rewarded and that everyone has the chance to achieve these things, but it is simply not possibly, there has to be people at the bottom and it is not even worth it to be at the top as you will spend all your time and energy mainting this superflous lifestlye. S
ome would say this only natural selection but i disagree. At least natural selection would allow the less capable (not that most disenfranchised even are less capable) to die out, but instead they are being enslaved, and we do everythign in our power to keep them alive, but not improve their lives. I need to stop; it's very very hard to go through everyday life knowing how not only pointless it is, but how detrimental it is to everyone else in the world.
well said, Hifructose. now, who wants to shrug off the chains of capitalist oppression and follow me to live on a private island?
of course we'll have to drive out the natives first....
anyway, I've asked myself the same thing. Why do people want to work hard to become rich and in the end just be a slave to wealth (bills, moneygrabbers, etc)? I, as many others, know that riches will do very little good for you. Sure it'll buy that $50 grand boat you've been waiting for or that new sports car, but what then when you tire of them? will it buy you happiness? a short thrill, I'm sure... In all reality, I could care less about such things. Happiness is a state of mind that can not be bought by a handful of green paper. And since I'm a Christian - in the words of Eithne:
I know that if I have heaven
there is nothing to desire.
"Put your foot where your mouth is." - Wisdom from my grandfather
"Paper or plastic? ... because I'm afraid I'll have to suffocate you unless you put this bag on your head..." - Ethnitrek
AC1: Wierding from Harvestgain
"The greatest trick the devil played on humanity in the 20th century was convincing them that he didn't exist." (Paraphrasing) C.S. Lewis
"The greatest trick the devil played on humanity in the 20th century was convincing them that he didn't exist." (Paraphrasing) C.S. Lewis
"If a mother can kill her own child, what is left before I kill you and you kill me?" -Mother Teresa when talking about abortion after accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979
Games Played:L2, DoAC,EQ,CoH, and Planetside
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AIM: Billiearmstrong3
I'm with almost everyone here and believe there could be a better way, but it might be extremely difficult to implement because it'll take alotta people deciding to just quit. But even then I'd imagine that it wouldn't wind up working because the other people who protect that system will see what is going on and force us back into the system by some means of enslavement. I mean, we're so totally enslaved without actually being forced into it. Weird how the powerful prey on the implanted desires of the powerless...
Anyway, as an educator (college level), I'd have to say that I think everyone needs to know stuff about "things they don't care about," primarily because it is your duty as a citizen of the world to informed of what exactly is going on. That is of course, if you are interested in maintaining a democratic society. And it might be helpful to be able to critical examine the words of other people to figure out if they are trying to exploit you or not. I'm all for an overeducated populace. I might wind up flipping burgers after I get tried of trying to get other people interested in being responsible citizens, but at least I'll know why I'm flipping burgers and not blame some one else for my situation.
But it would be cool to be less involved in the engines of commerce, no doubt. And if my plans go accordingly over the next few years, I should be able to manage living comfortably and only working for "The Man" for 15-20hrs a week. Flipping burgers or pushing grocery carts or something else that I could have done without a higher education.
-Szo
"If the Devil were to play the greatest trick he could ever play, it would be convincing humanity that he was God." - Machina, 2003
so bassically...
whats the use if we're just going to end up dead anyways?...
... were you tired/drunk/high when you typed that by any chance?
--------------------------------
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bump
Games Played:L2, DoAC,EQ,CoH, and Planetside
Playing Now:None
Games Waiting for:WoW, EQII
AIM: Billiearmstrong3
Games Played:DoAC, EQ, CoH, Lineage 2, Planetside, and Shadowbane.
Games Playing:None:(
Waiting For:WoW, EQII
nope, not me. i don't engage in those activities.
i don't claim to have any answers that will work for anyone else, just observations of what work for me.
so i guess my real point is: there may not be a point to life, other than to live (or invent some meaning). but more important than the answer is the fact that one asks the question.
it seems to be about living a full and meaningful life. whatever it is that gives your life meaning, go for it. and of course everyone always has to do some things that they hate doing. its just part of life. And even if you don't like doing something, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to do it to the best of your ability.
for me personally, its a desire to make people happy, like my parents, my brother, my friends, my girlfriend, and hopefully some day my children. and if i ever wind up in a position of power, i'd like to think i would try to help out everyone else.
but then again, i might just be
i'm just glad there are people actually examining the conditions and circumstances of life. thinking about this stuff is a lost art.
i really do hope that everyone does find a reason or five to live. Life is indeed interesting.
of course, we could also go the route of douglas adams and just say the purpose of life, etc. is 42.
-Szo
"Life is less what I think it is and more of what I can't." -Machina, 2001
ok i agree with you guys on this whole life cycle thing but, your missing a detail of the people that want to accomplish actuall things. now i dont know how or when or what but for me my goal in life is to be importent in every americans life. i want to invent something that will help other people live, i want to go down in history. i think theres a difference between living and existing. the life cycle you picked out is about existing but not living to the fullest....
o yeah and theres also the old qoute "stop and smell the roses"<--- well u can but.... u ouhgt to live life to the fullest first
You may say I'm a dreamer
I'm not the only one
I hope some day you will join us
And the world will live as one
Thinking of strange days
And wet-dream escapades
Oh this summer is sweet sleep
Because we are living day dreams
You may say I'm a dreamer
I'm not the only one
I hope some day you will join us
And the world will live as one
Thinking of strange days
And wet-dream escapades
Oh this summer is sweet sleep
Because we are living day dreams
that all in the end so thats really all that matters
Not necessarily. I still think that everyone is going to die some day, but that shouldn't allow for people to neglect the suffering. For you not to take me the wrong way, I was merely saying that I could care less about owning a big house, having servants waiting on me or having chests of gold and precious jewels.
In stating there is nothing to desire, I believe there is nothing to desire from a faithful and disciplined Christian's view. However, that still doesn't mean that healing the sick or giving food to the poor is any less important. Yes, as you said - nothing is truely insignificant in the grand scheme of life. I wasn't trying to say that nothing should be accomplished because it isn't desirable. Not to get into a spiritual debate, but just to offer an example from my point of view: Christ died on the cross and rose again. He certainly must not have desired to get nailed to a cross, but still it was certainly significant from a Christian's view point or not.
Well... sorry if that seemed a little vague. My blood glucose levels feel like they're getting low. -_-
p.s. Ok... Now that I have a lollypop... LOL Significance is also a relative term. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Give me a cheeseburger and a good show on TV and I'll be set for life, but still talent should not be squandered and I don't intend to waste what little I have.
"Put your foot where your mouth is." - Wisdom from my grandfather
"Paper or plastic? ... because I'm afraid I'll have to suffocate you unless you put this bag on your head..." - Ethnitrek
AC1: Wierding from Harvestgain
Ah yes, toil...
"The life of most men is merely a ceaseless toil to prepare food and home for their offspring; and these enter the world to perform exactly the same offices as their progenitors."
- William Somerset Maugham (English short-story writer, novelist and playwright, 1874-1965)
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
- Winston Churchill (British orator, author and prime minister during World War II. 1874-1965)
"Success, remember is the reward of toil."
- Sophocles (One of classical Athens' three great tragic playwrights)
"Light is the task where many share the toil."
- Homer (Greek poet presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, 9th-8th century bc)
"The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it."
- John Ruskin (English writer and critic of art, architecture, and society, 1819-1900)
"Let other mortals vainly wear, A tedious life in anxious care; Let the ambitious toil and think, Let states or empires swim or sink; My sole ambition is to drink"
- Anonymous
He certainly must not have desired to get nailed to a cross, but still it was certainly significant from a Christian's view point or not.
well actually he kinda did want to be a sacrafice; that was his whole point in coming was to be sacrificed as god's son to prove the truth of christiananity. it was just coicidence though the jews got blamed for it like they get blamed for evrything