Has the United States has become a “Rogue Nation”?
No.
Has the United States has become a “Rogue Nation”?
No.
Music and Visualization.
I wonder if one might avoid visualization due to a desire for purity and appreciation for the music to stand on it's own merits.
Yet. . . I think visualization can also have value, if done well.
Not everyone has a master's ear for music, and for the less practiced visualization, visuals and themes that move and react with the music can cause the less attuned 'to attune and notice what they might not have without visualization.
I think there is a value in spark notes and summaries.
. . . But there is still a value in books and reading them full.
For myself anyhow.
I think knowledge sometimes comes from working out a puzzle, more than being told the puzzle's answer.
. . . A given maybe,
I 'have heard different people learn better by different methods.
Hands on for example, or visual.
Books work well for me,
I'm forced to stay on subject on theme, even a page or two later, I might mull on something I read a page or two past.
I flip back, ponder more, read on,
maybe chapters later come to conclusions, work out theories.
Sometimes a long and round about way to a point, inmeshes it.
A moment is sometimes remembered too by the day.
Small moment in a big moment remembered, maybe,
Small moment in a small moment forgot, maybe.
. . .
Knowledge is different, based on how it is experienced, I think.
Though this annoys me sometimes, I think it is true.
A person who is 'told of people who get punched in the face for being rude in face to face confrontations,
Perhaps is not as polite as a person who has 'been punched in the face for being rude in face to face confrontations.
. . . The knowledge is the same, and yet not.
A book is often narrative, story, draws people in, something that is 'experienced,
One 'feels the book.
There's also gambling as the only means to victory sometimes.
When it is victory or death, or of decisive moments that can shape the next hundred or more years.
Against a person with greater skill 99 times out of a 100, the greater skill wins.
But with crazy, unexpected, dangerous, or unorthodox move. . .
Yes Minister 3x2 - BBC2 - "It's to protect us against the French"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HypmqM4s_ic
Yes, Minister - how to create a disunited Europe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SwDYlz5G8w
Hitler and Napoleon seemed like gamblers at a certain point, who just didn't know when to quit.
. . . Course on another hand, all in life is a gamble.
And some gambles, even if one loses, the consequences aren't so bad.
. . .
There's also the idea that one can 'win the game, so to speak.
Perhaps Hitler or Napoleon 'would have stopped at a certain point, or perhaps they would not have 'needed to stop.
Take nukes as a concept,
If one country had managed to build enough of them, be the only one with them and stomp down anyone else who tried to build them up.
Well, that's a worldwide victory maybe.
. . .
Take The idea of America and zones of control,
If the world 'does go bad someday, we global warming, or use up some sources of water, maybe alliances among nations change.
Would be 'really nice for America to have a stronger zone of control.
Even if it meant taking some risks.
I'll be more convinced of Trumps success when I hear of more than a 'framework of a deal in Greenland.
I'm still unsure about long term effects, in terms of diplomacy and what this might cause various European nations to do.
Hitler and Napolean were confident people,
There 'is a power in confidence and the person who keeps on pushing.
Until they push too far on the wrong person, moment, solution.
Something Jordan Peterson once said about salaries,
More agreeable people get paid less. Why? Because they're less assertive.
. . .
But there 'are faults to such confidence and assertiveness.
As 'you say, "winner overconfidence, and miscalculation due to overconfidence"
I also think there can be the problem of coordination,
Being a pushy jerk can lead over a time period to people excluding the pushy jerk.
Or everyone else 'also becoming pushy jerks.
. . .
I am reminded of the Perry Expedition and later the Great White Fleet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Expedition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Fleet
. . . I don't 'think Trump ever 'explicitly said he would declare war and launch a military invasion of Greenland.
So it 'was peaceful, peace is peace and violence is violence.
Tit for Tat,
Two eyes for an eye,
I think the best method is to be trusting but somewhat forgiving,
People and nations change,
But it can be important to respond harm for harm, otherwise one is losing out.
Occasionally offer peace, because people can change,
And you ought not lock yourself out of value,
. . . But the cooperative people stick together, benefit,
The uncooperative takers get excluded, and exclude themselves.
Politics is frustrating, it's cloudy to an outsider, can't see the hearts of the players.
"But Bush and Kohl worked around all of them. Bush said to Kohl at the end of it, “Look, I’m not going to beat my chest and dance on the Berlin Wall.” Both of them were very careful never to humiliate Gorbachev about the Soviet loss of the Cold War. Why? Because they knew that if they did that, he might fall from power sooner rather than later. Also, they were afraid that if they did that, the hardliners would come to power much more rapidly than they actually did. It was 20 years before Putin started consolidating his power.
The newly independent countries of Eastern Europe needed those 20 years to integrate militarily, politically, economically with the West so that the cement could set before you got the Russians trying to destabilize them. So they bought them 20 years to do this. But there’s a cost to all this. Bush never got credit for his essential role in ending the Cold War on Western terms. So he was not reelected for a second term."
https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/sarah-paine-cold-war
I recall reading similar about Carter and the Iranian hostage crisis.
. . .
Even if Trump 'did get the 'exact same deal as before in Greenland,
There 'are values and objectives that can make such a win,
His actions possibly means to ends achieved.
(Shrug) I guess we've different takes of Trump and the situation.
@#1
What part in particular makes you consider Trump a bad leader or a child?
This isn't sarcasm
. . . But arguments can be made for them being reasonable actions.
Even if they are not actions I support.
. . . . . . Trump has long been a showman, a celebrity, a drama queen.
One 'can make jokes to world leaders, claim petty reasons.
Why? Because they are not special.
(Still not something I support)
I doubt Trump truly wants Greenland because he didn't receive a noble peace prize,
It is just sarcasm, meanness, deflection, perhaps attempt at confusing, bamboozling.
Trump is a showman,
Seemingly a follower of the Nixon Madman Theory,
Has frequently made it a cornerstone of his policy to be absurd with high demands and actions, then walk it back to something smaller.
. . .
I recall reading in the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,
How Hitler and his subordinates bullied Czechoslovak President Emil Hacha into accepting the terms Germany demanded.
https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=88
Childish in a way, is a state of mind.
I don't think a woman wearing pants makes her manly,
I don't think old people playing video games makes them childish.
I 'do think Trump is childish,
But on another hand, he behaves as 'some adults do in social situations.
Or at least of how I 'think some do.
Apocryphal
"A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk', to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly.”
― Winston Churchill
It seems childish to resort to violence, but duels were once common in America.
I 'see Trumps behavior as childish, but that's only from 'certain perspective and culture.
. . .
When you say child, I get the feeling what you really mean is incapable, without plan.
But I can't tell if Trump has a plan of not.
Lot of people screamed about 2025 Thinktanks, so are there plans or not?
If something is childish but 'works, then in a way it was not childish.
(I do not support military invasion of Greenland)
There was some Chinese guy in antiquity who pretended to be crazy for years until he escaped.
It seems more 'manly to not act a dolt,
But by acting a dolt he was not executed, escaped, returned to power.
Perspective.
. . .
I don't know what Trump wants.
What he expects.
I see online comments claiming he's playing 4d chess, trying to get us kicked out of NATO, as he cannot leave it himself easily.
And various other theoreticals.
. . .
Bad Leader,
(Well I didn't vote for him)
But I think America 'would be stronger if we took Greenland,
(I don't support a military takeover of Greenland)
. . . Childish. . .
Presidents are people, and there are various stories and recordings of them acting so in private, crude jokes or prejudiced true views of situations.
A difference of Trump is that he is more open.
This appeals to some people I suspect,
They think what is so great about being a liar? (Being polite I mean, or not stating true thoughts, being diplomatic)
(Never mind all the other lies Trump tells)
"Misfortune weighs most heavily on those who expect nothing but good fortune." - Topic Title
I suppose it 'can.
People used to and expecting misfortune, perhaps sometimes are trained and braced for it by their experiences and expectations.
Though I also expect such might 'wear on a person, depressed but solid against misfortune, they endure, but are weathered away over time,
Sadness, depression, cutting shorter their years.
A person only expecting good fortune,
Well, if they are not 'bothered by the bad fortune, but keep ready expectations of good fortune in the future, if they readily engage and combat their bad fortune. Could make do rather well I think.
There's something to be said for optimism and a cheerful attitude.
But then, one also has those expecting of good fortune, who put all their hopes on that 'one good fortune, who can't comprehend that such bad would happen.
One has those expecting bad fortune, who nonetheless meet it readily and cheerful.
Well prepared, and no shocks of surprise, no carpets pulled out under 'their feet.
But perhaps they do not so readily plan for success. . .
Hm,
1, Expect Good Fortune,
2, Expect Bad Fortune,
3, Expect Mixed Fortune,
4, Expect Chance Fortune,
6, Expects Nothing of Fortune,
Expect X Fortune, but doesn't mind the bad,
Expect X Fortune, but minds the bad,
Expectations or not, how one meets it plays a large roll I think.
Heh,
Still, there is a reason people sometimes lower their expectations or brace themselves with the possibility of bad fortune. It can be a shock to the system, a disappointment.
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
"The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future —was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay. Usually this happened quite suddenly, in the form of a crisis, the symptoms of which were familiar to the experienced camp inmate. We all feared this moment—not for ourselves, which would have been pointless, but for our friends. Usually it began with the prisoner refusing one morning to get dressed and wash or to go out on the parade grounds. No entreaties, no blows, no threats had any effect. He just lay there, hardly moving. If this crisis was brought about by an illness, he refused to be taken to the sick-bay or to do anything to help himself. He simply gave up. There he remained, lying in his own excreta, and nothing bothered him any more.
I once had a dramatic demonstration of the close link between the loss of faith in the future and this dangerous giving up. F, my senior block warden, a fairly well-known composer and librettist, confided in me one day: "I would like to tell you something, Doctor. I have had a strange dream. A voice told me that I could wish for something, that I should only say what I wanted to know, and all my questions would be answered. What do you think I asked? That I would like to know when the war would be over for me. You know what I mean, Doctor—for me! I wanted to know when we, when our camp, would be liberated and our sufferings come to an end."
"And when did you have this dream?" I asked. "In February, 1945," he answered. It was then the beginning of March. "What did your dream voice answer?" Furtively he whispered to me, "March thirtieth." When F told me about his dream, he was still full of hope and convinced that the voice of his dream would be right. But as the promised day drew nearer, the war news which reached our camp made it appear very unlikely that we would be free on the promised date. On March twenty-ninth, F suddenly became ill and ran a high temperature. On March thirtieth, the day his prophecy had told him that the war and suffering would be over for him, he became delirious and lost consciousness. On March thirty-first, he was dead. To all outward appearances, he had died of typhus.
Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man—his courage and hope, or lack of them—and the state of immunity of his body will understand that the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect. The ultimate cause of my friend's death was that the expected liberation did not come and he was severely disappointed. This suddenly lowered his body's resistance against the latent typhus infection. His faith in the future and his will to live had become paralyzed and his body fell victim to illness—and thus the voice of his dream was right after all.
The observations of this one case and the conclusion drawn from them are in accordance with something that was drawn to my attention by the chief doctor of our concentration camp. The death rate in the week between Christmas, 1944, and New Year's, 1945, increased in camp beyond all previous experience. In his opinion, the explanation for this increase did not lie in the harder working conditions or the deterioration of our food supplies or a change of weather or new epidemics. It was simply that the majority of the prisoners had lived in the naive hope that they would be home again by Christmas. As the time drew near and there was no encouraging news, the prisoners lost courage and disappointment overcame them. This had a dangerous influence on their powers of resistance and a great number of them died.
As we said before, any attempt to restore a man's inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzsche's words, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how," could be the guiding motto for all psychotherapeutic and psychohygienic efforts regarding prisoners. Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why—an aim—for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence. Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was, "I have nothing to expect from life any more." What sort of answer can one give to that?
What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfil the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."
Hm, just noticed a lot of talk about Greenland recently.
Maybe better buy some more long storage food.
And a book about edible plants, well, that or compile a document.
I don't use chatgpt, but I do use Google.
. . . That some people value chatgpt, does not mean they or other people would not value a site without bots.
Arguably a site without bots may increase in value due to it's scarcity.
If I wanted some slop answer to a common knowledge question, I would open another tab and Google the answer.
Or not, because why bother looking up the answer to something one already knows.
I've been a part of DDO, DART, and this site because occasionally I want to talk and connect with people,
I don't enjoy chess against the AI as much as I enjoy playing a human in chess.
. . . A community with longstanding 'humans has value to me,
It's a way for me to question ideas, to hear opinions, views of the world.
I am more assured that they are humans, and not bots, mindless and fake,
Not propaganda, not fake news.
. . .
AI has it's place, but I think AI often devalues locations.
Art for example, I like some AI art myself, but were I a member of some art website, I wouldn't want someone posting thousands of AI spam and slop art.
Let's look at another forum section,
https://www.debatecraft.com/forum/c/culture
Aaannd Debby is the last poster again, I literally 'can't scroll past them there.
All I see is Debby,
I wonder if anyone worth talking to has recently been active in any of those threads, but I can't readily tell who would have been.
Why even bother clicking on one.
We don't 'currently have 1000 bots spamming,
But the policies of the past and now, shape the future.
In an internet where AI are ever more about in it,
Sections of the internet with 'less AI, have an appeal to them.
They 'could be limited to 10 posts per day, but why limit 'ourselves to that?
. . .
AI 'does seem to be part of the future,
But I think it is 'humans that will give this site greater appeal and value.
It would depend how often the bears are annoying or eating people.
Bears have value to me when they are in the forest, not on my property.
I do ignore Debby, generally.
But I think they harm the site by their posts discouraging people to join or stay.
I think they post AI nonsense and AI slop in such degree and frequency that it is grounds for banishment.
I don't know how botting works, but I don't know that they 'aren't a bot, whether full or part time.
Having AI spam on DDO did not help 'that site.
Theoretically, how many bots would people be willing to 'let join this site?
@#5
Click on any of the forum categories, and what do I see?
Example,
https://www.debatecraft.com/forum/c/religion?page=1
Well for religion at least, I see that 'every. 'single. 'thread.
Has Debby as the last poster.
'Literally 'every 'thread in religion.
That 'really disincentivizes me to interact with any of those threads.
Further it quite possible shoves down the most recent person to engage genuinely.
If a person sang everything they thought and said,
I wonder if anything productive would come of that.
Perhaps a good song.
I've heard some people don't have inner monologues.
I suppose an easy way to implement a magic system into some fiction would be to have it take place in a simulation,
But the idea of not being on the top layer of reality makes me nervous.
Perhaps it's the idea of such a lack of control, of such vulnerability, of falseness of one's abilities.
Course, one is vulnerable often enough in reality as it is, to other people and circumstances within reality. (Shrug)
Heh, I suppose for all video games they 'do take place in simulations,
But that is or maybe it 'isn't Meta?
Some difficulty in the immersion and stakes perhaps, when one knows one is in a video game, or one can leave it so easily.
Perhaps a degree of absurdity warping the concept.
. . .
And of course there's also the problem if one wants to use a fantasy world to model theoretical possible working of the real world,
The fantasy world might 'need to be the real world (In universe), 'not be a simulation.
. . . For example, I imagine there are fans who 'want lightsabers or superpowers one sees in comic books.
Who want to believe it 'could be real, not simply rely on the suspension of disbelief.
Though I think there's always a value in reading new books, learning new thoughts, thinking for oneself about what one encounters.
I sometimes wonder what or when one ought focus more on crystalizing knowledge and certain books.
As Bruce Lee said,
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once but I fear one who has practiced one kick 10,000 times".
It's fun to be a Jack of all trades,
But I suspect it's impossible to be a Master of all trades,
. . . Likely most people are less than a Jack of trades, varying from 10s to 2s.
75% of people polled.
Who knows how many people were polled.
Or how the question was asked.
I wonder how different X's would progress with different writers.
Whether books, TV, video games.
Different actors, start from episode 1, or season 1.
One 'does see reboots, but the characters already have made themselves,
One is creating from hindsight, not creating blind.
One 'could get creators or actors who had never heard of the originals I suppose, to remove hindsight effect.
I often wonder at the 'importance of various individuals violent deaths, that the media 'happens to cover.
'Many people are 'frequently killed.
"The FBI’s crime statistics estimates, based on reported data, show a violent crime occurred, on average, every 25.9 seconds in 2024. The breakdown shows on average a murder occurred every 31.1 minutes"
https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2024-reported-crimes-in-the-nation-statistics
Shower thoughts, thinking back to a previous conversation.
Can a person be better off dead?
. . I don't think so, because to my mind the dead no longer exist, they can't 'be anything.
Well, can't 'feel anything.
Some people think of reputation after death, that immortality of a sort,
Pair together the 'idea of someone, their legacy 'with the person.
To spit on a grave or insult someone's place in history, to some is to dishonor the person themself.
From a certain point of view.
. . .
A barren plain,
Would existence be better or worse with people there?
Eh, I'm a nihilist, it's all arbitrary values and objectives.
. . .
Still, I do not think a person would have been better off not being born.
Because one who never existed cannot 'be,
As one who no longer exists cannot be.
Would someone be better off dead?
. . . I still don't think it's a yes or no,
The question is 'odd to me somehow.
The language doesn't fit somehow.
. . . Existence is painful they might say, and I no longer wish to experience or exist.
That computes for me, though I still don't much like suicide, I don't recommend suicide.
But linguistically I mean.
I don't think a dead person can be better off, because there is no longer a person,
Bit like dividing or times-ing by 0?
. . . Though when times and divide in my calculator,
Times answer is 0.
Divide answer it says cannot divide by 0.
Alas for my shoddy attention span in math, I assume there's a difference between times or dividing by 0.
Or. . .
Hm, is there a difference whether the zero is first or last?
2/0
0/2
2*0
0*2
. . .
Of course when someone says a person is better off dead, they often mean 'if the person existed, they would be in terrible pain.
Bit comparison between a person who dies in a cannibal assault, and a person who get's captured and eaten piece by piece.
But of course, 'better is relative, and futures sometimes assumed.
Though I suppose looking back, one might say a person was unlucky to get captured,
And a different person was lucky to go quick.
. . . But in such circumstance one is not talking of the dead, they are talking of people in the moments they were alive.
. . .
. . .
Course another thought is people who believe all of existence is conscious to some degree,
Or people who believe everything is one.
Two other possible reasons I see people talk about Venezuela online are drugs and China.
I don't find the drugs angle as convincing, though it's 'possible that US law makers are angry about that or think this is an answer to the problem at least partially.
Lawmakers often have more information than me,
And even if not true, some law makers might believe situations that are not so.
The China angle I find more convincing,
American lawmakers maybe wary about world power conflicts, and looking to protect what they see as their area of influence,
Ability of America to act far away,
Other countries abilities to act,
And possible aproveches of danger to America.
. . .
The action of kidnapping/Capturing Maduro seems more justifiable in terms of 'precedent, though I'm still not sure I or many other Americans are going to like it.
@NobodyInParticular, still just thinking.
"United States of America v. Nicolás Maduro Moros is a federal criminal case filed by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on March 26, 2020, against Nicolás Maduro, President of Venezuela since 2013, and 14 senior Venezuelan officials. The indictment alleged that Maduro and his associates conspired with Colombian guerrilla groups to traffic cocaine into the United States as part of what U.S. authorities termed a "narco-terrorism" conspiracy."
Wikipidia, United States v. Nicolás Maduro
Hm, so groundwork was laid to American law legally state that we did not consider Maduro a legal head of state.
And if someone is not legally (By us) considered a legal head of state, the president does not need to declare war to act militarily against them?
Even if the so called 'not head of state controls their country and it's military?
Rhetorical and not sarcasm,
Just me voicing my thoughts in trying to understand logic of situation.
I've never read up much on American actions during the Cold War.
I've not been paying much to Venezuela history the last 20 years.
Maduro kidnapping/capture, 'seems like the type of situation that would require a declaration of war.
But again, there's all that really illegal sounding stuff during the Cold War I've never read much on.
Hm, China during WW2,
Jefferson and the pirates,
Japan and the Black ships,
Castro assassination attempts,
United States invasion of Panama.
Does America consider Venezuela 'not a functioning country? China WW2 Civil War example,
Do they not consider Maduro a legitimate head of state?
"Is the inevitability of death, the dread of suffering and potential decrepitude, better than never knowing."
-SergeantLynch #35
I don't know,
But since I already know of it, I'd rather know.
Even if there were a technology and societal way to forget about it.
Course on another hand, were someone to offer to tell me some fell dread secret about myself,
Such as whether I ate a bug in my sleep last night,
I think I'd rather not know.
I'm happy enough assuming I did not, even if I 'did eat one. Not that I did.
. . . But were I in a relationship, and my significant other was cheating on me, I suppose I'd want to know.
. . .
But that is relevant, close, personal, not quite the same question maybe.
Hypothetical a family member did some evil in the past, to stranger, family, or myself without my knowing, would I have wanted/want to know?
Probably, but that is duty, love, and social.
. . . Course one doesn't want to know 'everything family has done. Measure of privacy and distance is nice.
. . . . . .
Hm, (Shrug), My money says it's a hit or miss, bit random what people would want to know about.
Inklings of ideas though, what 'don't I 'know? I am certain I will die someday, I am not 'completely certain that death is the end.
. . . 'Whatever is next, would I want to 'know?
. .Hypothetical, there is something happy and grand after death, might be comforting to know.
Hypothetical, there is something awful after death, whether some horrible pain, loss of some part of self, or nothingness (Though some find nothingness comforting).
Would I want to know if after death was something awful?
Hit or miss I think,
I can imagine myself in different moments of life wanting to know, dependent on current values and goals, and assumptions on how the information might motivate me.
“Sigmund Freud once asserted, "Let one attempt to expose a number of the most diverse people uniformly to hunger. With the increase of the imperative urge of hunger all individual differences will blur, and in their stead will appear the uniform expression of the one unstilled urge." Thank heaven, Sigmund Freud was spared knowing the concentration camps from the inside. His subjects lay on a couch designed in the plush style of Victorian culture, not in the filth of Auschwitz. There, the "individual differences" did not "blur" but, on the contrary, people became more different; people unmasked themselves, both the swine and the saints.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Though arguably certain situations and realities are recognized to cause certain reactions in sets of humans.
Though I 'still think sets of humans might vary greatly.
. . .
The 'right to know crosses my mind,
But we do not burden a child with every piece of knowledge,
We shepherd them away, though they often learn of the knowledge later in life.
. . . but not 'all knowledge,
My knowledge of murder is not firsthand, it is of video games and news articles.
I do not 'seek that firsthand knowledge,
Not all knowledge is a 'right or expectation.
But murder is often considered infringement.
. . .
I do not seek self harm knowledge then. Well, junk food aside.
. . .
But it is arguably there if I would choose to seek it.
"Is the inevitability of death, the dread of suffering and potential decrepitude, better than never knowing."
-SergeantLynch #35
Had I a child, and the ability to shield them from such knowledge, I am not sure I would.
I've never watched The Truman Show (1998),
But I have heard of it.
I am not inclined to have a child,
But I've already argued a nonexistence cannot be better than an existence.
. . Or worse.
That is not to say someone who will live a terrible existence 'ought to have been created, perhaps they ought not have.
Yet I dislike regret.
I love myself and my existence, even terrible moments and memories are 'ME, and I would not have existed without them.
I embrace myself, my existence, I accept it.
. . . That is not to say I would 'repeat bad events, or I don't feel bad about bad events.
But I 'exist,
Doesn't seem right that a theoretical future person ought be created into a bad situation,
But people seem to vary on what they consider a bad situation in life. . . Hm, there are 'norms though, current standards, abilities, 'attempt at the best start one can 'manage for one's kid.
Even if into a bad life, if it is one's 'best try, people don't seem to mind having a kid into a bad situation.
. . . But norms exist.
. . . . . .
"Is the inevitability of death, the dread of suffering and potential decrepitude, better than never knowing."
-SergeantLynch #35
(Shrug), subjective.
I am curious of existence, I value knowledge and truth to a large degree.
But this is subjective.
I value freedom, but this is subjective.
Would I 'force knowledge of life and death upon another?
This is arguably different from preventing them from accessing such knowledge?
"Is the inevitability of death, the dread of suffering and potential decrepitude, better than never knowing."
-SergeantLynch #35
I don't know,
I find it a very thought provoking question.
How so?
"Are we just slaves to material evolution and universal progress." - Title, SergeantLynch
"It's not as if life comes with any guarantees of longevity and uninterrupted bliss...Far from it indeed.
Perhaps aborted foetuses are the lucky ones." - post #1, SergeantLynch
Material evolution and universal progress. . .
I often doubt there's any end goal,
Any objective meaning, or intentional purpose of existence,
It just does as it does according to it's Nature.
I often doubt there's any higher or lower evolution,
What 'matters, all just a matter of perspective.
I don't think we are of intelligent design,
So I don't think we are slaves, except perhaps poetically.
. . .
I 'do think humans Nature, born of Nature and Nurture, often, perhaps usually encourages us to progress as a society, to progress as individuals.
Humans often seem to like creating, building, acquiring, accomplishing.
We don't 'have to,
We can destroy, be without, focus on spiritual growth.
Though even destruction is accomplishment of sorts,
Even spiritual growth is progress.
Perhaps to an individual who lives as a monk, spiritual growth is more 'true and meaningful than technological progress.
. . .
. . .
We're all part of the world, any from certain perspectives, are unto various ends.
I do not think I would call that slavery.
"It's not as if life comes with any guarantees of longevity and uninterrupted bliss...Far from it indeed.
Perhaps aborted foetuses are the lucky ones." - post #1, SergeantLynch
I do not look forward to death or old age,
But I am glad to be alive.
Once one is in the game of life, just not my style to quit it seems.
I do not think the aborted lucky,
If they 'exist, then they are denied, as I would be denied my further life from this instant, were a person to kill me.
If they do 'not exist, then not existing, they cannot possess any luck, perhaps.
. . . It 'is often an argument of the Pro Choice, that they are not killing a person.
Because they argue no person is there.
A non existence cannot be killed, cannot be harmed, cannot be 'lucky.
A match chosen at random from a matchbox is not lucky or unlucky, in being struck or spared.
A theoretical child that might exist between two people, is not lucky or unlucky, for they did not exist.
. . . Though I think myself, that the unborn exist.
"It's not as if life comes with any guarantees of longevity and uninterrupted bliss...Far from it indeed.
Perhaps aborted foetuses are the lucky ones." - post #1, SergeantLynch
Even now as I live and breathe,
Will my future be comfortable? Long?
Does it matter?
I am here now,
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” - Gandalf, LOTR
. . .
Course. . . There 'are hard moments in life, near 'all of life hard for some people I am sure.
I've not found a job 'yet I enjoy.
I hate working.
Sometimes relationships are irritating, it's one reason I try to avoid close friendships with people, I dislike the obligation and duty I feel and assign to such.
I believe in duty to family and friends, but I don't consider myself 'slaved to them.
. . Some people have awful family and dysfunctional relationships though. . .
. . My life is pretty free, (For the moment).
Even later on, I think I'll be a bit free.
Leaning's the name I used on Debate.org,
I used it here because I'd become used to it.
I used Leaning on Debate.org because. . . Hm, I don't quite remember anymore.
Two possibilities,
My tendency towards middle grounds and leaning more one side than the other,
Or around the time I joined Debate.org I felt I was leaning a bad way in my beliefs and values.
. . .
I go by Leaning on Discord, because of how many people from the last few debating sites I interact with.
Not really known by Leaning anywhere else.
. . .
If I'd thought Debate.org was going to close down so quick, I would have chosen Leaning for DART as well.
I like to think that once copyright expires on a lot of movies, music, and games, they'll become well catalogued and free to access online.
Lot of books are.
I 'think a lot of media is still relatively new.
. . . . . . Easy/Big/Effective/Cheap storage and documentation still kind of new.
Population getting bigger, sometimes I feel special imagining I live at the dawn of something truly new in humanity.
Well, people always have maybe.
But the new part in this instance is information, it 'ought be easier to record than ever, though I wonder how much will still be lost and forgotten.
People sometimes talk of older lost and rare media.
I wonder what of now will be lost and rare in 50 or 100 years?
Won't be the 'popular media I imagine, no George Lucas burning and urinating on the ashes of the early most Star Wars.
But there 'will be a lot of niche media lost maybe.
. . .
Cassettes I remember as a kid were some Disney movie soundtracks and Man of La Mancha.
Though I imagine my parents had/have others.
. . .
I also sometimes wonder if humans 'are on the verge of transhumanism within my lifetime.
Whether biological tampering of humans, AI, or colonizing outer space.
I think the biological tampering is the most likely.
I just can't imagine Dictators and Authoritarians 'not shackling their people in the most literal and figurative sense.
Sure it's been Sci Fi a lot of the time,
Been a few races of beings that were made dependent on some substance or they'd die,
Been a few populations or individuals where cloning became huge.
Even without the Dictators, I imagine a lot of people willing to abandon their humanity.
Course the 'free path would take longer I imagine.
And maybe in the free path, the human DNA sequence would still be stored somewhere.