What is Wrong With Our Culture - Alan Watts

[Alex_Spider]

What is Wrong With Our Culture - Alan Watts

Thought-provoking 5 minutes on the state of the world from the late, great Alan Watts, a man far ahead of his time.

Speech: Alan Watts - What is Wrong With Our Culture (AKA: Sex The Pleasurable Punishment)
www.alanwatts.org

[YT]YMDu3JdQ8Ow[/YT]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMDu3JdQ8Ow

Wow, never heard of this man, but damn me, isn't he on point or what.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I think the most fundamental problem is our population. There are just too many people. Not enough room, not enough time, not enough resources, not enough anything.

Well actually, the fundamental problem is humanity. But the sheer size of our population makes all our excesses worse.

Thankfully for him, Watts never got to see the rise of smart phones and tablets...

 

[KevanG]

Our main problem is that we're greedy idiots like it says.

 

[Alex_Spider]

I think the most fundamental problem is our population. There are just too many people. Not enough room, not enough time, not enough resources, not enough anything.

Well actually, the fundamental problem is humanity. But the sheer size of our population makes all our excesses worse.

Thankfully for him, Watts never got to see the rise of smart phones and tablets...

Nahh, this is just a myth the establishment perpetuates to distract the masses. There is enough room and food for all people, it is the unequal distribution of goods from those in power and the chaotic way our societies are constructed which separate people in classes and reduces their access to goods.

I mean, the 1% of the population owns 40% of the planet’s wealth for Christ's sake!

I suggest you take a look at this insightful video
[YT]C5qClsTKhiI[/YT]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5qClsTKhiI

 

[KevanG]

Like I keep saying, we need to move out and get our own place. Can't be living with Mom forever. Give all the space programs 500% budget boosts and get us up up and away! 99% of everything we could ever need until the line of humanity dies out is in space. We just need to get off our butts and get there.

 

[Alex_Spider]

Like I keep saying, we need to move out and get our own place. Can't be living with Mom forever. Give all the space programs 500% budget boosts and get us up up and away! 99% of everything we could ever need until the line of humanity dies out is in space. We just need to get off our butts and get there.

Let's built an Elysium t:

No, really, why go through all this trouble trying to settle in space, instead of taking care this beautiful planet and make it a better place for all people and all animals? And make no mistake, if we go in space with the current way of thinking, we will still have the same problems and the same inequality as we have here on Earth now. We have to radically redesign our culture and get rid of the concept of leadership and corporate control, if we truly want to progress as a human kind. Anything less will lead to the current status.

 

[KevanG]

We shouldn't restrict ourselves to our little mudball. We should get gone. We're always going to have the same problems we have now because we're always going to be the same people. Look at our past. It's always been like it is. We've just changed technology. Nothing has ever been simpler or more complicated than it is today. As a people our values may change, our religions and everything else but in the end we're still people.

We could wind up nuking ourselves into oblivion one day and any aliens who might stumble across our planet might find our remains but if we can spread out beyond the planet we would have a far better chance of surviving and changing. We've come close so many times to just having a nuclear war annihilating us that it's stopped even being scary to us. If we can have some sort of start elsewhere we could have a chance to become something else.

 

[Alex_Spider]

I like what Alan says about the TV and I find it hilarious that people not only are still watching news and channels today, but they pay for cable, like in the US and in some other countries. TV is the most useless device and dangerous tool of propaganda at the same time and choosing to pay for it, to me is a big WTF.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

We shouldn't restrict ourselves to our little mudball. We should get gone. We're always going to have the same problems we have now because we're always going to be the same people. Look at our past. It's always been like it is. We've just changed technology. Nothing has ever been simpler or more complicated than it is today. As a people our values may change, our religions and everything else but in the end we're still people.

We could wind up nuking ourselves into oblivion one day and any aliens who might stumble across our planet might find our remains but if we can spread out beyond the planet we would have a far better chance of surviving and changing. We've come close so many times to just having a nuclear war annihilating us that it's stopped even being scary to us. If we can have some sort of start elsewhere we could have a chance to become something else.

KevanG... Why you always gots to make so much sense?

Real talk... The fact is that planets, with or without the environmental depravation of mankind have limited life spans. One day, through no ones fault except perhaps God's, this planet WILL be destroyed by an expanding Sol. I can only hope our species has spread further from our home solar system by then.

 

[KevanG]

Me are smrt and read too much.

I forget where I read it but I think it went (paraphrased): Evolution is just a race against time until either you go extinct or you leave your planet before something else kills you.

 

[Alex_Spider]

We shouldn't restrict ourselves to our little mudball. We should get gone. We're always going to have the same problems we have now because we're always going to be the same people. Look at our past. It's always been like it is. We've just changed technology. Nothing has ever been simpler or more complicated than it is today. As a people our values may change, our religions and everything else but in the end we're still people.

We could wind up nuking ourselves into oblivion one day and any aliens who might stumble across our planet might find our remains but if we can spread out beyond the planet we would have a far better chance of surviving and changing. We've come close so many times to just having a nuclear war annihilating us that it's stopped even being scary to us. If we can have some sort of start elsewhere we could have a chance to become something else.

I am not saying we should never leave this place. But, I think it should be done in a healthy and responsible way. A natural evolution you might say. I don't think it is right, nor necessary to leave behind us a dead planet.

Well, we had the same problems not because we are the same people, but because we always lived in a world of scarcity and exploitation for reasons of survival. Today, there is absolutely no reason to struggle to make a livin' thanks to the highly advanced technology.

We produce more goods than people can purchase and as a result tons of electronic devices and food are get dumped instead of giving them for free. Just imagine if we stopped producing weapons and useless devices and turned all our focus and technological advancement into feeding all people. But as long as we turn to leaders and let private interests get hold of precious natural recourses, the equivalent of the Kings and Queens of the past, we will not achieve anything.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

I like what Alan says about the TV and I find it hilarious that people not only are still watching news and channels today, but they pay for cable, like in the US and in some other countries. TV is the most useless device and dangerous tool of propaganda at the same time and choosing to pay for it, to me is a big WTF.

TV is inherently bad, but of course the other boxlike device that also brings untold mediocrity, filth, unsupported opinions and of course is also used by da powers that be to exert control... That thing is cool beans, right? t:

 

[Alex_Spider]

TV is inherently bad, but of course the other boxlike device that also brings untold mediocrity, filth, unsupported opinions and of course is also used by da powers that be to exert control... That thing is cool beans, right? t:

I take it you speak about the Internet? Well, at least it gives you more freedom than TV does. And has more variety also. TV has a guided agenda from higher positions of the upper class and will rarely support the interests of the people. Through the internet, people can organise through activism and do many positive things to improve society, like educating one another and exchanging ideas in many topics of our every day lives.

 

[KevanG]

That's the problem though. The "Just imagine if we stopped producing weapons and useless devices and turned all our focus and technological advancement into feeding all people." bit. That's not what we're like as a whole. That's what we can do as individuals or as small groups. As a whole we're greedy, self centered jerks who want everything for nothing even if we can't use it. Not to say as the small groups or individuals we can't accomplish amazing or even nearly impossible things, far from it but what the big picture as a whole is is that we don't want to make everyone equal because we want to feel superior. We are always going to have these same issues, even in our happiest fiction it's still there. Look at Star Trek TNG, for the first few seasons there was seemingly perfection for the Federation. They had matter converters to feed everyone with no problems, near infinite energy and space travel throughout the galaxy with nearly perfect peace and weather control back on Earth. There was no reason for strife or conflict in any form for any reason but it still happened (in a silly ham-fisted way but it's the first few seasons you don't get the gold until later on ). They had insurrections, traitors, murder, sabotage, all in the same place that seemingly universal harmony was taking place. It's just a reflection of ourselves in our dreams. We know that even if we could make everything totally perfect and everyone was elevated to the status of equals there would still be problems and conflict because that is our nature. They even made fun of it in the Matrix movies. They said one of the earlier versions was a paradise with no conflict or problems, we went crazy.

 

[Alex_Spider]

Well, I like to be optimistic, that if we further advance technologically into a Star Trek type of society, we will also change our ways and become more enlightened as a species. The wars and hatred will be a thing of the past. I guess we have to wait and see. And then I will tell you, "See? I told ya I was right"

 

[KevanG]

If you're right I'll buy you a beer or synthehol or whatever they drink then.

 

[Alex_Spider]

No need to buy me anything, we will have our own replicators by then .
Seriously though, those in power want us to think that the human nature is flawed and all that, so we don't blame them for their crimes and never desire something better. Keep that in mind.

Found this interesting video
[YT]5QLRnf9vOTg[/YT]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QLRnf9vOTg

 

[KevanG]

You've never worked in Customer Service have you? The base state for everyone you interact with there is greedy twit.

 

[Airwings]

Mars is our first outpost. But then what? We need to spread further!!

Venus? Europa?

 

[KevanG]

There's various small moons around other planets that are potentially ripe for colonization.

 

[Alex_Spider]

Kevan have you thought about the mars one mission? I would be all for it, but this one way trip scares me a little bit.

 

[KevanG]

I've given it thought. It's a great and noble effort to attempt and everyone who is involved in it knows that for better or for worse it is a one way trip and that all decisions made are irrevocable. It could be the start of a grand new step for humanity or a terrible disaster. I'd go. Seriously. If I could, I would. I'd probably be known as the idiot who caused the disaster but I'd go.

 

[The End]

Here's hoping to the success of programs like Mars One. I think it would be very inspirational to see human beings living on another planet; becoming an inter-planetary species.

It isn't as though we'd all just abandon Earth immediately. We couldn't; the technology doesn't exist to do it. While we're settling Mars, here on Earth computer and robotic technology would be going leaps and bounds, we'll see more and more labour being automated. We have the technology NOW to transition away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. Getting away from the monetary system I think will be key to our freedom. People work 9-5, its no wonder they get home and just want to watch TV, there's little time for anything else.

 

[Alex_Spider]

Here's hoping to the success of programs like Mars One. I think it would be very inspirational to see human beings living on another planet; becoming an inter-planetary species.

It isn't as though we'd all just abandon Earth immediately. We couldn't; the technology doesn't exist to do it. While we're settling Mars, here on Earth computer and robotic technology would be going leaps and bounds, we'll see more and more labour being automated. We have the technology NOW to transition away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. Getting away from the monetary system I think will be key to our freedom. People work 9-5, its no wonder they get home and just want to watch TV, there's little time for anything else.

Well said. Mars one will be the first example of Recource Based Economy put into practice to provide food and water without the use of money. Hopefuly there will be no banks among the settlers.

 

[KevanG]

There won't really need to be. Any and all financial transactions can be done electronically whenever they shoot messages back to earth. Money is always going to be a problem there. Sending resources as a one way trip with nothing able to be sent back but information is just a money sink until some way to profit off of it comes up.