The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.

The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.

Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.

Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.
Subject : Environment can never be saved as long as cities exist.

Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.

If there are no gaps there is no emotion.

Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.

When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.

There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.

People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.

Emotion ends.

Man becomes machine.

A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.

A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.

A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.

Fast visuals/ words make slow emotions extinct.

A fast (large) society will always be cruel to Animals/ Trees/ Air/ Water/ Land and to Itself.

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sushil_yadav

[I want to inform the Moderators of FreeThoughtAssociation Forum that I have also posted my article on other Forums relevant to the article/ related to keywords in the article]

I couldn’t agree more. 
Every one around me is in such an alfired hurry—to go nowhere --- they’re just in a hurry because it’s become a mental habit.  If you ask them why they’re in such a hurry, most of them don’t know.  No one is having a baby, the house isn’t on fire, World War IV hasn’t started yet in their backyard.  They’re just in a hurry. 
This mental habit can be deadly for those who get in the “hurriers’” way:  Just this week, a 14 year old boy was riding his bicycle on the street (legally), and a driver behind him wanted him out of the way—because he’s in a hurry.  The group the boy who ended up dead was riding with all got out of they way by going to the side of the road, but this boy stopped and confronted the driver who was constantly honking at the kid to get out of his way.  The boy went to the passenger side of the car and asked the guy what his problem was, and guy shot the kid dead!  His need to hurry was more important than this kid’s life. 
In the article above it says:  “A fast (large) society cannot feel pain/remorse/empathy.” ‘Nuff said. 
I have noticed that when a person isn’t given time to just “day-dream” and reflect on whatever they would like, they start feeling a constant pressure, and after a while, respond to the pressure by just becoming plain old mean. 
And, have you noticed that everyone seems to think that they have to be “doing something constructive” all the time; just sitting and reflecting is a “waste of time”.  There’s a drive to make people behave like a machine, producing all the time.  No wonder everyone is acting crazy!  Human beings do not function well under these circumstances.

Sandlin - 18 July 2007 02:44 AM

I couldn’t agree more. 
Every one around me is in such an alfired hurry—to go nowhere --- they’re just in a hurry because it’s become a mental habit.  If you ask them why they’re in such a hurry, most of them don’t know.  No one is having a baby, the house isn’t on fire, World War IV hasn’t started yet in their backyard.  They’re just in a hurry. 
This mental habit can be deadly for those who get in the “hurriers’” way:  Just this week, a 14 year old boy was riding his bicycle on the street (legally), and a driver behind him wanted him out of the way—because he’s in a hurry.  The group the boy who ended up dead was riding with all got out of they way by going to the side of the road, but this boy stopped and confronted the driver who was constantly honking at the kid to get out of his way.  The boy went to the passenger side of the car and asked the guy what his problem was, and guy shot the kid dead!  His need to hurry was more important than this kid’s life. 
In the article above it says:  “A fast (large) society cannot feel pain/remorse/empathy.” ‘Nuff said. 
I have noticed that when a person isn’t given time to just “day-dream” and reflect on whatever they would like, they start feeling a constant pressure, and after a while, respond to the pressure by just becoming plain old mean. 
And, have you noticed that everyone seems to think that they have to be “doing something constructive” all the time; just sitting and reflecting is a “waste of time”.  There’s a drive to make people behave like a machine, producing all the time.  No wonder everyone is acting crazy!  Human beings do not function well under these circumstances.

Sandlin,
Thanks for reading the article and expressing your views.

After Industrialization humans have been speeding up Physically[through vehicles - cars, aeroplanes etc...] and Mentally[through mental work/ desk job].

Once we speed up our minds we become incapable of slowing down [it would take years of effort to slow down]. One can understand it this way - A supercomputer cannot process at the rate of an ordinary computer. Once we speed up [and we have been speeding up for several generations now] we cannot slow down because the neural circuits get altered - the bio-chemistry of the brain and its anatomy changes. Our minds have become more and more restless due to exposure to speed.

sushil_yadav

What is this, a cocktail of thesis? Taken from articles online nonetheless? I disagree fully with this. The industrial revalution is the enactment of Enlightment philosophy. It has allowed the overthrow of the religious paradigm, brought forth modern science, computer technology, and the frequent doubling of our world popluation. If you think our mental problems are increasing, I’d like to know your proof. Why can finally treat mental illness. We don’t bleed or exorcise mentally ill people. We have medicines that work.

This seems just a bunch of fragmented cliches against technology. In fact, technology has improved our thinking, our ability to produce more with less work, and gives many men and women the time to explore their emotions.

Emotions are not gaps in thinking. Emotions are forms of thinking.

Daniel

PerfectIdius - 31 July 2007 07:46 PM

Emotions are not gaps in thinking. Emotions are forms of thinking.

Daniel

Mr. Expert Opinion,

Thoughts and Emotions are interlinked - but different things - totally/ completly different. 

Words can be spoken - words can be read - words can be heard.  Visuals can be seen.

Emotion is a subjective-experience. Other examples of subjective experience are taste, smell, touch, headache, stomach pain. 

One can understand the difference this way : 

When we eat an apple we can feel the taste of apple. Apple can give us the taste of apple - but apple is not taste. 

If we pour apple juice into a glass - the glass will not feel the taste - it does not have the ability to feel taste. 

If a person eats an apple he will feel the taste - because he has the ability to generate taste from apple. 

Words/ Visuals can evoke, intensify and sustain emotions - but words/ visuals are not emotions. 



In every field there is easy work/activity and difficult work/activity. 

In mathematics there is easy mathematics and difficult mathematics. Everyone can add 2+4 within microseconds. A PhD level problem of mathematics would take hours [or more] to solve - and that too only by someone who has spent 20 - 25 years learning mathematics upto PhD level. 

Same way in the field of emotions there are easy emotions and difficult emotions. Easy emotions are evoked within nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds - anger, lust, fear, pleasure, entertainment and excitement are some examples. These emotions are associated with fast breathing and heart-rate. These emotions don"t require gaps between thinking to evoke, intensify and sustain. These are the emotions that can be found everywhere in today’s fast society.

Then there are difficult emotions - which require ability and years of effort to develop - emotions associated with pain, compassion and peaceful states of mind are some examples. These emotions are associated with slow breathing and heart-rate. These emotions require freezing of thought - freezing of visuals and words - huge amounts of gaps between thinking - to evoke, intensify and sustain. 

[Fast emotions =emotions associated with fast visuals/fast words/fast breathing/fast heart-rate. 
Slow emotions=emotions associated with slow visuals/slow words/slow breathing/slow heart-rate. 
Rate of thinking=number of visuals/words processed per minute. 
Gaps between thinking =gaps between visuals/ words/ sentences.]

sushil_yadav

Industial Society Destoys Mind and Environment
FreeInfoSociety
ePhilosopher
Corrupt
ForeignPolicy

PerfectIdius - 31 July 2007 07:46 PM

What is this, a cocktail of thesis? Taken from articles online nonetheless? I disagree fully with this. The industrial revalution is the enactment of Enlightment philosophy. It has allowed the overthrow of the religious paradigm, brought forth modern science, computer technology, and the frequent doubling of our world popluation. If you think our mental problems are increasing, I’d like to know your proof. Why can finally treat mental illness. We don’t bleed or exorcise mentally ill people. We have medicines that work.

This seems just a bunch of fragmented cliches against technology. In fact, technology has improved our thinking, our ability to produce more with less work, and gives many men and women the time to explore their emotions.

Daniel

Regarding Industrialization there is an important point to be noted. Modern Industrial Society has existed for 100 years - 200 years - 300 years. When we compare this period with the total duration for which human society has existed on earth this period is so short - so small that it almost does’nt exist. It is almost zero.

Material things don’t bring peace and happiness. Today billions of people have got things which even Kings did not have in the past. Car, computer, television, fridge, telephone - no King ever had these things. But people are still restless and unhappy.

Industrial Society is consuming psychiatric drugs/ sleeping pills by tonnes and tonnes.

A very large percentage of the population is surviving on precription drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

One-third of the population has become fat like elephants.

People talk about increase in lifespan. What is the use of increased lifespan if people have to resort to Drugs, Alcohol and Cigarettes to pull through life. And just wait a few more years - the average lifespan will soon become zero - human life will cease to exist on earth.

Consumerist-Lifestyle is just not sustainable. If we do not immediately return to living a very simple and frugal life then very soon there will be no human life on earth. We would need several planets[earths] to sustain the present lifestyle.

The Military-Industrial Complex is all set to destroy whatever life and environment that remains on earth. There is a reason why the two World Wars happened in the recent past and not 1000 years ago.

It was not possible to have world wars 1000 years ago. World Wars became possible only when Science and Technology developed aeroplanes, ships and other carriers which could transport millions of troops and millions of tonnes of weapons[once again a creation of science and technology] from one corner of the globe to another.

And today one does’nt even need all these to fight a war. One just needs to move finger-tips to launch missiles that can destroy the planet several times over.

Right at this moment there are several countries fighting wars with one another. There is internal war going on in almost half of the the countries of the world. All these wars are being fuelled and sustained by billions of tonnes of weapons produced by the Military-Industrial Complex every year.

And it is going to get worse and worse every day.

Science and Technology has made this world [millions of times] more violent and unsafe than before.

Science and Technology has produced billions of tonnes of weapons and explosives - chemical, biological and nuclear weapons - millions of tonnes of Radioactive material [ which will soon be used to make dirty radioactive bombs - which are going to contaminate the environment for hundreds and thousands of years]. Science and Technology is the real terrorist.

The human race has been destroying/ killing animals, trees, air, water, land and people from the very beginning of civilization. Science and Technology has increased this destructive capacity millions of times.

Every man is a serial-killer. The per-capita destruction of Environment - per capita destruction of Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land in Industrial Society is thousands of times greater than what it was 1000 years ago - 500 years ago - 200 years ago.

Before Industrialization humans killed Environment primarily for Food. After industrialization humans are killing environment for Food and [unnecessary]Consumer Goods.

Industrial Society is destroying necessary things[Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land] for making unnecessary things[Consumer Goods].

The Military Industrial Complex has killed millions of people in War/ Violence. It has decimated all plant and animal species. It has destroyed all ecosystems. It has polluted and poisioned the Sky, Land and Oceans. It has raped and plundered “Mother Earth” in the name of Progress and Development.

sushil_yadav

Industial Society Destoys Mind and Environment
FreeInfoSociety
ePhilosopher
Corrupt
ForeignPolicy

Thoughts and Emotions are interlinked - but different things - totally/ completly different.

==Without definitions, this comes to nothing.  Consider this: there are raw experiences, memories, assumptions, desires, focus, and sensation (six shapes of focus). A word is a sensual signifier of a meaning experience. What is a meaning? Nothing more then a chain of microexperiences. Thinking proper is the selection of focus and connection between focsues.==

==Think of it like a computer moniter. Your different habits are running at all times. You have different memories crowding the screen, different sensations like windows, drawing the attention. The habit of thinking is the way the mouse moves on its own. Desires draw the mouse left or right, and we can resist those desires by pulling the mouse away. For in this, there are three kinds of habits: feeling, thinking, and acting out. All of them are filtered through consciousness.==

Words can be spoken - words can be read - words can be heard.  Visuals can be seen.

==Words can also be experiences, subjectively. Ultimately, this is what the meaning of the word IS. The communicable part of the word is mere paper. The actual word is a meaning experience.==

Emotion is a subjective-experience. Other examples of subjective experience are taste, smell, touch, headache, stomach pain.

==Sensations, emotions, desires are all subjective experiences.==

If we pour apple juice into a glass - the glass will not feel the taste - it does not have the ability to feel taste.

==We don’t know this.==

If a person eats an apple he will feel the taste - because he has the ability to generate taste from apple. 

Words/ Visuals can evoke, intensify and sustain emotions - but words/ visuals are not emotions. 

==Agreed. Words are triggers of meanings, which are composed of emotions.==

Same way in the field of emotions there are easy emotions and difficult emotions. Easy emotions are evoked within nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds - anger, lust, fear, pleasure, entertainment and excitement are some examples.

==This is completely false, and betrays your religious understanding of emotions (sounds buddhist). As any conneasuer of emotions knows, a good lust, a good anger, a great greed, an ingeneus pleasure takes a lifetime to perfect. That’s like saying a painting takes minutes to paint just because some people throw paint on a canvas all at once. Any of these “easy” emotions are just as hard as anything else, if you feel them artistically, and practice them with subtlety.==

These emotions are associated with fast breathing and heart-rate. These emotions don"t require gaps between thinking to evoke, intensify and sustain. These are the emotions that can be found everywhere in today’s fast society.

Then there are difficult emotions - which require ability and years of effort to develop - emotions associated with pain, compassion and peaceful states of mind are some examples. These emotions are associated with slow breathing and heart-rate. These emotions require freezing of thought - freezing of visuals and words - huge amounts of gaps between thinking - to evoke, intensify and sustain. 

==Ah, completely hindu. And also false. Emotions are programs that run at the same time as thinking. Thinking both programs and triggers them. It is not by suspending thought that they are allowed, not by nonthinking, or opposing monkey mind, or whatever. It is by right thinking, subtle thinking, by careful logical nuanced thinking. Or as I myself practice: question based thinking.==

==Daniel==

Regarding Industrialization there is an important point to be noted. Modern Industrial Society has existed for 100 years - 200 years - 300 years. When we compare this period with the total duration for which human society has existed on earth this period is so short - so small that it almost does’nt exist. It is almost zero.

==It has changed the world more then in all that other time.===

Material things don’t bring peace and happiness.

==Nonsense.==

Today billions of people have got things which even Kings did not have in the past. Car, computer, television, fridge, telephone - no King ever had these things. But people are still restless and unhappy.

==Who are you thinking of?==

Industrial Society is consuming psychiatric drugs/ sleeping pills by tonnes and tonnes.

==Good for them.==

A very large percentage of the population is surviving on precription drugs, illegal drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

One-third of the population has become fat like elephants.

==Your entire theory, it seems, is based on focusing on negative interpreations of the world. My life is happy. What more need I expect of it?==

Consumerist-Lifestyle is just not sustainable. If we do not immediately return to living a very simple and frugal life then very soon there will be no human life on earth. We would need several planets[earths] to sustain the present lifestyle.

==what are you basing this on? Mankind will always adapt and maximize itself. We are plastic and sapient.==

The Military-Industrial Complex is all set to destroy whatever life and environment that remains on earth.

==Yeah, I’m sure that’s exactly what their up to. They are paid for and supported merely to kill human life and end humanity. Ridiculous.==

There is a reason why the two World Wars happened in the recent past and not 1000 years ago.

It was not possible to have world wars 1000 years ago.

==Didn’t alexander conquer the world?==

World Wars became possible only when Science and Technology developed aeroplanes, ships and other carriers which could transport millions of troops and millions of tonnes of weapons[once again a creation of science and technology] from one corner of the globe to another.

==I’m not impressed. World Wars are just wars all over again. There since the beginning.==

And it is going to get worse and worse every day.

==Do tell us about it. Getting worse? How?==

Science and Technology has made this world [millions of times] more violent and unsafe than before.

==Show me the math.==

Science and Technology has produced billions of tonnes of weapons and explosives - chemical, biological and nuclear weapons - millions of tonnes of Radioactive material [ which will soon be used to make dirty radioactive bombs - which are going to contaminate the environment for hundreds and thousands of years]. Science and Technology is the real terrorist.

==Empty rhetoric. Science and technology make the buildings we live in, the medicines we survive on. The internet you choose to use right now was made by the USA miltary.==

The human race has been destroying/ killing animals, trees, air, water, land and people from the very beginning of civilization.

==Good for them. Whatever is good for man man should do.==

Science and Technology has increased this destructive capacity millions of times.

Every man is a serial-killer. The per-capita destruction of Environment - per capita destruction of Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land in Industrial Society is thousands of times greater than what it was 1000 years ago - 500 years ago - 200 years ago.

==Who cares? As long as earth becomes and remains a good home, I have no complaint. I am a humanist. Whatever goes extinct only matters insofar as man misses it.==

Before Industrialization humans killed Environment primarily for Food. After industrialization humans are killing environment for Food and [unnecessary]Consumer Goods.

==Because we’re smart.==

Industrial Society is destroying necessary things[Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land] for making unnecessary things[Consumer Goods].

==Necessary for whom?==

The Military Industrial Complex has killed millions of people in War/ Violence. It has decimated all plant and animal species. It has destroyed all ecosystems. It has polluted and poisioned the Sky, Land and Oceans. It has raped and plundered “Mother Earth” in the name of Progress and Development.

==Raped mother earth! Jesus, your rhetoric. Earth can take it. The universe is tougher then anything us humans can do. I pity no mother earth. Your only case is that human beings have to be mindful of their own future. And that is only possible through wise techonology.==

==Daniel

PerfectIdius - 01 August 2007 12:48 AM

==Ah, completely hindu. And also false.

==Daniel==

You think your opinion is right - the other person is always wrong. You are living in a state of delusion. Western psychologists are pygmies compared to the sages of the East who had discovered the techniques of making the mind peaceful and happy thousands of years ago. If your country is so enlightened then why do you have the highest per capita consumption of psychiatric drugs in the world? It is time for you to do some introspection - 5% of world population consuming 40% of world resources - and then preaching wisdom to the world.

sushil_yadav

If we pour apple juice into a glass - the glass will not feel the taste - it does not have the ability to feel taste.

Yes, but the glass does have physical reactions to the apple juice.  The glass may change temperature.  Or if you’re dealing with very warm and very cold, the glass could even fog up or crack.

When a human being reacts emotionally, it is really just a physical reaction within their brains and their bodies.  Our brain processes information, and sends out chemicals to make our body do things, like turn red, or cry, or laugh. The more we are aware that these are physical reactions, and not uncontrolllable, intangible things called “feelings,” the more we can control them. 

Our bodies are physically more complex than a glass.  That is why we intrepret our reactions as something more complex than they really are.

This thread is a bit old, but I’ll throw in my 2 cents anyway…

sushil_yadav - 01 August 2007 01:31 AM

PerfectIdius - 01 August 2007 12:48 AM

==Ah, completely hindu. And also false.

==Daniel==

You think your opinion is right - the other person is always wrong. You are living in a state of delusion.

PerfectIdius may have been blunt and cold with his response—but “you think you’re always right” is ad hominem and not a very mature way to handle criticism.  Yes, people think that their beliefs are right.  That’s why they believe them.

sushil_yadav - 01 August 2007 01:31 AM

Western psychologists are pygmies compared to the sages of the East who had discovered the techniques of making the mind peaceful and happy thousands of years ago.

And I’m sure we have a lot to learn from eachother.  But when you start from the stance that anything western is an insurmountable evil, then don’t be surprised if us westerners react by saying “we are not!” Calm down and explain things in a more detailed an neutral stance, if you can.  If you can’t, then I suggest you re-evaluate that stance.

sushil_yadav - 01 August 2007 01:31 AM

If your country is so enlightened then why do you have the highest per capita consumption of psychiatric drugs in the world?

Perhaps because we can afford it.  Or perhaps because we really do have more mental illness—and idea I’m willing to explore.  My PSYC101 teacher did, afterall, tell us that Schizophrenia doesn’t exist outside the western world.  A bold statement—and I wonder if it’s because of lack of documentation, or because our unnatural lifestyle really does take a mental toll (Evolution couldn’t prepare us for everything, afterall, and there has been a lot of change in the last two hundred years).

I myself was raised vegetarian, specifically because research very clearly shows that diet and lifestyle are the #1 factor in obesity, heart troubles, cancer, diabetes, etc, and everything else that Americans are throwing more and more money at in the so-called “healthcare crisis.” But I still have just as much troubles listening when my dentist tells me to floss more often, even though I know he’s right.  So even if you are right about technology being so terrible for humanity (Though I can’t say I would want to be born a peasant, doomed to painful labor and death from disease), you could approach it with a little less drama.

sushil_yadav - 01 August 2007 01:31 AM

It is time for you to do some introspection - 5% of world population consuming 40% of world resources - and then preaching wisdom to the world.

“Residential appliances, including heating and cooling equipment and water heaters, consume 90% of all energy used in the U.S. residential sector.” (Link)

We’re preaching what we see as advancement.  The culmination of 10,000 years of human development (Since the introduction of agriculture), intellect (ex. Mathmatics—Pythagoras was just a first step), and struggle (How might the world be different if the Huns had obliterated the vestige visage of Rome?)… this is what we westerners see as our history, progress, and mission.  You may say “mind [attitude] over matter, keep the simple life,” but we’ve been saying “mind [intellect] over matter, build a better life!”

The Eastern perspective is hard for us to wrap our minds around, yes, because we “free thinkers” are quite indoctrinated by enlightenment dogma.  Nonetheless, I do feel your ramblings to be unjustly vehement.

SigmaX

SigmaX - 25 August 2007 04:58 PM

The Eastern perspective is hard for us to wrap our minds around, yes, because we “free thinkers” are quite indoctrinated by enlightenment dogma.  Nonetheless, I do feel your ramblings to be unjustly vehement.

SigmaX

Western opinion is always correct - oh yes! - particularly American opinion.

“Iraq has got weapons of mass destruction.”
Why?
Because America says so - America cannot be wrong. If America says Iraq has got weapons of mass destruction then it has got to have weapons of mass destruction.

So where are the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

You flatten entire countries - you carpet bomb entire countries - just because you want to.

You people believe you have the right to do anything - you act like a policeman to the whole world.

You force your values everywhere - Democracy is good, Capitalism is good - Consumerism is good.

In the name of Globalization, capitalism and consumerism - you have destroyed all local cultures.

sushil_yadav
Industial Society Destoys Mind and Environment
ePhilosopher
Corrupt
ForeignPolicy

SigmaX - 25 August 2007 04:58 PM

We’re preaching what we see as advancement.  this is what we westerners see as our history, progress, and mission.  You may say “mind [attitude] over matter, keep the simple life,” but we’ve been saying “mind [intellect] over matter, build a better life!”
SigmaX

Life was never good in the past.

Life can never be good.

Suffering is a part of life - an inherent feature of life. Suffering can never be eliminated.

There is Physical suffering - There is Mental suffering.

In pre-industrial society there were physical diseases caused by virus and bacteria.
In modern society there are hundreds of lifestyle related physical diseases - Cancer, Stroke, Diabetes, Obesity, Multiple Organ Failures.

Mental suffering will always exist. It exists in agrarian society. It exists in industrial society. As soon as we stop working we experience mental suffering.

We avoid mental suffering by working ceaselessly.

There is no higher purpose behind work.

People do not work because they want to work.
People work because they cannot stop working.

The energy generated by the food we eat forces us to work ceaselessly.

Energy = Energy[Physical Work] + Energy[Mental Work] + Energy[Suffering/ Subjective Experience]

All three energies on the right side are inversely proportional to one another.

When we do hard physical work or hard mental work or a combination of physical work and mental work almost all energy is used up in doing work.

When we stop physical work and mental work the unused energy is experienced as suffering/ anxiety/ restlessness/ discomfort. This suffering is so intense - so unbearable - that most people cannot stop physical activity and mental activity simultaneously for even 2 minutes - they can stop work/activity only under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

People do not work because they want to work.
People do not work for their family.
People do not work for their nation.
People do not work for any reason.

People work because they cannot stop working.

It does not matter what kind of work we do - whether it is physical work or any kind of mental work. As soon as we stop working we suffer from restlessness, anxiety, uneasiness and discomfort.

For most people the choice is between physical and mental work.
The switch-over from physical work to mental work is disastrous for the planet.

Man can do the same physical work every day.
Man cannot do the same mental work every day.

When man used to do physical work ( farming and related activities ) he could do the same repetitive work day after day- generation after generation.

After the Industrial Revolution when man switched-over to mental work he began a never ending process of making new machines / things / products-- a process which can only end with the complete destruction of environment ( planet ).

Today 50% of world population - 3 bilion people are living in cities. The necessary work of growing/producing Food is being done outside cities - in villages and countryside. Most of the people living in cities are engaged in unnecessary work - making things, buying things and selling things. The switch-over from Physical work to Mental work/ Desk job has led to an endless cycle of unnecessary and destructive work.

When society switches over from physical work to mental work it starts making thousands of consumer goods. People start calling them necessities. They are not necessities at all - 90% of consumer goods that we see today did not exist 50 years ago.

Food, Water, Air, Little clothing, Little Shelter - these are necessities.

Close your nose and stop breathing for a few minutes - you will then know what necessity is.

Stop drinking water for a few days - you will then know what necessity is.

Stop eating food for a few days - you will then know what necessity is.

Today people are making thousands of consumer goods - not because they are necessities - but because they cannot stop making them. People cannot stop doing work - After switching over to mental work they will keep on making thousands of unnecessary consumer goods.

Industrial Society is destroying necessary things[Animals,Trees,Air,Water and Land] for makng unnecessary things[Consumer Goods].

If we live a simple life there is individual suffering - but no largescale destruction of Environment.

If we live a consumerist life there is individual suffering - plus largescale destruction of Environment.

sushil_yadav
Industial Society Destoys Mind and Environment
ePhilosopher
Corrupt
ForeignPolicy

“Iraq has got weapons of mass destruction.”
Why?
Because America says so - America cannot be wrong. If America says Iraq has got weapons of mass destruction then it has got to have weapons of mass destruction.

Nope, not America.  A few Americans, who unfortunately had the means to act on it.  But not America.

You flatten entire countries - you carpet bomb entire countries - just because you want to.

Personally, I really didn’t have much to do with it.  In fact, I thought it was a bad idea.

You people believe you have the right to do anything - you act like a policeman to the whole world.

Uh, no, that was someone else again.  Not me.

You force your values everywhere - Democracy is good, Capitalism is good - Consumerism is good.

I’m not going to argue about the value of democracy.  It may be dogmatic, but I agree with it.  The rest - I don’t believe that I personally have argued that point, and I make it a point to try to not force my values upon anyone.

In the name of Globalization, capitalism and consumerism - you have destroyed all local cultures.

Again - no.  Unfortunately many local cultures are disappearing, but I’m not actively destroying them.  That’s often the function of local and national governments.  In fact, I’d prefer to preserve local cultures, but my personal resources are limited.

If I may make a suggestion - ease up on the overly-broad generalizations.  No one culture, society or economic system is all good or all bad.  They can all provide value to humans, and they can all cause problems.

Old thread I know.

There is definitely something to be gained by slowing down a bit. An example from my own experience; I used to road rage a wee bit. I used to be in too much of a hurry to get to work, and everyone else on the road was an obstacle to that noble cause (slight sarcastic tone here). Then one day I decided to just “throttle back” and just go with the flow of traffic, not allowing any emotion but calmness. Funny thing is, I got to work on time, and I didn’t risk my own or anyone elses life with my ton-and-a-half assault weapon (my car). Now I look forward to the daily commute, it has become a kind of (cliche alert) “Zen” exercise. I’ve since expanded this effort to many areas of my life, and it works (most of the time, bloody co-workers excepted )

Carl Honore has some great ideas relevant to slowing down.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/73

As for the mystery of emotion. Well I think emotion is to thinking as peripheral vision is to focused eyesight. Emotion is a kind of full (sub) concious “snapshot” of any given situation, with some obvious evo-psych undertones. I would have to disagree with the premise that work and time constraints make for an emotionless existence; I personally love being busy, and get a very distinct pleasure from the efficacy of conciously directed action.