Admittedly, this is a broad generalization meant to provoke thought not
be taken personally. The words "non/sub human" miss the point of what I
was aiming for. I never ever intended anyone to think or feel that I was
"judging and/or condemning" the human race!
Part of what I was trying to say that we take too much for granted and
don't employ enough genuine heart-felt thought into our individual daily
lives (with serious negative consequences!). At this stage in human
development it's still more important to belong to a "tribe" than make
rational, intelligent decisions designed to produce the most good and
the least negative.
Also, those governments you wrote about below ( I assume you meant
Hitler, Stalin, POL-POT of the Camar Rouge etc.) were supported by their
populations or they would not have been able to do the horrible things
they did. Those populations weren't inherently "evil" nor do I condemn
them, they just allowed themselves to act like machines divorced from
their hearts.
Everyday, I see people putting the lions share of their emotional and
physical energy into "drama" and complaints about the little things in
life trying to ignore the important things going on. Few people think
and fewer ask questions or offer solutions. Fear of being perceived as
different and being shunned by the tribe is causing great damage.
The only way to stop the self-destruction from both camps (machine
beings and animal beings) is to do a better job of raising our kids. We
need to teach them to give equal time towards understanding reality
(inside and out) along with their relationships with people. We need to
give them critical thinking skills without the contempt for feeling.
When are we going face ourself in the mirror and realize that herd
mentality can potentially destroy us! We'd rather play social politics
than focus on function. Imagine an AMD Electrical Engineering team doing
that with the next advancement in CPU design! It would probably turn
into some bloated weak performing silicon like Intel has been producing
the past few years. Politics over function! Tribalism over objective
reality! Go along to get along if you want to get ahead! Where's the
wisdom in that?
People have always walked a razor's edge of sanity! Denial of reality is
a buffer that helps protect us from psychological stimuli we are all too
fragile to long withstand. We need to start making a serious effort to
"wean" ourselves away from the dysfunctional behavior of the past.
Clinging to one another to preserve our mental stability is the greatest
coping skill we possess in a universe that is indifferent to us. It
doesn't make much sense to damage and destroy the very thing most
important to us: the life around us!
I woke up with a lot of thoughts, wrote them down in a fairly coherent
manner and decided to send them out to all (and I mean all) of my
personal email addresses to see if anyone had any interesting feedback
on it. My words weren't meant for any specific individual nor any
particular group for any particular agenda. Thanks for the reply and I
would never characterize you as either machine or animal. Oh course
you're more complicated than that! @:)>
Julian Hale wrote:
BS... this is just trying to pigeonhole people into one of three
categories, and many people, myself included, usually don't fit well
into any one category. Also, it seems like whoever cooked this up is
looking to classify those they don't agree with as non/sub human. The
history of the 20th century should be lesson enough to shout down anyone
trying to label anyone as non/sub human. 212,000,000 million human
beings were murdered by their own governments in the 20th century,
because those people were considered less than human. I *don't* want to
see those same kind of numbers for this century.
Julian
At 06:42 AM 11/30/2005, Stan Zaske wrote:
There are 3 types of beings in this world:
The 1st type are the machine beings who live in their heads and in
denial of their hearts. These are the people who are replacing human
"checkouts" with automated "checkouts". They are the mathematicians,
scientists, scholars, politicians, lawyers, journalists, doctors,
priests, businessmen/women etc. These people are out of touch with
themselves, don't want to know how you feel and live in denial of
their own human reality. They have nothing but contempt for feelings
and the gentler side of our nature. They try to pretend that our
biology is somehow different or "divine" from the animal. The grittier
aspects of waste removal and sexuality are things "we don't want to
talk about".
At the opposite side of the spectrum are the animal beings who live
exclusively in their emotional selves and in denial of their brains
who base their lives and decisions on "what feels right" despite the
fact that their decisions are largely "self-defeating" and
"self-destructive". These beings are often characterized as having low
"self-esteem", addictive personalities, endlessly pursue physical
pleasure and even though they would not willingly give up the spoils
of intellectual creativity and scientific achievement (the cars, the
stereos, the drugs) they have nothing but contempt for machine beings
characterizing them as "geeks", "dweebs" or "nerds" for their
scholastic pursuits. These beings are fully in touch with their animal
biology deriving great humor from jokes about flatulence, defecation
and the full spectrum of sexual expression.
The 3rd type of being and throughout history the smallest percentage
of the three strives toward "wisdom" which is the fusion of
intelligence and emotion. These beings strive to use their brains in a
manner that is consistent with "reality" and "function" while
remaining in touch with their feelings. They ask themselves: why do I
do this, why do I feel this way and is this the best way for me to
live my life? Of the three types, these are the beings most closely
associated with being "human". Of the three types, these beings are
the least likely to believe in "certainty" because they know that
there is no certainty. They live with the sure knowledge that there is
no "perfection" and all we can do is "do our best" and "make the best
of it". They pursue intellectual achievement and strive to understand
our animus, our motivation, our behavior. They try to focus within as
well as observe others in the attempt to understand themselves and
what it means to be truly "human". Intelligence and feeling is what
describes this smallest of minority beings on the planet and hopefully
in the future, if our species matures, the majority of people can be
characterized as truly "human" as they are! Happy Holidays everyone!
