(Untitled)

[hobgadling]

Well it doesn't sound like there's any more interest here than in the population at large, but generally speaking I'm interested in spreading memes which promote the long-term happiness and survivability of all life. Now here's a list of words: sustainability, conservation economy, peak oil, unschooling, natural capitalism, cradle to cradle,

Comments

1st Blood!

[elderbaboongod]

Here's a list of words: cynical, world-weary, greedy, Chomskyan neoanarchist nonsense.
The life of modern man is nasty, brutish, and horrifically prolonged. If we all pull together as a team there's no limit to how many people can freeload and squabble over credit. The reason all that hippie nonsense doesn't work is because people are vicious things deep down. Trying to make people live in a socialist/anarchist lovey-dovey coop society is like trying to make a lion live off of tofu.

Re: 1st Blood!

[elderbaboongod]

No seriously, I bet you like reading Franz Boas and Margaret Mead. Among the college educated isn't where you need to spread your memes. Why not convince some Palestinians, Columbian farmers, or the Yanomamo to hug and hold hands and get along. Tell developing nations that they can't pollute recklessly like every superpower did during its infancy. Try telling Catholics to use birth control. Preaching to a bunch of college kids about your ideas for a greater society doesn't swing it. You have to sell your patchouli-scented snakeskin oil to the poor, unwashed, belligerent masses.
Okay, I'm done. I may have caused us to get off on the wrong foot. How are you?

Re: 1st Blood!

[hobgadling]

you're missing the point. TAMS is full of smart people. We can do amazing things together. Maybe it won't happen because of ego and ownership or paranoia or greed or any one of a million reasons. But it's worth asking.

Re: 1st Blood!

[elderbaboongod]

No you're missing the point; if the world was full of people as smart and nice as TAMS students then we'd have a nice little perfect society just like you want. The average people are the ones that you need to interest in your touchy feely, new age philosophy, but since they're not much better than hairless chimps with moderate linguistic capabilities they can only understand complex philosophy if it's distilled down into a religion. So go preach buddhism and think about how the only reason the guy next to you on the bus doesn't bash in your skull and rape your loved ones is that he's afraid of the consequences.

in what is certainly a smart ass remark

[crion]

I applaud your ability to post lists of words in a community that isn't really intended to be used as a method of disseminating your opinion, but I would prefer you consider the opinion that if this group is no more interested than ``the population at large,'' then we're probably not going to be all that enthused/interested/polite about you using this forum to spread such stuff. This is not an activists' community; if I wanted to see posts like this, I'd join an activists' community, not a community that is based around a high school I attended.

[cantordust]

Amen, brother.

[hobgadling]

do you have reasons?

[ciggieposeur]

Well it doesn't sound like there's any more interest here than in the population at large...

I disagree. There's a lot less interest from ex-TAMSters in those things than society at large.

We should probably put something on the community info page to discourage political posting.

You want my take: we're self-aggrandizing know-it-alls who think our high standardized test scores translate to a superior perception of reality. "We" are the shock troops of Howard Zinn's "guard class"; we provide the Establishment with all the "logical" excuses they need to maintain the status quo.

[myspicybrains]

Look, I can tell you really want to do something good, so instead of offhand babbling I'll tell you something a little more straightforward. Talk is cheap, dreams are easy, the real world is hard. We're bombarded by talk and by the incomprehensible dreams of others, we're deaf to you now. You're just another talker, just another dreamer, and you can reach the world that way but you'll bounce off and the world will continue unconvinced and just that much more cynical. You see, right?

So don't talk, do. You're worried about peak oil? Use less oil, and show the world how easy it can be. You want communities? Make one. Homeschool your children, shop at the farmers' market, install solar panels...whatever it is you want, do it and be happy. That's the only way to really reach people, to make your dreams real to them.

Now run along, you're wasting time talking to us. You obviously have work to do. Good luck.

[elderbaboongod]

Comic Book Guy: Ooh, your powers of deduction are exceptional. I can't allow you to waste them here when there are so many crimes going unsolved at this very moment. Go, go, for the good of the city.

[elderbaboongod]

The last line of your comment reminded me of that
"Now run along, you're wasting time talking to us. You obviously have work to do. Good luck."