'The wisdom of our beings, also called the universal consciousness is in all of us.'. Well said, indeed we will perish as a species, but with some stroke of luck I'm hoping a collective consciousness cleanses the planet of the cancerous criminality we see currently...
It made me think of this quotation from Douglas Adams, one of my favorites:
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.
When you say "we", are you referring to the whole of humanity? I do hope not.
I am sorry, but I do not accept responsibility for the imprisonment of orcas, pigs or monkeys. In fact, I have done a great deal to combat the very practices you cite. I campaigned with Animal Liberation Front for more than a decade and we were very successful. Hated, but successful.
Stop taking responsibility for horrors that you have not personally instigated.
That won't change anything! It will feed a depression and a sense of helplessness.
The only way to combat cruelty is by highlighting and humiliating the industries and individuals who employ such practices.
I think you will find that those who are truly responsible are very very few.
The majority of humans are no less disgusted than you are.
I agree with most of what you say here except when I read the last part where you said "The majority of humans are no less disgusted than you are." a memory popped into my head from when I was young and someone brought me to the zoo in Vancouver and they had a bunch of Orca whales in transparent cages being coerced and bribed to do tricks for crowds of hundreds of cheering humans eating popcorn and hot dogs. Even as a little kid, I felt sick watching it, I asked if we could go to science world instead as I did not like seeing the Orcas (which I often saw moving joyfully and freely in the wild near my grandparents restaurant on Galiano Island) in cages, doing stupid tricks for tourists.
Sure, the Orca poachers and zoo owners are definitely more responsible for that disgusting Roman coliseum style form of slavery than the crowds of anthropocentric cheering humans, but those cheering humans that paid to see that disgusting sight are also culpable to some degree (and a great many of them pay for such things).
I hope your right and I admire your optimistic outlook on the moral integrity of the majority of humans in modernized cultures... perhaps I just happened to be raised within an inordinately anthropocentric, hubristic, callous and shallow demographic in BC but based on my experience when I was out there, it seemed like at least half of the people were willing to actively fund industries that directly resulted in the enslavement, torture, humiliation, suffering and/or mass murder of other beings (either out of ignorance or due to a conscious hubristic apathy that places human's temporary pleasures as a higher priority than respecting the lives of our fellow beings). I will pray that your view is closer to the average and continue to plant the seeds in hearts, minds and in the soil in the hopes we can tip the scales in the favor of love, compassion, integrity, honesty, regeneration and hope. Thanks for the comment.
Well, I travelled a lot and met a lot of people. My experiences were very different from yours. I did not mix with shallow people in apathy or ignorance. I don't think I could have tolerated that. I would have had to move on.....
The experiences I had above were when I was young. I was adventurous but not so adventurous to move out from my parents place before the age of ten.
I did move on from being around "..shallow people in apathy or ignorance" ASAP (as soon as my own capabilities and courage made possible that is) which was at 15 years old. I started a stone masonry apprenticeship to pay the bills and learn a useful set of skills (but that of course meant I was stuck in one location elsewhere in BC working for a company that had set down roots there, so I inevitably found my self surrounded in many "..shallow people in apathy or ignorance" there too).
I travelled a fair bit within Canada and in the States but only ever made it to see the small fishing towns of the Yucatan and Hawaii other than that. The anthropocentric attitude I observed in humans I interacted with fluctuated in intensity from region to region (being less so when I met Mayan people in the Yucatan or First Nation people in northern BC in small communities) but still very prevalent in the cities all over (regardless of nationality or race).
I now live in the decimated skeleton of the once lush Carolinian Forests of what is now called southern Ontario... much anthropocentrism, materialism and consumerism dwells in the minds of the people here. At times I do find it hard to tolerate, but due to various mitigating factors related to our efforts to relocate to a homestead away from the agricultural wastelands and cities, for now I find my self having to do my best to cope and stay grounded in love and hope, despite being surrounded in many people who embody an attitude that centers around hubristic apathy and that places human's temporary pleasures as a higher priority than respecting the lives of our fellow beings. Though this pains my heart, I think many other beings on Earth have it worse then I, so I strive to be grateful for the many blessings I do have in my life, such as a small patch of land to cultivate our own food and grow seeds to share with others looking to do the same.
I don't do competitions Gavin. Your America-centric views are not uncommon, more is the pity. It is a much bigger world than you have experienced by never leaving your own continent, so you can be forgiven for being unaware of some more beautiful cultures than your own.
Well said and unfortunately, the part where you said "If alien life came to this planet it would be imprisoned, experimented on and killed. Humans would not sit down and talk to them and ask their advise." has already happened on multiple occasions and is fact historically, demonstrably true.
I share my views of our cosmic neighbors and some pertinent historical data relating to their visitation to the Earth (and the unfortunate hostile reactions humans chose on multiple occasions) in this post https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/childhoods-end
'The wisdom of our beings, also called the universal consciousness is in all of us.'. Well said, indeed we will perish as a species, but with some stroke of luck I'm hoping a collective consciousness cleanses the planet of the cancerous criminality we see currently...
Beautifully written.
🙏🏽xxx
It made me think of this quotation from Douglas Adams, one of my favorites:
For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.
Totally right 🦈
When you say "we", are you referring to the whole of humanity? I do hope not.
I am sorry, but I do not accept responsibility for the imprisonment of orcas, pigs or monkeys. In fact, I have done a great deal to combat the very practices you cite. I campaigned with Animal Liberation Front for more than a decade and we were very successful. Hated, but successful.
Stop taking responsibility for horrors that you have not personally instigated.
That won't change anything! It will feed a depression and a sense of helplessness.
The only way to combat cruelty is by highlighting and humiliating the industries and individuals who employ such practices.
I think you will find that those who are truly responsible are very very few.
The majority of humans are no less disgusted than you are.
I agree with most of what you say here except when I read the last part where you said "The majority of humans are no less disgusted than you are." a memory popped into my head from when I was young and someone brought me to the zoo in Vancouver and they had a bunch of Orca whales in transparent cages being coerced and bribed to do tricks for crowds of hundreds of cheering humans eating popcorn and hot dogs. Even as a little kid, I felt sick watching it, I asked if we could go to science world instead as I did not like seeing the Orcas (which I often saw moving joyfully and freely in the wild near my grandparents restaurant on Galiano Island) in cages, doing stupid tricks for tourists.
Sure, the Orca poachers and zoo owners are definitely more responsible for that disgusting Roman coliseum style form of slavery than the crowds of anthropocentric cheering humans, but those cheering humans that paid to see that disgusting sight are also culpable to some degree (and a great many of them pay for such things).
Think about it this way......
For every 100 people paying to view such things, thousands do not.
I hope your right and I admire your optimistic outlook on the moral integrity of the majority of humans in modernized cultures... perhaps I just happened to be raised within an inordinately anthropocentric, hubristic, callous and shallow demographic in BC but based on my experience when I was out there, it seemed like at least half of the people were willing to actively fund industries that directly resulted in the enslavement, torture, humiliation, suffering and/or mass murder of other beings (either out of ignorance or due to a conscious hubristic apathy that places human's temporary pleasures as a higher priority than respecting the lives of our fellow beings). I will pray that your view is closer to the average and continue to plant the seeds in hearts, minds and in the soil in the hopes we can tip the scales in the favor of love, compassion, integrity, honesty, regeneration and hope. Thanks for the comment.
Well, I travelled a lot and met a lot of people. My experiences were very different from yours. I did not mix with shallow people in apathy or ignorance. I don't think I could have tolerated that. I would have had to move on.....
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/sunday-in-memory-lane-episode-33
The experiences I had above were when I was young. I was adventurous but not so adventurous to move out from my parents place before the age of ten.
I did move on from being around "..shallow people in apathy or ignorance" ASAP (as soon as my own capabilities and courage made possible that is) which was at 15 years old. I started a stone masonry apprenticeship to pay the bills and learn a useful set of skills (but that of course meant I was stuck in one location elsewhere in BC working for a company that had set down roots there, so I inevitably found my self surrounded in many "..shallow people in apathy or ignorance" there too).
I travelled a fair bit within Canada and in the States but only ever made it to see the small fishing towns of the Yucatan and Hawaii other than that. The anthropocentric attitude I observed in humans I interacted with fluctuated in intensity from region to region (being less so when I met Mayan people in the Yucatan or First Nation people in northern BC in small communities) but still very prevalent in the cities all over (regardless of nationality or race).
I now live in the decimated skeleton of the once lush Carolinian Forests of what is now called southern Ontario... much anthropocentrism, materialism and consumerism dwells in the minds of the people here. At times I do find it hard to tolerate, but due to various mitigating factors related to our efforts to relocate to a homestead away from the agricultural wastelands and cities, for now I find my self having to do my best to cope and stay grounded in love and hope, despite being surrounded in many people who embody an attitude that centers around hubristic apathy and that places human's temporary pleasures as a higher priority than respecting the lives of our fellow beings. Though this pains my heart, I think many other beings on Earth have it worse then I, so I strive to be grateful for the many blessings I do have in my life, such as a small patch of land to cultivate our own food and grow seeds to share with others looking to do the same.
I don't do competitions Gavin. Your America-centric views are not uncommon, more is the pity. It is a much bigger world than you have experienced by never leaving your own continent, so you can be forgiven for being unaware of some more beautiful cultures than your own.
Well said and unfortunately, the part where you said "If alien life came to this planet it would be imprisoned, experimented on and killed. Humans would not sit down and talk to them and ask their advise." has already happened on multiple occasions and is fact historically, demonstrably true.
I share my views of our cosmic neighbors and some pertinent historical data relating to their visitation to the Earth (and the unfortunate hostile reactions humans chose on multiple occasions) in this post https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/childhoods-end
Thank you so much Gavin
🙏🏽