by GHung » Fri 04 Sep 2015, 11:52:41
Tanada said: "I used to be told on occasion that while Pessimists (doomsters) are right in the long run the Optimists (cornucopians) enjoy life a lot more. After all everyone dies in the end, so how you live is what matters."
I'm always miffed at the implication that a high-consumption BAU lifestyle is the only way to "enjoy life a lot more". Here's the thing: Most of us (virtually all) here have lived various aspects of BAU, and some of us have worked it from various angles while trying to justify our behavior in terms of social expectations, what's good for the economy and/or our pocketbooks; accepting our roll in degrading the biosphere as inevitable; being totally reliant on complex systems we barely understand (if at all), and certainly have no control over; all-the-while listening to, and telling ourselves, stories about how this is the way things are, and it's a good thing. Trying to fit in and succeed....
It's also clear that most of the cornies here haven't tried anything else beyond finding their BAU groove. In short, when they assume that those of us who are attempting to move past what can provably be assessed as "the insanities of industrial human societies", have given up anything at all beyond being a dysfunctional member of a destructive species, they have nothing to use as a comparison. Most cornies don't have a clue what they're talking about because they've never tried anything different. Then, again, some of us, at some point, figured out that being a willing and functional part of a fucked-up system is fucked up, and it's a helluva way to waste a life.
Virtually everyone I know who has developed an alternative way of thinking, and who is attempting to live in alternative ways, wouldn't have it any other way; generally optimistic, happy, and glad they've seen the dream of wealth accumulation and consumption as the trap it is. Am I concerned for the future of our species and the rest of the biosphere? Only a sociopath or total denier wouldn't be, all evidence being considered. Does this prevent me from living a full, happy life because I'm filled with gloom and doom? Far from it. Ask those who've "made the change", like GregT, how they feel.
I again assert what I did in the "Fear The Doomer" thread (now over 140 comments): Many of those trapped in BAU-ville are threatened by those who've escaped the traps of industrialism, cleptocracy, and inevitable support for all of those things we disagree with (or are at least trying to); see us as an affront to everything they've invested their lives in, so they foment a myth that we are all unhappy, have sacrificed quality-of-life, that we all accept that utter doom is in the cards for everyone, and that we've somehow become less human. They couldn't be more wrong. The attempt to apply the overarching label of "DOOMER" to those with differing world-views and lifestyles is a dehumanising lie, generally forwarded by folks who, from my point of view, are only pretending to be happy in their traps, traps they think only so-called wealth can free them from. I posit that most don't know what true 'wealth' is, and opine that they never will.
Say a prayer for the pretenders.
Blessed are the Meek, for they shall inherit nothing but their Souls. - Anonymous Ghung Person