Is this Hell?

Ummm....yes.... I would agree this existence fits the description of what most would call Hell.

What's on your mind?

 

I agree with you man....the corporate dominated society is one where people are compartmentalised into little boxes....it ain't natural and it ain't healthy!

I'd like to say more later but i've gotta go to bed......i get what you're saying though

 

No, I don't believe this is hell. A crumbling paradise, perhaps.

When in doubt I look for all the small wonders that surround me everyday. When I can't find them, I know I'm not looking hard enough. So I keep looking, and looking. Society might be miserable, but I don't intend to be. Even on the hard days, there is always something to be amazed and fascinated by.

...Just being my natural optimistic self.

 

all the greatness and beauty of mankind deconstructed into trivial and disperate tasks. not hell, but pretty far from God.

 

One piece of the puzzle is lack of community involvement I think. As you say - we are so habituated towards individualism we have no common ground to stand with each other upon.

I'll tell you a story I heard this morning - approximating the get together of community - that brought warmth and joy to my heart...

My first cousin, K, called to tell me his cousin, R, sent a text message to everyone on his contact list. It was a call for everyone to drive to the old WalMart parking lot at 8pm Saturday night. So my cousin went. After everyone was gathered - R announced that he wanted everyone to participate in recreation of the Saturday night drag.

I don't know if you're familiar with that age old timeless practice - but it seems to have fizzled out around down here in the rural south towards the end of the 90's. It was nothing - and Something - at the same time. We met at some specified parking lot and then drove about a 1/2 mile or so to another designated parking lot - turned around - and then drove back. In the middle of all of this - there was a lot of honking and waving and stopping at railroad tracks to play Chinese Fire Drill (no offense is directed towards anyone of Asian origin). We would also stop at the local Dairy Queen Drive-In - buy something to drink or Strawberry Sundaes - and then head out again. We'd often put the change in the ash tray and buy a gallon of gas with it. I can remember 17 cents a gallon. There were probably a hundred cars of people doing this. Girls would ogle guys....and guys would show off to the girls. :w: There was a lot of flirting going on too.

So my cousin is laughing while telling me that everyone gathered there - Old and Young - climbed into their newly washed vehicles - and "made the drag". He said he met so many new people and they shared stories and honked their horns. One of them got stopped by the local police - but even this made for more stories. K said they stayed out in the parking lot till late that night discussing what they could do the "Next Time". As an aside he told me he did donuts in his white Charger - and all the women went Ooooo....and the kids yelled. Hahahahahaha.... he's a hoot.

It seems people are beginning to wake up and feel the need for "community". I think this is more evidence that points to the fact that while the world seems fraught with violence, indifference, and fear - there is also Love.

When I get despondent over it all - I am reminded that for every action there is an equal reaction. There is Yin and Yang...Ebb and Flow....the swing of the Pendulum. To us....it may seem as if this will go on forever and ever amen...but for all we know the pendulum is already in full swing in the opposite direction of Fear. I used to watch the news and despair that we as a species would ever embrace cooperation and compassion. Then I began to realize that what I was afraid of - was also what I was focusing on - and was ALSO what I was projecting on to the world. Which is namely Fear. As you know....whatever emotion we are intensely feeling is what we are "sending" outwards around us for about a 3 foot radius. When another sentient being comes into that space - they can sense it too. You may know of how large groups of people affect each other and sometimes will seem to all of a sudden come into synchronicity with each other.

At any rate - I finally stopped watching the news - stopped listening to people who were filled with hatred and anger - and started actively looking for ways to practice being grateful and loving towards anyone I could. I know I may be a little grain of sand in the vastness of the universe - but I feel called to help push the pendulum back towards Love.

I do it by trying to be that which I wish to see....

 

Sorry, I was looking for the INFJ forum, but I have apparently stumbled into Pessimist-palooza. (But what's the difference? ) People are better and ballsier than you guys seem to think. There's a lot of brilliant stuff being done and no matter how much crap goes down, it only happens to clear the way for more good stuff. That being said, the green room at the theatre where I'm acting right now is quite possibly purgatory.

 

"Hell is other people."-Jean-Paul Sartre.

But if you actually take some time and go outside and look around you with a clear head, you'll realize it's not as bad as you think. Trees are not hell. Grass is not hell. Blue skies are not hell. Fluffy white clouds are not hell. Sunshine is not hell. And these are the things you should live for, or you'll go insane.

 

I don't know a person who can avoid a measure of complacency.
I don't know a person who can avoid a measure of ignorance.

With this sort of ignorance who is to say the answer exists out there beyond certainty and that after the best efforts the sun will set for humanity with us remaining ignorant?
It seems uncertain unless success proves otherwise.

 

[MENTION=5437]Paladin-X[/MENTION] No, this is our garden, maybe more, in the sense that we reap what we sow. I know that if I make my garden beautiful and loving and inviting others will see and do the same and since the personal gardens make up the whole garden, one has tremendous power. 'Dont let your garden go to hell.' Contextually, its funny and relevant. You have the power to sow the right things in your garden and maybe affect the world, maybe not, but you will always have your garden.

 

I think I understand where you are coming from. Many aspects of our society now are hellish. We are advancing faster than ever in developed countries with science and technology, and discovering that people are getting sadder and sicker and more closed off from one another all at the same time. But so it goes.

We may still change with time. Nobody knows what the future has in store for everyone.

Where did you think you wanted to direct this discussion towards, specifically? About how this could play out in the future or potentially be "fixed"?

 

I work toward the betterment of society everyday, in my way, in my capacity.
You never know how much a small focused act of social improvement can tear down the Hell that still remains.

 

Really? I thought it was a staple of the human condition.

VS what time? even 2000 years ago it was the same... instead of lawyers and bartenders we had butchers, brothel owners, gladiators, senators, etc. Roles.

In a sense I agree, people thrive on ignorance, it makes it easier to fulfill said roles. But this is the way it has always been. There was no time when there was some great number of brilliant people around, no more than today anyway.

This is only partially true. Community is a cultural thing. The sense of community wanes as you rise in the class structure. And increases the the lower you go. Have you ever partied on a street filled with mostly Mexican and Colombian immigrants? You will feel major community there. Its in the middle class to upper class where you lose this trend, as it is replaced by technology and property. This is why I have given up any dreams for riding my intellect into a higher class. While I may want the money as a tool to help the people around me, I dont want to lose my common-ness. I like blending into the impoverished masses, they are more genuine people in general. I am a populist at heart.

You have a strange sense of nostalgia that doesn't make sense. It wasn't any better in "the old days" family values? you mean like dad beating mom and the kids and no one caring? The friends and neighbors minding their business and the cops saying "well she probably deserved it, he was the king of his castle"? I forget the term but there is a psychological name given to this type of nostalgia, that is studied. And from what I understand its been proven to be bunk, because as society evolves it actually gets better and more efficient for all and less so for the ones who ruled it previously.

"keep our head above water mode" is written into our bodies and DNA by nature. Nature does just enough to be successful and no more. Ever looked at how your body is designed? sharing a hole/tube to eat and breath out of? A flawed design assuring us that a % of humans will die from choking. Bad design, but good enough for nature. We are children of nature, is it any wonder we follow suit?

Who are you to say its stagnating?

How could you possibly know that? I read a lot about ancient Rome, and one thing I found amazing was just how incredibly similar humans back then were to humans today. Makes sense. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
I'll tack this on here to add to the wall of text:

I think I got the gist of what you meant, I just think I disagree... its largely based on a limited point of view and its very subjective.

So dont be either, suspend judgement until the facts are in on as many things as you can. Then for the rest, go with your gut. We cannot know everything, so some level of ignorance is acceptable.

 

if hell represents the worst possible existance imaginable, then no, we are far from it.

personal hell is another place entirely - this is the only hell i believe exists - one of our own creation as mortal beings.

 

Best post in thread.


We are not in hell. And if you think we are, then maybe you should pay a visit to the real one, provided it exists.

 

Oh, I like that.

The choice of words, not the heartbreaking reality.