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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 7 of 7. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by floatingbridge on April 17, 2011, at 19:10:05
I raise birds. I also garden a bit. I eat various life forms.
Sometimes, in nature we are told, the weaker ones are culled from the flock. They are ill, weak, genetically abnormal.
We are animals. Yet we reserve a different status for ourselves, that we are worth saving. Are we greater than our failings?
How can that be true?
How can humans hold what seems to me
a contradiction?I wish I could experience a deeper connection to life; at least I think I do.
When I connect to a deeper sense of self, I sense anger, greed, fear, and a who gives a sh*t attitude. I am incredibly
critical and pessimistic. I bring people around me down. Sometimes, I want to
run away from being a parent.All of these things are not very nice or pleasant.
I don't know that there is anything deeper than that.
Seeing my rooster with it's head cut off, and his legs still kicking. (A friend slaughtered him. He had become aggressive and attacked everyone in my family.) Is that the deeper meaning? The body drive to cling to life? The human drive towards harmony and beauty?
Is that the seed? The desire for love and harmony and beauty. For justice?
And then the weaknesses.
Once I was walking beneath an underpass. I noticed on the sidewalk broken, trodden egg shells. I looked up and saw colonies of nesting pigeons, themselves unwanted by many in the suburban cityscape. Their eggs just spilled and fell. I was sick for weeks.
That was almost 10 years ago. I still remember.
Posted by sigismund on April 18, 2011, at 18:56:56
In reply to trying to believe, posted by floatingbridge on April 17, 2011, at 19:10:05
>Yet we reserve a different status for ourselves, that we are worth saving.
Not all of us, and not all religions either. Shinto, Taoism? I doubt it. Buddhism is different, the desert religions different again, the ones who believe in salvation.
I enjoyed this on the subject....
"Straw Dogs. Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals" by John Gray.
Posted by floatingbridge on April 18, 2011, at 20:12:38
In reply to Re: trying to believe, posted by sigismund on April 18, 2011, at 18:56:56
Thanks, sigi. I read a review or two and thought it might be too pessimistic to bear right now. He also had a book "Black Mass" that I skipped, given my childhood steeped in the apocalypse :-/
I did order "Darwin's Dangerous Idea". I love surfing Amazon for used books. (When not at my very good local bookshop.)
Thanks for reading my dysphoric rant and then commenting. It is definitely a post I wish I had refrained from posting :-/
Posted by sigismund on April 18, 2011, at 21:24:40
In reply to oh, whatever [w/a californian accent] » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on April 18, 2011, at 20:12:38
But Black Mass is my favourite book. The argument is that religion leaves patterns of thought that recur in different ways. The opening line is 'Modern politics is a chapter in the history of religion'. This has nothing to do with belief as such. Of course America is a bit different. John Gray is British. I saw him at the Sydney Writers Festival. He is an old fashioned conservative and now that I think of it, appeared on stage with an American old fashioned conservative, Andrew Bacevich. Being old fashioned conservatives makes them look very radical these days. It's all so confusing.
Posted by floatingbridge on April 19, 2011, at 0:13:53
In reply to Re: oh, whatever [w/a californian accent], posted by sigismund on April 18, 2011, at 21:24:40
> But Black Mass is my favourite book. The argument is that religion leaves patterns of thought that recur in different ways.
This makes perfect sense. Does he parse some of it out for the reader? Because it's xerox of the xerox of the redacted manuscript of the oral history that I find so muddled. Oh, then there are the
intentional manipulators....>
> The opening line is 'Modern politics is a chapter in the history of religion'. This has nothing to do with belief as such. Of
course America is a bit different. John Gray is British. I saw him at the Sydney Writers Festival. He is an old fashioned
conservative and now that I think of it, appeared on stage with an American old fashioned conservative, Andrew
Bacevich. Being old fashioned
conservatives makes them look very radical these days. It's all so confusing.Yes. Well at least I'm confused. Some reviewer said something similar. I should look up Bacevich....
How is the u.s. a bit different from your perspective?
Posted by sigismund on April 19, 2011, at 13:58:39
In reply to Re: oh, whatever [w/a californian accent] » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on April 19, 2011, at 0:13:53
>How is the u.s. a bit different from your perspective?
The role of religion in the US seems quite different. There are of course people in the US who do not believe, but so many people are deeply religious....they believe, they go to church. We don't do that, and if you do you are categorized I guess. It is more like Europe in that respect. I don't think Australia has ever been self consciously religious. Perhaps it is because Australia started as a prison camp and therefore cannot believe itself to be the light on the hill? The closest equivalent we have is wanting to punch above our weight, and that is tedious too and makes me want to move to New Zealand.
If there was a critical mass of people we could have competitions on the politics board with prizes. Such as construct a paragraph within the civility rules arguing why Donald Trump would be the best next president of the US. I can think of a few off the top....because he is rich in particular, and because his hair is so cool, and because he deserves it and because his thinking is so subtle. I read about him in yesterday's Herald. Absolutely priceless.
Posted by mtdewcmu on May 7, 2011, at 19:01:16
In reply to oh, whatever [w/a californian accent] » sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on April 18, 2011, at 20:12:38
> Thanks for reading my dysphoric rant and then commenting. It is definitely a post I wish I had refrained from posting :-/
>Isn't it supposed to be therapeutic to get it out? It doesn't really work for me; I get depressed by the act of writing down or even discussing depressing thoughts. Why do you wish you hadn't posted it? It didn't ruin my day. I have weird reactions involving animals sometimes, too. Particularly eating them. Sometimes I look at a piece of meat and feel this despair. I'm not an animal-rights activist, but sometimes it's unbearable to think of the animal that became some crummy frozen dinner.
This is the end of the thread.
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