Okay so listening to him, to summarize, self-absorbed and self-serving is an accurate reduction of our human experience. Or?
Our disregard for this planet that created us, will have consequences.
American citizens give up on our democracy and allowed the decades long, mega-corporate hostile take over of our government with barely a peep.
Kennedy assassination, Texas oil solidifying their global real-politic power.
Nixon laying the ground work for things to come.
Reagan dirty tricks to ensure the rationalist science respecting Jimmy Carter loses. Long live Profits Über People.
Republican Party making bedfellows of Evangelical Christians - Too many Christians imagined themselves in a literal war against rational, progressive, science based, evolution respecting people.
Too much is never enough.
While the public stood by with astounding apathy and disregard, the brainwashing campaigns of Gingrich, Rush, FOX faux news, Murdock, Koch, et. al, GOP took over statehouses and court judgeships across the country.
The Prosperity Gospel ruled and “Progress” became God, honest good faith critical thinking became an enemy - and good times were our reward, no distractions were tolerated. Uncomfortable science required lies and malicious slander to subdue, and that worked with surprising ease.
What happened to respect for honesty and critical thinking?
Here we are. 9:25 - Questions about human nature.
Yes we human have unique talents,
but most still don’t know who they are, so wind up lost within the confines of their own minds.
Self-serving, disregard and apathy towards recognizing our damaging habits.
Noam makes it sound like a grand master plan to disrupt humanity.
I disagree, seems more like it’s simply blind self-serving opportunism
being pursued and let the chips fall where they may.
Fermi paradox mind experiment. Higher intelligence is ultimately self destructive.
And why is that?
Can that be boiled down to some basic character traits that drive how we behave?
Leads the way to what? No answer.
This is where I point out the need to confront the concept of a personal “God” via
recognizing the most fundamental Physical Reality (biology) ~ Human Mind divide.
Accepting the physical reality that our consciousness is produced from within our own body, and is the result of nearly half a billion years of uninterrupted research and development (you could say, read evolution)
I believe that is important because, via a deep appreciation for one’s own body’s development and creation as part of this Earthly “whole” - includes gaining an appreciation for Earth’s Deep Time and the dynamic dance between biology and geology.
Attaining that level of understanding brings with it a profound change in emotional attachments.
I feel connected to Earth and that my very existence hinges on its health.
Therefore I live in a mental emotional partnership with this planet Earth and she is included within my prioritizing and my thinking and decision making process, including time and budget.
Sort of like a young couple making the choice to have a baby or more, that fundamentally priorities one’s time and money for the rest of your life. Those who can’t accept it will have nothing but nightmares. I have five siblings, two have children, guess which three of us are always going on vacations and such. And, we two are good with that, we have these ever growing humans to keep us in awe and life interesting.
It’s like the difference between seeing dogs as things, or connecting with a dog that inevitably turns into a years long relationship, that also makes demands on time and budget, that we bear with grace.
It seems to me, only through that sort of profound shift in human attitudes, and turning mental state of mind away from today’s me, me, me thinking that drives our economy plus all our destructive wars - is any meaning full change possible.
I don’t hear Noam making any suggestions.
Where do we go from here?