Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Unknown Target on February 19, 2011, 01:00:17 am
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A whole summation of the various questions that have been dogging me lately could probably be boiled down to; "What do I do?". With the world in the state it is, and for Americans, with America in the state it is, what do we do? What do you do individually? What ability to affect real, noticeable change, do you see within your grasp? Within the grasp of others like you?
I have many answers of my own, but I would first like to hear what you folks have to say as well. :) Please try to keep it brief; a few sentences at most. I really want to try and move people towards specific actions; less from paragraphs explaining positions (unless absolutely warranted), and more to direct answers to the very simple idea of "What's wrong and what should I do to change it?".
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Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
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I guess I was more referring to things that you could do that would turn "hope" into "act".
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Leave the country I'm in right now... and go someplace that I learn how to do things that help, or something like that.
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1. Don't be a dick.
2. Keep your head down and try to avoid the bull****.
Really, all most of us can do is focus on keeping ourselves and our immediate loved ones safe and comfortable. If you really want to be able to effect change on a global scale, then you'll probably have to fight your way into the political or corporate elite. And you almost certainly won't be able to do that without violating rule 1 up there. Other than that, it looks like voting and democracy are a crock according to the research Battuta's been doing. :p
So yeah, just do the best you can at whatever you do and love everyone.
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In my view, there's a bit wrong with the world and unless you find yourself in a position of immense power, either through luck or hard work, you won't be able to fix it all. So pick something, and work at it. Personally, keeping people safe whilst they sleep and helping those in need is something I want to do; and so it's part of the reason I'm applying for a commission in the forces (cue 'dirty recruitmentvideobelievingidealist speeches'). Seeing those helicopters winch people in the floods to safety and C-130 crews ferrying supplies to guys who really need it overseas really does it for me.
But even donating a few dollars to the tin rattlers at the local shopping centre makes me feel slightly better about myself. So what if only a dollar goes to the people who need it and the rest is swallowed up by bureaucracy? That's one dollar more than they had before, and it's one dollar more than the guy who walks past and doesn't donate a cent.
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personally I'm a small lab mouse engaged in a nefarious scheme to conquer the planet
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Guys, the world is fine. The world is actually better than it's ever been. The 'problems' we have are tiny and all the trends are positive, except a few environmental ones we definitely need to worry about. We're just whiners.
Keep doing what you've been doing. Have a happy life.
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Guys, the world is fine. The world is actually better than it's ever been. The 'problems' we have are tiny and all the trends are positive, except a few environmental ones we definitely need to worry about. We're just whiners.
Spoken like someone who has never been near homeless or unemployed and in massive debt thanks to the US government.
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Guys, the world is fine. The world is actually better than it's ever been. The 'problems' we have are tiny and all the trends are positive, except a few environmental ones we definitely need to worry about. We're just whiners.
Spoken like someone who has never been near homeless or unemployed and in massive debt thanks to the US government.
Spoken like someone who has some experience with the topic - I've worked slums in more than one city - but if you look at the data that **** is actually way better than it was 200 years ago.
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i kinda follow a zero delta policy about this kinda thing. change is evil.
but if i did want to change the world, you could probibly guess by meathods:
(http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll44/Flojo2111/Motivational%20Posters/nukeit-1.jpg)
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Spoken like someone who has some experience with the topic - I've worked slums in more than one city - but if you look at the data that **** is actually way better than it was 200 years ago.
I'm just speaking from the experience of actually having lived for the past three months in those conditions. It may be better than it was at the turn of the century, but it's still awful.
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Just because it's better doesn't mean it isn't bad. It would be more accurate to say that the world is less terrible then it was 200 years ago, but still terrible.
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I'm perfectly happy with my life as it is. I don't think I can change the world for the less fortunate in any appreciable way, so I try to go on minding my own business.
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Just because it's better doesn't mean it isn't bad. It would be more accurate to say that the world is less terrible then it was 200 years ago, but still terrible.
The point remains; the system works. It introduces improvements on its own. Gradually, perhaps, but also noticeably, and with greater longer-term effect then any form of activism.
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I had an interesting link about this, but there seems to be a paywall there now. The gist was that the people in power now are eating the future so they can cut costs without cutting services today.
But even donating a few dollars to the tin rattlers at the local shopping centre makes me feel slightly better about myself. So what if only a dollar goes to the people who need it and the rest is swallowed up by bureaucracy? That's one dollar more than they had before, and it's one dollar more than the guy who walks past and doesn't donate a cent.
You donate so you can feel better than people who don't donate?
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One makes a donation with hopes that said donation will improve the livelihoods of those who recieve the donation. You may feel better about yourself for an act of generosity, but that is never the aim of a donation made in genuine interest for another person - your concern is for the one with need.
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The world really is better than 200 years ago. But should only just better be enough?
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You donate so you can feel better than people who don't donate?
Sorry, that was probably a poor choice of words. I was more getting at 'every little bit helps' rather than 'I throw some loose change into a tin, therefore I'm better than my mate who didn't'.
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Spicious, I believe what Dilmah G says is how he meant it originally.
However, I'd be interested to hear more in this "eating the future" idea. Please could you elaborate?
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Read http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/opinion/14krugman.html if it lets you.
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1. Don't be a dick.
2. Keep your head down and try to avoid the bull****.
Really, all most of us can do is focus on keeping ourselves and our immediate loved ones safe and comfortable. If you really want to be able to effect change on a global scale, then you'll probably have to fight your way into the political or corporate elite. And you almost certainly won't be able to do that without violating rule 1 up there. Other than that, it looks like voting and democracy are a crock according to the research Battuta's been doing. :p
So yeah, just do the best you can at whatever you do and love everyone.
This :yes: with the exception of the "love everyone" part.
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If you can't trust people, then there's no point in continuing the species. If you trust yourself and accept that they are all people like you, then you have to trust them to be themselves. What you do with that trust is up to you - honor is internal.
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Give peace a chance! \o/\o/\o/
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If you can't trust people, then there's no point in continuing the species. If you trust yourself and accept that they are all people like you, then you have to trust them to be themselves. What you do with that trust is up to you - honor is internal.
:yes:
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I'm currently a Paramedic in a busy ass system. I've been in EMS for 7 years. Wait no, 8 years.
To become a Paramedic, I started running start in high school as soon as I could to knock out the pre-reqs. Then I got a job at Safeway and a job at an ambulance company cleaning out bloody ambulances and scrubbing toilets. I also went to school full time. I had no money, and spent all my time at one of those three places OR my car going to these places. Or sleeping at the ambulance company. I lived in Vancouver, WA, where I worked at Safeway. School was in Portland, my other job in Hillsboro. I shared rent on a cruddy old apartment that I hardly saw.
I am now a Field Training Officer for the ambulance company, and I make more money then I ever have. I admit my viewport is skewed on this matter, but if there is one problem that the American populous has, it is the fact that failure IS an option. No one is required to do what I did anymore. Hell, I could have easily told my MD that I was tired and falling asleep in class, because I was, and received a diagnosis of chronic fatigue and then live off the state. *
Now, do I think state programs are bad? No. They are just set up in way that encourages failure. For example, let's say I get obese and have knee problems that I claim make it impossible for me to work. Oh sure, we like to pretend that I have a degenerative disease that I have no control over, but the reality is that my joints can no longer tolerate my own weight and degrade at an abnormally fast rate. My diet has no calcium or other nutrients either, so that causes further degradation. BOOM. You are on disability. We give you pain medications, narcotics. What should happen if you improve? You lose the meds. You lose the benefits. You have to punch a clock like I did, and will until I am far too old.
Is life great on disability? Not really. It is not horrible, I see plenty of the people described above with computers and consoles lying about with Cable TV. But yeah, the apartment is a bad place near a bad school. Do they want to be successful? Nice house? Cool car? Yeah, sure. Do they want to put in that effort? No. Not at all. Life aint great, but at least it is easy.
If America has one issue, it is that we forgot how to row our own boat.
*I am not saying that Chronic Fatigue is not a real issue/disease. What I am saying is that its diagnosis is often given to those without any real issue aside from laziness.
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I agree with the above. Unfortunately, "tough love" does not generally get one elected to an office where it could be enacted on a level significant enough to matter.
I've more or less given up on any top-down fixes. They aren't coming for various reasons. So, if anything, I guess I try to lead by example. My wife and I have 5 degrees between the two of us. We worked our tails off to get here. We continue to work our tails off. She teaches others to the same at university. My work is lucrative enough that she can take that job and its relatively low pay without having to worry overmuch about our finances. As one of two engineers where I work, I try to hold everyone here to a higher standard than they would otherwise ascribe to. I try to explain why it matters whenever I can so they can take some pride in the extra effort rather than umbrage.
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It's a big world and unless you're in the right place at the right time it's very hard to have a global or even national positive impact. So what do I do... I vote, I talk with my peers, I run and walk for good causes and raise money for those with debilitating and life threatening diseases when I get the chance. At work I try to be positive and in my role as supporting technology in education I try and make sure that those using the tech are able to do so effectively and that students aren't disadvantaged because of a technical glitch or improper use.
I wish I could do more... Maybe I can. But right now I still need to help myself a little bit.
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I learn, I evolve, and I have a plan.
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I can't exactly worry about the rest of the planet at the moment. I'm working hard enough as-is on trying to force my life into something resembling the shape it should have rightly had a few years ago. :p