We as humans are the only creatures who have ever walked, crawled, or slithered on the face of the earth who lack the capability to self rule. To make for our own lives, and the world around us, the best it can be. We believe in so much superstition and mysticism that we suck the dignity out of the true meaning of life. Our lives are so suficated by this insulation and isolation that weve created ourselves, that we even lack the capibilty to be rational. We would rather have the feeling of security even if that blanket is slowly sufficating us, to the point that we start to see our fellow brothers as aliens, someone to not meet with coroperation but to try to subjugate and master.


Its a sad world, a destructive world, when we cant see things in the way that nature intended. We are all just a part of it, just a small piece of puzzle, a small part of a machine, that makes the world go round and when we try to remove or change anypart of that machine, it ceased to function and reach its full potential.


Go out and give a hug today, would yah?

PLH

I'd hug ya (((((brandon))))))

here's a hug ,

I was just thinking about this very thing this morning.

We invent all these concepts of sacred Gods, and spiritual beings like angels or whatever.

Yet in truth, how crazy is that?

What could be more sacred that the living flesh and blood creatures that roam the face of this planet?

If we can't view a human as a sacred being, then how spiritually impoverished does this make us?

All life on Earth, in fact all of Earth herself, is the most sacred of anything that we will ever know.

How did we ever come to view ourselves and our world as nothing more than mundane and meaningless?

We are one sick species to be sure?

Mother nature is pretty destructive herself. She sent a hurtling meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. In 1815 Mt. Tambora blew her top destroying all vegetation on Sumbawa island. it ejected 100 km cubed of crap into the air. 251 million years ago volcanoes erupted that created the Siberian Traps, the eruptions lasted about 1 million years it killed 96% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial ones in the largest mass extinction event on planet earth.

We do self rule, it's not like humans are ruled by caterpillars. Insulation and isolation? I can talk to someone from China simply by picking up the phone, I can visit someone there by taking a flight, how many countries can a pig visit on its own?

Most people I've met have not tried to subjugate me. Have you ever seen 2 animals fight for alpha status? If a lion enters another pride's territory they aren't asked to leave, they are attacked without mercy. A rhino's first instinct, since they have poor sight, is to charge at motion, they are highly aggressive. Black widows eat their mates, mother mice will cannibalize her young if her nest is disturbed.

Mother nature rules by survival of the fittest with no apologies and no compassion. If a person is born unable to walk, we give them a wheel chair and handicap accessible parking....mother nature would kill them off.

Your subjagated every day, you dont rule yourself, you pay taxes dont you? Self rule is the ability to live your life without prejustice of another mans ideals. Not another species lol. Isolation mentally not physically lol. If we differ from something or someone we are still quick to segregate, take the idea of gay marriage for instance.

Lions have set terrritories, if another male wondered into anothers territory, i fight can ensue but when left on there own accord, lions are very peacefull creatures.

Mother natures idea is sometimes you have to destroy the forrest so she can grow back stronger than ever because she is suffocating by any number of reasons.

We as humans are so scared of that idea, so frighted of our own mortality, we use our own mental "wheel chairs"

I pay taxes because I choose to live in this construct we call society. I could move into the amazon rain forest and fend for myself but I don't want to. You could not work, not have a home, live like a survivalist out in the middle of nowhere if you chose to. So yes I do rule myself, I pay taxes because I realize that without taxes we don't have a society and without that we would not have modern medicine, modern technology. You'd be constantly fighting to simply survive. or would you rather have all the benefits that organized society gives you but just not pay taxes, it doesn't work that way?

Lions are not that peaceful. A pride can only have 1 dominant male, that dominance is determined by fighting amongst themselves. We would call this rule despotism, (might makes right). And for the most part mother nature's law is if I can kill you I win and live, if I can't I'm at your mercy.


Mother Nature is cruel, violent, merciless. Kids need to be taught to act civil, they don't need to be taught to hit one another (that's instinctual), they are taught that that is wrong. People are taught to be respectful of one another, that being a racist is wrong they are not born that way. We fear that which is different from us, that is an instinct that nature puts into us, it's a survival instinct. Civil rights and human rights are man's ideas not natures, actually the ability for empathy is only shared by a small number of higher mammals.

I understand the point you're trying to make. But have you ever tried to live totally outside the construct of society, make your own clothes, grow and kill your own food. No access to medicine, or any inventions? And even then it wouldn't be a real comparison because you'd have knowledge that you'd never gain if you weren't a part of the social construct.

We are not isolated mentally, humans invented written language which made it possible to have inventions, to have recorded history. Animals live in much more isolation, isolated within their experiences. We can read about the experiences of ancient egyptians, or read about the civil war, we can write about our own experiences and thus share them with others.

I don't want to become invoved in a debate here, but just for whatever it's worth, I agree the points made by geektothetenth.

We can view society as something we choose to be a positive part of, or we can view ourselves as being a 'victim' of circumstance that is 'subjagated' by society.

In a democratic society it's pretty much a choice.

When it comes to taxes, where's the problem?

If you don't want to pay income tax just don't have any income. In fact, in the USA you can even have tax-free income up to a certain point. I know, because I'm THAT POOR!

The pentalty for not having to pay taxes is to not have much money to begin with.

However, if a person has a lot of money how could they have even aquired such a thing if not for ENTERPRISE, and how could enterprise exist without society?

Society is nothing more than an agreement to live and do things within certain boundaries of behavior. We write those boundaries up and call them laws.

Laws are nothing more than what we have agreed upon to live in this society. And in a democracy we're even free to speak out and attempt to change the rules if we have a desire to do so.

I agree that I'm not happy with some of the rules myself. Property tax is a perfect example. With income tax I only have to pay tax if I make money. But with property tax I have to continue to pay whether I have an income or not! That seems unfair in a way. I mean if you aquire a home when you are rich, and then you become poor, you could be forced to move out of your house just becasue you can't afford to pay the taxes on it anymore. That does seem to be unjustified in my mind.

So I can complain about property tax, or become a political activist to have that tax removed from the book. But until then I'll have to pay it for the privilege of keeping my home.

So in a sense you could say that I need to even fend off society just to keep my home.

But if it wasn't for society I'd have to fend off everyone who wants to move onto my property anyway.

Personally dealing with a single tax man is a whole lot easier than dealing with every Tom, Dick, and Harry who wants to take over my home!

So between fending off society and fending off random people I'd rather fend off society. It's a LOT easier!

Scraping up cash to pay one tax man annually is a hell of a lot eaiser than having to fight off every Tom, Dick and Harry EVERY DAY of the YEAR!

And what is the tax money going for? To HIRE POLICE who will fight off the Tom, Dick, and Harrys for me!!!

In the end all you're doing by paying taxes is hiring an army to fight to protect you on your behalf.

It's pretty CHEAP when you think of it that way!

Just my thoughts.

Kant – Categorical Imperative
Through his philosophy Kant suggests that an individual can never be self-actualized except through others. In other words we are individuals because we cannot see self, only through others are we known to exist. That is one way of proving, empirically, our interdependence on others and in this relationship the categorical imperative (ethics or morally correct thought and action) take shape.

The OP presents a view from an individualist stand point. There really are collectivist societies in which the self (individual) is the last thing a person considers. The world, to an individualist, seems grim, full of scam and self absorbed, manipulative people. This is not a true picture of the world, but it does show that we have a lot to learn and a much longer path to travel before we accept that we are nothing if our existence is not given affirmation by others. We do need each other and when we accept our interrelatedness, the world will look better.

Living with the Native Indians is an alternative. They don't worry about alot of taxes most humans worry about.