My school in Sweden happens to be located near a beautiful forest. I usually walk by this forest on my way home and during breaks. As I was one day walking down this path, I suddently became struck by the scent of some flowers and my gaze travelled towards the sky and towards the birds that inhabit it. As I was in this state I realised that millions of people had felt the same scent, seen the same image as I was seeing and felt the same feeling I felt. It made me reflect on a fact, we are not only those who have becomed honored among the creatures but also the ones who inherit the earth from our forefathers and tomorrow we shall join them on their journey. Albeit, we are severly deluded. We don't realize how precious free time is until were busy, we don't consider our health until were sick, our youth until weve become old nor do we even reflect on the fact that westerners drive the hugest cars, live in the hugest houses yet they complain the most. What has made us so deluded from just reflecting for a moment?(including my self) What -exacly-are we chasing when we run towards all this secularity, wealth and materialism? Why do teenagers think they gonna live for ever? Ive noticed that some people in here are approaching their fifties yet we may ask: Was it not yesterday when you were playing with other kids, your only worry being how to convince mom to stay over at your friends house? I think it was Bernad Lewis who wrote a book about the islamic "civilisation"(this term is can be discussed, since there is only one civilisation and many different contributers to it) and asked the question "What went wrong", without answering this I ask what went wrong with the western community when the two greatest factories are warefare and sex? How is it possible that we can brag about having cellular phones and space shuttles when a huge part of the worlds populations dont even have clean water? This is my second visit to the middle east and its said that every country has its good, bad and ugly and most surely this place isnt an exemption yet I must say that its a different experience -for me- when you for instance ask some taxi drivers here in Syria how they are doing youl often see them answer with delight saying that they are in a blessing when - seen from a secular perspective- they would be classified as extremly poor people while if you ask another syrian man(or any other nationality) living here(the west) you will probably get a lecture on how much the city sucks and how high the gas prices are(yet the americans or westerners in general drive the biggest cars and live in the biggest houses with the cheapest petroil). Humbleness have been lost in favour of the three S's that flourish(especially) the swedish society, i.e sex-suicide-socialism. I am not condemning this society as a whole because it has soo many features and values worth mentioning and taking into consideration and as I said before its one civilisation with different contributors and never will we prosper in any way until weve defeated the demon called arrogance.
I see what you're saying Cabdirazagg. I think it comes down to "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven". When you have alot of earthly treasures, as most westerners do, you wind up with earthly values; "where your treasure is there will your heart be" and you start measuring everything in terms of material gain. You start identifiying yourself with what you own, with dead things. With things outside of yourself that are subject to "rust, decay, and theft" so by that perspective you can lose yourself at any moment. What you are can be taken away from you. Hense the anxiety, fear, and greed for more material things. Doesn't leave much room for peace of mind, or even gratitude. Makes it hard to trust other people, especially the ones with the same values. You live life backwards-- loving things and using people. What you own, owns you. Which is why poor people have a kind of freedom rich people never have.
I totally disagree with you. I can't articulate why right now. Can't think of the words... Rich people have more freedom. Poor people delude themselves into thinking they have freedom of other sorts while the rich know and live their freedom. Rich people have more freedom: they can buy a yacht, buy a plane, travel the world, build homeless shelters, created software teams of young programmers to develop kick ass video games, throw awesome parties, buy multiple homes, spend their time pursuing their dreams instead of working to survive. Poor people can enjoy their lives, but (in general) they have much less freedom than rich people.
Maybe the super rich, like you're talking about. Don't think I've ever known any so I don't know. When I said rich I'm talking about anybody in western culture who's middle class and up. Compared to the rest of the world, they're rich. Most of the ones I know seem to be pretty tied down.
Yeah. I was thinking more of the super rich than the middle class. The argument can be made that the middle class has more freedoms than the lower class. What if you are doing what you love and this brings in a certain amount of income- if it brings in more income, you have more freedom. I wouldn't consider someone who does what they love to do 'tied down' in a bad way.
Money and material things, and all the good things money can buy. It's good stuff, and I won't hear a word against it It's actually discontentment that you're talking about. You can buy happiness. You can take your family on holiday, you can reward yourself for hard work, you can nip round your Man's house and buy a slice of it. Money's neither good nor bad, but in the hands of an intelligent man, it will do good, and in the hands of a selfish man it will bring isolation and paranoia, and more discontentment. It is human to always want more. More fun, more life, more peace and love in the world, more money, and everything. But you have to see that for what it is, not get caught up in it. A millionaire tycoon can be as happy as a gardener who loves to see his plants grow, or he can be twisted and hungry to the point where he doesn't care who gets crushed on the way. Either way, it's not the pursuit of material things that's wrong. A little sugar can give you a lift, but you can't live off just sugar...
Yes, the effect of money lies in the one who posses it but the richer you get the greater the chance becomes for you to start feeling superior to others for a mere piece of paper. Look at traffics, the bigger and fancier car- the less humble driver.
Hell, thas cuz tha folks in tha smaller cars can get squashed easier than those in the bigguns, so they try to piss off fewer people.
You make some good points but not everything is black and white. Lets not be so quick when it comes to judging an entire society and trying to fit it in three or four words here. It is more complex that you may think , or ** have made to think** . I can find a syrian taxidriver who will agree with me on the idea that he is not happy and I can find a syrian businessman in America who will say he is very happy, it depends on who you meet.
Complexity usually comes in situations where the obvious solution is too easy, or not easily accepted. It may not be fair to judge entire societies, but westeners are the most wastefull, unappreciative and hard to please group of people on the map. Instead of taking full advantage of the endless luxuries and conviences afforded to this nation, most of us let the activities and freedoms we feel 'restricted' from cause more resent instead of appreciation for the finer things in life, that only 'westeners' are afforded. Hopefully we are not all judged and considered as one group of people, or percieved by the people of other nations as a reflection of who we choose as our leader/s. eventho' that would be the easiest, or simple way. Is calling American's, 'westeners', like describing a person as 'colored', instead of calling them a ******? Maybe that hesitant attitude towards implying that 'westeners' as a whole must be somewhat delusional because obviously, not enough of us reflect on the notion nor do we confront the possibility that most of what we take for granted... could one day be out of our reach. is because there is also the possibility that 'westeners' will always be percieved as the cream of the crop, by 'non-westeners' , or the white or 'right' blooded people who envy our ways. Almost as if the opportunities and way of life 'westeners' are blessed with, come with the price of being cursed in the eyes of everybody else in the world.
you don't see my point, what you call right and what you call wrong is simply a matter of perception, ofcourse there are obvious things that are wrong or right... like killing people for no reason is wrong and charity somehow is considered right. But I don't see how the supreme reality is going to penalize someone for calling him Krishna while many call him allah. I just don't see it.
Adam, I didn't know you were that loving and poetic! That's a beautiful post you made. I live in a high-middle class household. And my parents buy themselves way too much luxury. It makes me feel uncomfortable at times, knowing one doesn't need that stuff (like dvds and tvs in cars...). It's a waste of recources! I agree with you...
this passage reminds me of something Canadain naturalist, David Sisuki wrote...it goes something like this... Each breath we breathe, we breathe in 'X number' [i dont know what the figure is] of argon molecules. Argon being an inert gas, we have breathed the same argon from the cry of every newborn child. We have breathed argon that was breathed by Ghandi. We have breathed argon that was talked out at the last supper. We have breathed argon from the first humans, the dinosaurs, etc etc etc... i forget what the book is called, but it is about how everything is connected... this doesn't really have anythign to do with the topic, but as i said, your first paragraph reminded me of this
Yeah, I like to think that everybody has breathed my farts. I mean, you know that urban legend about Caesars last breath? Well, I want to start one about my farts. In 2000 years, every breath someone breathes will have a molecule from my farts in it. (God planned this message to arrive 2000 years after Jesus....).
