Climate change and Nihilism

[anticlimatic]

You vote Democratic?

I typically vote for whoever seems to have the bigger ideas.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I typically vote for whoever seems to have the bigger ideas.

So who has the bigger ideas?

Sorry, I just remember this guy on here who used to call Sargon of Akkad "a huge liberal." I uppose he meant by classical liberal 18th century standards. It struck me as a little bit misleading to do that, and that's probably the intent. In that sense, most of American politics are liberal, given that even the most conservative folks in the U.S. don't tend to advocate to a return to monarchy or feudalism. So, it's essentially meaningless, unless you're trying to contrast yourself with actual leftists, who often use "liberal" as a pejorative.

 

[anticlimatic]

So who has the bigger ideas?

Sorry, I just remember this guy on here who used to call Sargon of Akkad "a huge liberal." I uppose he meant by classical liberal 18th century standards. It struck me as a little bit misleading to do that, and that's probably the intent. In that sense, most of American politics are liberal, given that even the most conservative folks in the U.S. don't tend to advocate to a return to monarchy or feudalism. So, it's essentially meaningless, unless you're trying to contrast yourself with actual leftists, who often use "liberal" as a pejorative.

Yeah there’s a bit of relativity at play over the terms which can sabotage objective meaning. I have more or less pulled liberal and conservative out of politics and deployed them more as words to describe the way in which someone thinks.

 

[Lark]

When will we all be living underground like mole men?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Yeah there’s a bit of relativity at play over the terms which can sabotage objective meaning. I have more or less pulled liberal and conservative out of politics and deployed them more as words to describe the way in which someone thinks.

Now you've piqued my interest. What do you regard as conservative in terms of thinking? That is, according to your own framework, how would you describe it?

 

[cacaia]

When will we all be living underground like mole men?

Lol, this reminds me of a conversation I had with my husband the other day. I was telling him that I think people are resilient and creative, and before we all go extinct, some of us might design underground living and have excess to electricity by means of solar panels. My husband then got all excited and told me he designed such a thing when he was a teenager 😆

 

[anticlimatic]

Now you've piqued my interest. What do you regard as conservative in terms of thinking? That is, according to your own framework, how would you describe it?

According to my framework, I view people as being conservative minded if they are big on routine and sentiment; not risk takers, law abiding; respectful of hierarchical structures; like what they like and aren't very keen on trying new things. Basically a brain that is set up to issue chemical rewards for predictable things already known rather than the opposite.

Lol, this reminds me of a conversation I had with my husband the other day. I was telling him that I think people are resilient and creative, and before we all go extinct, some of us might design underground living and have excess to electricity by means of solar panels. My husband then got all excited and told me he designed such a thing when he was a teenager 😆

The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894

 

[Lark]

Lol, this reminds me of a conversation I had with my husband the other day. I was telling him that I think people are resilient and creative, and before we all go extinct, some of us might design underground living and have excess to electricity by means of solar panels. My husband then got all excited and told me he designed such a thing when he was a teenager 😆

I think its a great idea.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

According to my framework, I view people as being conservative minded if they are big on routine and sentiment; not risk takers, law abiding; respectful of hierarchical structures; like what they like and aren't very keen on trying new things. Basically a brain that is set up to issue chemical rewards for predictable things already known rather than the opposite.

You mean like focusing on "norms" and so forth? Yeah, I'm not big on that; I usually mock it when people bring it up. I certainly push myself to do things I'm afraid of or have reservations if I think it might lead to a pay off all the time, though.

 

[anticlimatic]

You mean like focusing on "norms" and so forth? Yeah, I'm not big on that; I usually mock it when people bring it up. I certainly push myself to do things I'm afraid of or have reservations if I think it might lead to a pay off all the time, though.

Yeah those are indications of liberal thinking. Everyone does a bit of both of course, with a preferential lean. MBTI can do a pretty good job of predicting it.

 

[Jaguar]

The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894

This problem came to a head when in 1894, The Times newspaper predicted… “In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure.”

The Y2K Scare was a phenomenon at the turn of the 21st century where computer users and programmers feared that computers would stop working on December 31, 1999.

 

[Lib]

First off, man-made = nature-made because we are a product of nature. Using our knowledge to create technology is just as natural as any other learned animal behavior, and it is our natural way to survive and evolve. Also, being selfish is very primitive, hence, natural. So this is not human vs nature kind of fight. It is human vs human, where everybody is selfish in their own way.

The reason that we pollute is a mixture of technological limitations and availability of resources, not so much of a moral choice, for the most part. For example, I find it quite ironic that Greenpeace sailed to one Arctic oil platform to protest the production of the very oil they fueled their ship with to get there...

Don't get me wrong, I find activism very necessary, but public awareness may take you only some of the way. The actual solution is to find a sustainable substitute to the harmful products and processes, so that the ones whose life depends on the said products and processes don't perish. I suspect that the effective solution would be even less "natural" than we are able to imagine. But since we don't have it today, how can we help it? By feeling guilty for being too dumb?