What do you think of this? Options

[Licentia Per Ori...]

I think he made some really good points.



Should we be asking more questions?
Why do we accept that war is part of our culture?

But can we really do anything ourselves?

Or are we destined to remain in a state of bondage?

[Jonnie19]

The reason why we accept war, is due to the fact that it is just normal. We've had many years of being told that War is good.

[Show/Hide] BIG IMAGE

We get told that people who went to war, were "couragous", and it was something to be proud of.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Remember-our...6448083?fref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/wearyellowribbon?fref=ts

Now I am not saying that we shouldn't support the Soldiers for what they did. But that doesn't me what they did was right.
Why do we allow men to go out and KILL innocent people, in wars. Because of propaganda.
It's NOT the soldiers fault in any way shape or form. I support the Soldiers. I DON'T support the war.
The war is a farse. War is just an excuse to kill, however people still allow it to happen. Due to the fact that we believe the propaganda everywhere. There is a whole wikipedia article on American Propaganda in WW2.
When I was in school we were "taught" that this was wrong? The Propaganda was created to ensure that people continued to sign up to fight.
Stating how wrong it was for "young men" to go to war. Yet, we STILL allow people to join the Army at age 18. So we can join the army at 18...but not smoke and drive in the US until you are 21...
The fact remains that Our culture is one of the strangest cultures out of all, and yet we see it as "normal".
"normal" being a relative term.
However I recently found this article on the "Shirbit Culture."
Article on Shirbit Culture.
Strange? Think about it for a few seconds....THEN open the spoiler.

[Show/Hide] The Truth about Culture

Shirbit Culture believe that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to feebleness and disease

Doctors...what do they do? Try and CURE disease they fight and fight to just cure and correct the issues with people. We have to immunised against things because our body is too FEEBLE to protect itself
What is Anorexia Nervosa/Bullimia/Dieting...Obesity....Overeating....ETC ETC ETC...You are always to fat or too thin. You can NEVER have a perfect body. EVER! Even IF you have a perfect figure (which in itself is a debatable topic) you still feel ugly. So end up developing an ED.

The Shirbit indulge in rituals and ceremonies designed to avoid this.....The rituals associated with the shrine are private and secret.

Do you go into the bathroom with your partner/one night stand/mother/father/brother/sister...etc when she is on the toilet, or cleaning her teeth, (if you've NOT just slept together that is.) The chances are ALOT of you will say no.
You don't allow people in your room while you make yourself clean. YOU make yourself "perfect" to the world.

Do ya see where I'm going...here

I could go on....but just take a moment to READ the rest of the image I posted....think about it...tell me who the Shirbit culture reminds you of.

THEN open this spoiler if you are still COMPLETELY confused, and think I am a bumbling idiot...)

[Show/Hide] "The Answer

S H I R B I T
S H I B R I T
I S H B R I T
B R I T I S H It's us. It is the BRITISH culture, it is the way we live. ALL of these aspects are of BRITISH culture...

The fact is we cannot escape. We CANNOT break free of society, because the moment people start to realise that society changes.So they will change the ideals so that people can STILL be in control
However the question is, ARE WE ALLOWING it to happen?
No matter WHAT we do, a symbol can be defined by so many different things.

I can take ANYTHING anyone says and turn it around on them. If I can't SOMEONE ELSE CAN. That is the fact. SYMBOLS are the definition of the way we control life.
He may make valid points. HOWEVER Isn't HE getting paid to do all these things. HE who is trying to ripping apart the fact of society. is actually a fool to society. NOTHING WILL change.

[Sparrowsmith]

I could only really get a minute into the video before I could see whereabouts it was going.
Before I get to my main argument, I'll say this.
The points made by these kinds of people are usually somewhat valid. These are rather insane concepts that we fail to question. However, the idea that they have been purposefully enforced is ridiculous. They are usually ideals we have carried for hundreds of thousands of years. Behavioral traits burned into us by evolution and then reinforced by a society that is bigger than nature could have prepared us for.

There are dozens of psychological faults programmed into us not by the big bad society, but by nature, a far more competitive and jealous beast. However, one of our many faults is the need to BLAME an actual target. So instead of something vague like and self-aimed, like fallacies brought about by evolution, we try to blame others.
Often we land on society as the blame. Yes society, that thing run by people who aren't actually people, as opposed to being something, you know, we all create.

However, there are some valid points to a 'corrupt' society, almost all of which can be answered with power checks, something many people in power (including Obama at the moment) are fighting for. I mean really, if you want to know what actual problems exist within society I'd highly recommend reading John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and calling it a day. The problem lies in the people wielding power over themselves. Projecting their ugly world views as a means of controlling their fellow man, not out of reality but out of fear.
There's some good research here about how we perceive people as worse than they actually are. You really need to look no further than the Nirvana Fallacy which is our bias to ignore positive change just because it's not perfect. Of course, this is reasonable, right? We want perfect leaders and none of these corrupt pundits, well, if the Stanford Prison experiment is anything to go by, then in a position of power the common person (I.E anyone one of us here) would abuse that power to the point of torture.
In fact, all it takes is a person in a lab coat to make you willing to kill a man, if the Milgram Experiment is anything to go by.

My point?
Society is the collective injustice of fallacies like these in every single person all the world over, but, somehow we're functioning remarkably well considering we should have descended into absolute chaos. And the reason we perform so well is because history is full of great people, people who have single handedly advanced our understanding of what is and isn't acceptable. How we can and should treat our fellow man.
I've rambled more than made a point because I'm in a hurry, but the reason we have some absurd cultural perceptions is because we are moving away from something worse, not towards something it. I find the people who stand in front of a crowd and try to stir up fear because of the tiniest demerits to society more despicable than those demerits themselves. It cheapens the work of the truly great who worked for equal rights, who brought down ACTUAL corrupt governments, who survived the bleakest aspects of human history and came through unscathed.
Frankly, most people these days are looking for social injustice because in reality, we have it pretty freaking good, and it's very likely to get better

We're not declaring war on body images or the diseased, we're just trying to raise the life expectancy, to stop disease, and to make the world a better place. Somehow we have set up a system that actively directs the people in power to do good deeds. Maybe not all the time, but most of the time, and that's pretty freaking incredible. The world ain't perfect, but to say this is the worst the human race has ever had it is an absurdity.


Also, on the subject of war, I share your opinions than soldiers can be brave and supported (though I disagree that they all are) while the wars themselves are rarely just. However, conflicts like the Iraq war, while unnecessary at the time, were preemptive measures against a legitimate threat (A dictator sitting on a massive well of oil. Once that oil becomes more valuable, say ten or twenty years, he's be in a position to make some damaging demands). In fact, most conflicts nowadays are more like a chess game. It's international politics designed to stave off bigger conflicts, and, regrettably, for economic gain.
Like I said, not perfect, but if the beginning of world war II taught us anything it's that you can't leave an angry and desperate country unchecked.

And finally, Shirbit culture is an appeal to ridicule.
The article was more humorous than inspiring. Purposefully dancing around reality by casting doubt on each action and exaggerating behavior. Mankind is not the only animal that likes to have a 'shrine'. A cat's litterbox comes to mind. Elephants washing themselves (in fact most animals wash themselves if I'm not mistaken.)
Most of these habits are actually beneficial, and didn't used to be necessarily private. A few centuries ago we saw outbreak to some of the most lethal diseases we ever crossed paths with, and why? Most of the time it was because we were throwing shit on the street and not washing ourselves.
Hygiene, like the fighting of disease, is an effort to make us live longer, happier lives.

I have spent way too long writing this.

[Licentia Per Ori...]

I think there is something to be said for the fact that people are so ready to justify war.
It is also so very easy for us to look at our own society, and see "hey it's not all that bad". There are arguably more people who are slaves today in the world than ever before. Conditions for many slaves today is worse than it was 100s of years ago. Sure people are not shackled with Iron and chains any more (the magna carta saw to that). But there is more than one way to skin a cat.

A cotton picker from the day's of slavery, aged 14. A modern day sweatshop worker, aged 14. Who really has the worst quality of life? Most slaves actually had the weekend off and worked daylight hours only, Yet the sweatshop worker is likely to work 7 days a week, 16-18 hour days.

Yet we buy the fruits of their labour anyway. We hear about mass suicides at foxcon, yet does anyone even think about it when they buy a new phone? And we don't just exploit people, we outright kill them. If they get smart ideas. So many wars. And I understand what it's for. People argue that we should fight the 1%. Except I AM the 1%. There are only 55,000,000 people in the whole world who have more money than me. See where you stand - puts it all in perspective.

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

SO this is the system. And could it be that what the system is doing is hiding the pain, the horror, the injustice, the starvation, the rape, the murder, the torture, the exploitation etc. of billions of people. Is it because we like the life we live, and is it not hypocracy that we talk of freedom, while turning a blind eye to our own jack-boot, as if it does not belong to us, as if it isn't crushing someones skull.

It's weird when you think about it.
I wonder, how many people have actually died today, just to reduce the cost of the electricity that is running my computer, by a couple of pence per day? I wonder how much my computer would have cost if everyone that worked on the components was paid what i would consider a fair wage (i.e. a wage for an hours work I would accept for the task). I wonder how many children worked in the central African mine where many of the raw materials came from. The little urchin who I don't give a fuck about, who couldn't even afford shoes, who scurried around in the dirt like a rat, and used basic hand tools, to dig the raw materials I needed for MY computer. I wonder if he's dead yet?



But none of that is news right. we all know this goes on. You either end up born in "the west"*
or "good luck with that". Are we so quick to buy into the media illusion (which we all know is an illusion) because we know the truth is too awful?
We want to think of ourselves as good people right? but...how can you be good if you are contributing directly to the suffering of Billions?
So we ignore it right?
"Oh don't talk to me about these things, I don't want to think about it, it's too depressing"
imagine how it must be to live it.
I wonder Who has killed more humans, Hitler or Nestle? Genghis khan or Apple?