Because I feel like it

I didn’t even know Seattle had a hockey team lol

 

Basically, I was trying to make a very simple point. The point being, there are some people who are minimalistic and capitalism might be a difficult system for them to live in. That is, they would rather have accepted a society of relative scarcity than what this abundance seems to be so obviously brining with it - decadence, consumerism, hedonism, etc.

I was born a selfless man, even my friends and family try to tell me this is not a world for that kind of personality. But I just can't help it. Even when young, I would sometimes purposefully lose a competition because I did not like to be better than others, I wanted them to improve as much as they can rather than feel better about myself winning.

In consequence, I have, midway upon the journey of my life, stumbled upon the thought of Jesus Christ and other martyrs in the history of our world. Jesus being the one whose claim is singular and rather unbelievable, I wanted to study him more. I wanted to know how he was able to be so selfless, and yet love people nonetheless.

I found out about Tolstoy and his later years, writing books like The Kingdom of God is Within You, or My Religion, aka What I Believe. I was making an argument towards this kind of selflessness that Jesus was obviously preaching, which I believe capitalism is not exactly compatible with, at least not in this form. I mean, the poor often only ask for scraps, and yet we still refuse to alter our system, our SELVES, to do better when the possible end of our ignorance is the horror of death for many who might not deserve it.

I did not want to enter into the intricacies of everything, as I do not believe any one of us here has enough information to actually make a solid judgment when it comes to disentangling that one. If there is one who can, then I am not one of them.

I would just like to say that I do not think there is that much difference between the US and other countries these days. European countries are losing their traditions, faith, beliefs, family bonds, everything. I think Sweden had tons of refugees, rapes, etc. In Paris, my friend had to dry his clothes inside in summer because the refugees would climb on the balcony and steal them.

Europe has been through a lot as well, 2 WWs that the US did not really have to fight on their land. However, I would not use that as an excuse even right after the wars. What is the point of that? Concentrating fully on the issue at hand is the only real solution. Who are even those socialists you speak of? Can you really call the people socialists, really? It is very probably that they also know very little about what socialism was, or was supposed to be.

One funny thing is that whenever I talk to people about the bad things in socialism or in capitalism, they always declare that every bad thing that happened under socialism is a DIRECT and apparent blasphemous result of that ideology, whereas every bad thing under capitalism seems to be excused as an unlucky consequence of something undefined and undesirable, but not the system itself.

I see both as ideas that do not necessarily spring from an evil mind, but people themselves make both ideas result in too many bad scenarios.

 

The kingdom of heaven cannot be created on earth any attempt to do so is just vanity. We are put on this earth to suffer trials and tribulations like Job in the Bible and it’s on us to either be like Job and never lose faith or lose our faith become vain and think we can do better than the path the lord set us all on.

anyways that’s my opinion… I take to what the Buddhists say that life is suffering.

 

Whether the Kingdom of Heaven can or cannot be established on this Earth, I do not know. But, if I am to compare Tolstoy's description of what Christianity should be, or rather, should have been, it makes more sense than the Church, or its history.

Tolstoy used a very interesting method to analyse the Bible and Jesus Christ. He simply took the things that seemed consistent with its underlying belief system, or ideology, if you may. He decided to leave out the rest, as something that seems to have been added for the purpose of deception. That means, essentially, that you have to undertake to get to the very bottom of what was communicated, and to prove that the other things are inconsistent with it. I believe that he has done that satisfactorily, and there were many beautiful points made. In fact, it becomes almost astonishingly simple, yet almost unimaginably difficult at the same time. Every day that we deviate from that path, it becomes more and more difficult.

Tolstoy wanted to stop the exploitation of the people, and he dedicated the last years of his life to that fully, and devoted his whole genius to the task. Not only against the Church, but also against the state, or slavery, whether slavery in a monetary system, or the old kind of slavery. Or I would not say against, just like Darwin, he was just a man freely using his mind wherever it wandered, and whenever it wanted to wander there.

 

It took him taking apart the Bible for him to realize it’s human nature to take advantage of each other ?

People who want to be happy are selfish because they do what will bring them happiness… I’m not saying people shouldn’t be happy but their happiness should come at the service to others which builds a community.

long story short most people suck and ruin things for others out of selfishness.

 

No doubt. Hawk tua!

 

Walz is a pedophile.

 

Well, of course it was not just about that. But even if it was, would that surprise you? Every avid reader knows, that it happens every often that when you read something that you have known perhaps since the development of consciousness, it is as if you have just understood it for the first time.

However, there are many reasons why the books were banned. He was challenging the Church and the state, and both actually responded to his criticism.

“A man of the present day, whether he believes in the divinity of Christ or not, cannot fail to see that to assist in the capacity of tzar, minister, governor, or commissioner in taking from a poor family its last cow for taxes to be spent on cannons, or on the pay and pensions of idle officials, who live in luxury and are worse than useless; or in putting into prison some man we have ourselves corrupted, and throwing his family on the streets; or in plundering and butchering in war; or in inculcating savage and idolatrous superstitious in the place of the law of Christ; or in impounding the cow found on one's land, though it belongs to a man who has no land; or to cheat the workman in a factory, by imposing fines for accidentally spoiled articles; or making a poor man pay double the value for anything simply because he is in the direst poverty;--not a man of the present day can fail to know that all these actions are base and disgraceful, and that they need not do them. They all know it. ”

Of course, we do not have slavery today, the old kind at least, but many of the things written in the books are still relevant. However, there is a paragraph that I was testing when I was in my early 20s, when I was teaching languages in different companies. I used to present to them the ideas and arguments of great men or women, and I was amazed at how easily even such arguments were dismissed. I guess this one is also very true:

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”

However, I have at least found people who felt like they did not really know what to say. Which is okay, doubt is not nice, but certainty can be lethal. A fine balance between doubt and certainty is imperative. Most great crimes are perpetuated by people who are just so certain about everything.

Or psychopaths. I remember a Ted talk with a journalist who interviewed a lot of successful people and found out that many of them were psychopats. But that is not a surprise...

 

I like it. Screw the Palestinians

 

Trump's McDonald's appearance was staged? Duh

 

Jews have been kicked out of 109 countries.

 

They will do the attack to force the USA to get involved no matter who wins