GOOD morning, faithful minions!
Dec. 29th, 2001 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolven7So, here i am, in Bowie (pronounced "Bouy") Maryland, with nothing terribly much to do. All creative pursuits-- that is, anything that's Output-- seems to not want to work too terribly well. Drawing. In random bursts, when i feel like it. That i can do. no serious writing, here, though. Nothing's been too heavily on my mind... Well.. maybe something....
i touched on this, three posts earlier, but briefly. We're still having war? It is almost the year 2002 and, while we HAVE come a long way from the 17- and 1800's, all we seem to have done, here, is advance the ways in which we blow the living hell out of each other... Pushing a button, miles away, droping bombs from a plane, Long Range Missiles... all ways to make those who die in war not People, but statistics. A sword, spear, knife, shield, armour... you SEE that life you just took, slipping away. You REALISE what you've done... Our governments are good at making trained killing machines, and FINE. If that's what our elected reps think we need, i would simply like to ask you all to remember that WE elected them. Stop Bitching, &c. Anyway, my digression. Training killing machines is all well and good (The Greeks Did It), but what about the value of a life? Teaching them both is NOT a contradiction (The Greeks Did It). If we can't stop killing each other, we could at least realise the scope of our actions, people.. Shit.
i'm reading a book about a bunch of "stupendous badasses," and how it seems to be the goal of these badasses to out do, out manouver, and out plan each other, that they may assert superiority. Killing for space. Killing to prove superiority of race. Killing to get some oil. Killing to have more food (*Mantra*i will NOT digress into the advents of cannibalism)... Killing because we CAN'T STOP KILLING. People, living organisms, Earthians, whatever, we don't know when to let an idea GO. It worked, then, yeah. Does it really make sense, now? i think that the stupidest reason for war is a war over ideals...
Seriously, think about this: We have Ogg and Zug again. Ogg can't get Zug to think that his "Fire" thing is all that great. Zug thinks he can do without it. Ogg thinks it could save their tribe, clan, nomadic peoples trudging across the frozen wastes, whatever. Ogg thinks Zug is wrong. Ogg Hit Zug With Rock. Zug Not Die. Zug Hit Ogg With BIGGER Rock. Zug Steal Fire, Ogg Go Into Hiding. See this? This is all fine and dandy. IF WE'RE CAVEMEN! But i don't think we're cavemen, are we? We're not cavemen. For the love of gods, TELL ME WE'RE NOT CAVEMEN!!
We're moving into 2002, for stuffsake! Put. The rocks. DOWN. We've had over 5,000 years of recorded human history. And that's the LOW estimate! Damn. You think we'd have figured out, by now, that war only ends cause someone's tired of getting the FUCK bombed out of them. That's not consensus. That's a compromise.
There is a difference between consensus and compromise, and people always get these things wrong. A Compromise is two people saying "We cannot agree, therefore, here's this third option, that we both equally dislike, but not as much as we dislike each other. Let's Settle." This is crap, because neither party is happy, and NO UNDERSTANDING HAS BEEN REACHED THAT WASN'T THERE ALREADY. Now, a consensus, on the other hand.... A Consensus makes me smile...
When you get a Consensus, that's a unanimous decision from ALL involved, on a course of action that EVERYONE LIKES. This takes TALKING and UNDERSTANDING, and, Hell, possibly even trips to the Moon. WHATEVER IT TAKES. This is what i love. This is what people don't get...
Bashing each other with rocks, until someone gives in? That's compromise. Sitting and tallking with each other, until we understand and agree on, if nothing else, a course of action, At The Present Moment? That's Consensus.
i touched on this, three posts earlier, but briefly. We're still having war? It is almost the year 2002 and, while we HAVE come a long way from the 17- and 1800's, all we seem to have done, here, is advance the ways in which we blow the living hell out of each other... Pushing a button, miles away, droping bombs from a plane, Long Range Missiles... all ways to make those who die in war not People, but statistics. A sword, spear, knife, shield, armour... you SEE that life you just took, slipping away. You REALISE what you've done... Our governments are good at making trained killing machines, and FINE. If that's what our elected reps think we need, i would simply like to ask you all to remember that WE elected them. Stop Bitching, &c. Anyway, my digression. Training killing machines is all well and good (The Greeks Did It), but what about the value of a life? Teaching them both is NOT a contradiction (The Greeks Did It). If we can't stop killing each other, we could at least realise the scope of our actions, people.. Shit.
i'm reading a book about a bunch of "stupendous badasses," and how it seems to be the goal of these badasses to out do, out manouver, and out plan each other, that they may assert superiority. Killing for space. Killing to prove superiority of race. Killing to get some oil. Killing to have more food (*Mantra*i will NOT digress into the advents of cannibalism)... Killing because we CAN'T STOP KILLING. People, living organisms, Earthians, whatever, we don't know when to let an idea GO. It worked, then, yeah. Does it really make sense, now? i think that the stupidest reason for war is a war over ideals...
Seriously, think about this: We have Ogg and Zug again. Ogg can't get Zug to think that his "Fire" thing is all that great. Zug thinks he can do without it. Ogg thinks it could save their tribe, clan, nomadic peoples trudging across the frozen wastes, whatever. Ogg thinks Zug is wrong. Ogg Hit Zug With Rock. Zug Not Die. Zug Hit Ogg With BIGGER Rock. Zug Steal Fire, Ogg Go Into Hiding. See this? This is all fine and dandy. IF WE'RE CAVEMEN! But i don't think we're cavemen, are we? We're not cavemen. For the love of gods, TELL ME WE'RE NOT CAVEMEN!!
We're moving into 2002, for stuffsake! Put. The rocks. DOWN. We've had over 5,000 years of recorded human history. And that's the LOW estimate! Damn. You think we'd have figured out, by now, that war only ends cause someone's tired of getting the FUCK bombed out of them. That's not consensus. That's a compromise.
There is a difference between consensus and compromise, and people always get these things wrong. A Compromise is two people saying "We cannot agree, therefore, here's this third option, that we both equally dislike, but not as much as we dislike each other. Let's Settle." This is crap, because neither party is happy, and NO UNDERSTANDING HAS BEEN REACHED THAT WASN'T THERE ALREADY. Now, a consensus, on the other hand.... A Consensus makes me smile...
When you get a Consensus, that's a unanimous decision from ALL involved, on a course of action that EVERYONE LIKES. This takes TALKING and UNDERSTANDING, and, Hell, possibly even trips to the Moon. WHATEVER IT TAKES. This is what i love. This is what people don't get...
Bashing each other with rocks, until someone gives in? That's compromise. Sitting and tallking with each other, until we understand and agree on, if nothing else, a course of action, At The Present Moment? That's Consensus.
