Alan Watts - What is Wrong With Our Culture

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Picture of krillemaster46 achievements

+23 1. krillemaster commented 10 years ago

that was mildly depressing :'(
Picture of Kurisusan30 achievements

+37 2. Kurisusan commented 10 years ago

Man, I havent been to this site for over a year. Come back to this deep video with so many truths...
Almost forgot how awesome Snotr is. Good to be back!
Picture of gouranga4ever43 achievements

+6 3. gouranga4ever commented 10 years ago

Excuse me whilst I go watch some porn..
Picture of Pizzaface195127 achievements

+16 4. Pizzaface1951 commented 10 years ago

@3. that is what's wrong with our culture
Picture of LightAng3l49 achievements

0 5. LightAng3l commented 10 years ago

I have to disagree... very few points in this video make sense.

There is a comparison being made that is not valid. The video seems to be under the impression that our cars, homes and food where invented as is today. No my friend there where a lot of innovations we made to the car since Ford made the first one, also to our homes since the cave, and to our food.

Saying you are pleased with what you have is saying you don't want progress. We do waste a lot there is no denying that, we could be a lot better, but we can't make the ultimate version of anything in the first go... we iterate and thus we waste but move forward.

This video has made me a sad and now I'm mad because it did... it uses cheap tactics to get to you.

You can do much more than just watch TV as it's implied here. you can skydive, swim, climb, have one of millions of hobbies... sorry I strongly disagree with the points made here...
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-6 6. ringmaster commented 10 years ago

That's why we have the Green Environmental Party!
Picture of Acorn25 achievements

+15 7. Acorn commented 10 years ago

I think you totaly missed the point LightAng3l

He paints a picture of the human culture or rather the lack of.
In this world, we are fed by micro rewards, living unaware and without a care, that our way of living is slowly but surely, suffocating our planet.

As a species we are without direction, being led by the few people whose soul purpose is to make more money for the sake of making more money.

Everyone agrees that life should be cherished, but not many can afford it
Picture of LightAng3l49 achievements

+4 8. LightAng3l commented 10 years ago

I did not miss the point Acorn

Culture is just a concept, it's nothing tangible and cannot be measured so there can't be a lack of it, without humans there is no culture, because culture is just a construct of our society, it's not found in nature by itself.

"living unaware and without a care"... Isn't that the point? To make life threat free?

Of course we live without directions since we don't know the purpose of life...

We are capable of destroying this world, yes, but don't be fooled Acorn nature can do that much better than us. Meteorites, earthquakes, supernovas things that make our destructive power look like a joke. And you seem to forget that WE are a force of nature too... WE are created by nature, thus our destructive power is nature's power.

Think about it. Nature creates hurricane, hurricane destroys city so that means nature destroys city. So why does "nature creates man, man destroys city" not the same?

Humans are just one of natures many destructive forces, just because we have free will does not cancel that fact!

EDIT: The video says "the riches we produce are ephemeral". Well... the most powerful thing in the universe, a star, will die out in about 6 billion years, even that does not last forever... so how can our banana flavored sherbet compete?
Picture of Baliverne25 achievements

+5 9. Baliverne commented 10 years ago

I have to agree with Acorn, it's not the specifics that this video targets but the overall picture. One can only scratch his head when you realize that to thrive in this economy, you have to be as anti-economic as possible toward the finite resource of the world...and it has a direct impact of how we interact on a personal level with each other.
Can we trust those automobile makers to give us the most advanced version of their invention when you know that it is more profitable for them to sell us obsolete *of the year* models that are engineered to break down after X years so you have to buy another one sooner?
It's not about being against progress, we're innovators by nature so I'm not worried about our specie falling into complaisance.
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-3 10. joeman commented 10 years ago

Ahh yes LightAng3l... but Who made nature?
Picture of LightAng3l49 achievements

+5 11. LightAng3l commented 10 years ago

joeman There is no answer to that yet... and no... God is not a valid answer. :P
Picture of vince1 achievements

+1 12. vince commented 10 years ago

Within recognizing us beeing a destructive force of nature lies the responsibility to change that. An earth on which humanity coexists in nature in an equilibrium is something betweem utopia and realistic dream. And it depends on how much each individum is willing to sacrifice stuff you dont really need. the video reminds us of that in a quite emotive way and shows us what our consumption culture has made us. reply!
Picture of TaxCollector20 achievements

-3 13. TaxCollector commented 10 years ago

#8. "Of course we live without directions since we don't know the purpose of life..."

I'll let you in on a secret. There is no purpose to life.

We are born. We live. We die. That's it, and that's all there is to it.

Great musician, great poet, great architect, great philosopher. Whatever you are, and whatever legacy you leave to the world after your death is entirely irrelevant. Why? Because when our sun dies, we die, all of us. There will be no-one left in existence to say what great men they all were.

It will all be over.
Picture of AssieChris24 achievements

+2 14. AssieChris commented 10 years ago

I love my life, I work for myself and family. Though its seems you have to be a hippie to be happy in this clip. :|
Im with #5
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+1 15. WildMonkey commented 10 years ago

People always think that if we only "did this" or "did that" society would be better. But it is human nature, society is just the reflection of what we are.

The human world isn't like this because of a problem or a systemic anomaly, it is because that's how we want it.

The problem is that people are just too stupid, ignorant, uneducated, apathetic, and narrow-minded to realize in what a cruel stupid game they have embarked on called civilization.

If we really wanted to, we could end many of socio-economic problems, in fact, surprisingly fast, if that were our intent, but we don't care about others, we don't care about doing the right thing, we don't care about anything but what affects us immediately, and we are too stupid to realize that a socially geared attitude benefits all, not the very few like the piece of shit we call our culture.
Picture of joeman74 achievements

0 16. joeman commented 10 years ago

#13 When the stars fall like autumn leaves, you'll still be alive... somewhere.
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-5 17. TaxCollector commented 10 years ago

#16. No I won't. Neither will you. Neither will anyone else. I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but that's the way it's going to be.
For those of you who just cannot imagine what your non-existence could be like, it will be just like before you were born.
Picture of LightAng3l49 achievements

+1 18. LightAng3l commented 10 years ago

#17 I realized how non-existence feels like since I was 6. But the sun will burn out in about 5 billion years. considering what we achieved in the last 2000 we might be far away in 5 billion...
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-5 19. TaxCollector commented 10 years ago

#18. Do you mean we might be living on another planet, orbiting another sun, which will eventually burn out and die, as will they all, as will everything. It's called entropy.

Personally I don't think we'll even make it out of the solar system. Considering what a balls-up we've made of things in the past 2000 years, the next 2000 should be a real hoot.
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-1 20. mikeab commented 10 years ago

We're all going to die so nothing really matters? How we treat each other, and the enviroment, while we're here means nothing, as long as we're well-off and enjoying our material wealth?
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-3 21. TaxCollector commented 10 years ago

#20 Oh dear. And you were doing so well there for a moment.

Nothing matters.
How we treat each other? It doesn't matter.
How we treat the environment? It doesn't matter.
Being well off? It doesn't matter.
Collecting and enjoying material wealth? It doesn't matter.

Now do you understand?
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+1 22. jackDjohnson commented 10 years ago

I felt mildly guilty while watching this from my computer ?? LOL