"You're on your own."

[August1991]

I was at a friend's place the other night, early in December in fact, and I heard her yell to her older teenage son: "You're on your own! If that's what you want, you're on your own."

I tend to think that between reasonable people, everything is negotiable. I thought that my friend was harsh. And yet, we're all on our own.

In the Holocaust, hundreds of people died together in a small room, holding hands, sandwiched in a small place.

In the 2010s, people die alone, in bed, with hired help by their side.

[ToadBrother]

I think our society has slowly been moving towards increasingly insular, isolated behavior. I think about when I was a kid, and how parents looked out for each others' kids, and sometimes, when called for, meted out at least limited punishments. Compared to now where if you even walk towards a misbehaving kid in anger, you risk having the cops throw you in the clink.

But it's more than that. We're not building homes so much as we're building huge fortresses that we leave only to go to work or do the necessities. We're playing our lives out more and more behind closed doors, and that sense of community, and with it the sense of communal responsibility and interdependence is fading. Maybe that's why we're seeing phenomena like low voter turnout in the Western World. There's no real sense of civic duty any more, everybody is too busy watching 200 channels on TV and surfing the web to take note of the world. Every once in a while, there'll be a tsunami in Southeast Asia or a hurricane on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, or a big earthquake somewhere that wakes people up, but it's usually shortlived. Technology, paranoia and apathy are breaking down the social constructs.

Edited January 8, 2010 by Charles Anthony
deleted re-copied Opening Post

[Michael Hardner]

Our geographic communities aren't really our communities any more, and there's no sense of social cohesion. People are drifting apart, but we are compensating by finding new ways to identify ourselves and bond to each other as groups.

Togetherness, and separation are both needs that every human, and groups of humans have. In fact, it's helped our evolution to have larger groups splinter into smaller ones that are more likely to survive separately. This was the situation for hundreds of thousands of years, until we found specialization and that peculiarly unnatural human invention called the city.

Edited January 8, 2010 by Charles Anthony
deleted re-copied previous post

[bill_barilko]

I think about when I was a kid, and how parents looked out for each others' kids, and sometimes, when called for, meted out at least limited punishments.

Any adult even touching me when I was a Kid was due for a beating from my Dad (if not from me when I was older).

[Griz]

What it boils down to is our world has gone to hell. There is no trust anymore. Everybody uses people and are greedy for money. I call those political conventions a "ball of snakes" party because that's what it is. It's even gotten to the point where you can't even blaim the indians anymore All the strife in the world and they spend billions on a dumb olympic party The world has gone to hell

[Michael Hardner]

What it boils down to is our world has gone to hell. There is no trust anymore. Everybody uses people and are greedy for money. I call those political conventions a "ball of snakes" party because that's what it is. It's even gotten to the point where you can't even blaim the indians anymore All the strife in the world and they spend billions on a dumb olympic party The world has gone to hell

What the community has lost, though, the individual has gained. We have more personal freedom, and less pressure from our peers and community to conform than ever.

People are always lamenting the loss of old values, where in fact things generally get better and better.

[maple_leafs182]

What the community has lost, though, the individual has gained. We have more personal freedom, and less pressure from our peers and community to conform than ever.

People are always lamenting the loss of old values, where in fact things generally get better and better.

Things are not getting better and better, what makes you believe that they are?

or I guess just elaborate on what you mean by things.

We are now living our lives in fear.

We are in a new age, the Age of Paranoia.

We are losing our trust in each other because we're afraid of everything now.

The most messed up thing about it is that nobody even cares,

in fact we don't care about anything, if the Main Stream Media doesn't think it's important, guess what, it isn't important. This is conformity on a grand scale.

You may call them old values but they are the most important values to have.

[Shwa]

Things are not getting better and better, what makes you believe that they are?

or I guess just elaborate on what you mean by things.

We are now living our lives in fear.

We are in a new age, the Age of Paranoia.

We are losing our trust in each other because we're afraid of everything now.

The most messed up thing about it is that nobody even cares,

in fact we don't care about anything, if the Main Stream Media doesn't think it's important, guess what, it isn't important. This is conformity on a grand scale.

You may call them old values but they are the most important values to have.

I understand where you are coming from, but you are missing Mr. Hardner's point and that is about choice or the freedom of choices. So adjusting what you have said:

You choose to live your life in fear;

You choose to live your life as in the Age of Paranoia;

You choose not to trust and choose to be afraid of everything now;

You choose to believe nobody cares;

You choose to go along with what the Main Stream Media thinks as a dictate;

You choose to conform.

Of course there are agreed upon or acceptable standards for our behaviour, but by and large what you make of your life is what you make of your choices. And you will find many, many companions on the road you choose, but in the long run there's still time to change the road you're on.

Cripes, I just quoted Led Zeppelin.

[Michael Hardner]

Things are not getting better and better, what makes you believe that they are?

or I guess just elaborate on what you mean by things.

What makes me think they're getting better. I've already told you that world hunger and disease declines year after year. Why is it that you didn't remember that, do you think ? Maybe it's because you're looking for the negative and as such positive things don't stick in your mind.

We are now living our lives in fear.

We are in a new age, the Age of Paranoia.

Well, you clearly are. As I said, I gave you good news and you didn't remember it.

We are losing our trust in each other because we're afraid of everything now.

The most messed up thing about it is that nobody even cares,

in fact we don't care about anything, if the Main Stream Media doesn't think it's important, guess what, it isn't important. This is conformity on a grand scale.

This seems to be you talking about you.

[GostHacked]

I was at a friend's place the other night, early in December in fact, and I heard her yell to her older teenage son: "You're on your own! If that's what you want, you're on your own."

I tend to think that between reasonable people, everything is negotiable. I thought that my friend was harsh. And yet, we're all on our own.

In the Holocaust, hundreds of people died together in a small room, holding hands, sandwiched in a small place.

In the 2010s, people die alone, in bed, with hired help by their side.

There needs to be more backstory on what led the person to say 'you're on your own'.

[whowhere]

In the 2010s, people die alone, in bed, with hired help by their side.

Or worse you die in a so called nursing home which treats people like animals becuase the elderly is just a widget to make money for the operator. The only way to successfully die is in your sleep. If you don't have the health the best way to go is probably carbon monoxide poisoning on your terms. In Toronto there was an 82 year old man who was kicked out of his subsidized apartment by the city. After being locked out, he lived in the stairwell. A week later he froze to death. The machine of Life and death in Canada can be ugly.

[maple_leafs182]

No I mean we, if you haven't noticed we are putting full body scanners in airports.

What freedom of choices, Paper or plastic, Big Mac or Whopper, West Jet or Air Canada, is that what you mean by choices?

The real important choices we have no say in, its the ruling class that makes all the important decisions, the politicians, corporate leaders, big bankers, the problem is, they don't care about us.

"Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice . . . you don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying . . . lobbying, to get what they want . . . Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want . . . they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that . . . that doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin' years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers . . . Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it . . . they’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fuckin' place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in The big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people . . . white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means . . . continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you . . . they don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t care about you at all . . . at all . . . at all, and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it . . ." - George Carlin

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

[whowhere]

No I mean we, if you haven't noticed we are putting full body scanners in airports.

What freedom of choices, Paper or plastic, Big Mac or Whopper, West Jet or Air Canada, is that what you mean by choices?

The real important choices we have no say in, its the ruling class that makes all the important decisions, the politicians, corporate leaders, big bankers, the problem is, they don't care about us.

"Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice . . . you don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying . . . lobbying, to get what they want . . . Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want . . . they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that . . . that doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin' years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers . . . Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it . . . they’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fuckin' place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in The big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people . . . white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means . . . continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you . . . they don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t care about you at all . . . at all . . . at all, and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it . . ." - George Carlin

"Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery and torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but more merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress toward more pain." -George Orwell, 1984

That's our freedom, no one cares about you, but you have to care enough for yourself. Sometimes you have to make the tough decisions to get yourself up. You are free to vanish, you are free to stay. People try to make you think all kinds of ways, that's the paradigm.

[Sir Bandelot]

There needs to be more backstory on what led the person to say 'you're on your own'.

If you've ever had to raise teenagers, you'll already know.

[Sir Bandelot]

What freedom of choices, Paper or plastic, Big Mac or Whopper, West Jet or Air Canada, is that what you mean by choices?

The real important choices we have no say in, its the ruling class that makes all the important decisions, the politicians, corporate leaders, big bankers, the problem is, they don't care about us.

Man I agree, but you're depressing the hell out of me...

[Shwa]

No I mean we, if you haven't noticed we are putting full body scanners in airports.

What freedom of choices, Paper or plastic, Big Mac or Whopper, West Jet or Air Canada, is that what you mean by choices?

The real important choices we have no say in, its the ruling class that makes all the important decisions, the politicians, corporate leaders, big bankers, the problem is, they don't care about us.

That is simplism. If you believe you have no say in the 'real important choices' then you have chosen to believe that. These are the types of choices I am referring to.

Instead of weighing yourself down with Orwell, read Thoreau - especially 'Walden'

'Walden' isn't and end, but a beginning. Plus it is a little lighter reading too.

Edited January 14, 2010 by Shwa

[GostHacked]

If you've ever had to raise teenagers, you'll already know.

That's pretty generic. I am sure there are a million things that would give a reason to say 'on your own'.

[Sir Bandelot]

That's pretty generic. I am sure there are a million things that would give a reason to say 'on your own'.

Yes true, but all those millions come down to one thing: Temporary Mental Retardation!