As has been pointed out by thousands, human civilization is going the wrong way re the care of our planet. It is so easy to say we are doing it wrong and so easy to suggest alternate ways of living but implementing such is not something that a few people can do. Getting the human race to change direction is akin to trying to herd cats.
Many bemoan capitalism and obviously, as nice as it sounds, socialism is defective in practice. The fact is that both have valuable points but both run up against an overwhelming force, human greed. If all humans were perfect little angels, either of the the two systems could work quite well! However, human has a grave shortage of perfect little angels.
The reason for this thread is that we do have a way to herd human "cats". In certain people an effective method to control greed, indifference and corruption already exists and has been in use for millennia. This system is called religion. Of course, religion is not too effective with the more intelligent or educated population and may even encourage corruption in the religious leaders, but all in all, it has much to say for it as a control method for the masses.
I don't want to get into the truth or untruth of any particular religion; they all claim to be the absolute truth. I'm talking about religion as a control over people.
The most outstanding example today is the fact that a religion has thousands of young people strapping themselves into vests loaded with explosives and blowing themselves up in order to kill a few perceived enemies. While we can not get most people to segregate their garbage!
Could we get a system going, say in worship of Gaia, that would raise enough dedication in her devotees to get large groups really out there for our Earth? Or would starting another religion just open a Pandora's Box with too many negative aspects? What do you think?
Many bemoan capitalism and obviously, as nice as it sounds, socialism is defective in practice. The fact is that both have valuable points but both run up against an overwhelming force, human greed. If all humans were perfect little angels, either of the the two systems could work quite well! However, human has a grave shortage of perfect little angels.
The reason for this thread is that we do have a way to herd human "cats". In certain people an effective method to control greed, indifference and corruption already exists and has been in use for millennia. This system is called religion. Of course, religion is not too effective with the more intelligent or educated population and may even encourage corruption in the religious leaders, but all in all, it has much to say for it as a control method for the masses.
I don't want to get into the truth or untruth of any particular religion; they all claim to be the absolute truth. I'm talking about religion as a control over people.
The most outstanding example today is the fact that a religion has thousands of young people strapping themselves into vests loaded with explosives and blowing themselves up in order to kill a few perceived enemies. While we can not get most people to segregate their garbage!
Could we get a system going, say in worship of Gaia, that would raise enough dedication in her devotees to get large groups really out there for our Earth? Or would starting another religion just open a Pandora's Box with too many negative aspects? What do you think?
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Costa Rica
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Re: Herding cats
Sun, October 29, 2006 - 9:11 AMUnfortunately, most of the human race does not seem to behave much like cats but more like the proverbial lemmings, or sheep, that people bemoan. Maybe, the problem is that those of us who are more independant and aware are really not "herders". I don't want to tell other people what to do, I don't want to put my energy into convincing them to do what seems perfectly obvious to me. It seems to me they should think about it for themselves and change their behavior, but clearly that is not happening and not likely to happen anytime soon. And there seems to be no shortage of people willing to take on the role fof herder for a multitude of reasons.
So, maybe we really need to consider taking on that role ourselves, stop beating the sheep up and learn how to direct them. Appalling thought, really. (Can you imagine a bunch of cats herding sheep?)
I don't know that it's necessary to resort to religion but I do think that people are more willing to make good choices when those choices feel meaningful, when they have a sense that doing so makes them good people, and certainly Gaia, or simply the survival of the human race could be used to foster that feeling.
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Re: Herding cats
Sun, October 29, 2006 - 9:34 PM<I'm talking about religion as a control over people. >
As the cartels, CIA and pharmaceutical companies have proven it is much more effective to control people with drugs.
