Thoughts at 10,000

[Jackpine Radical]

I believe that humanity is in a race between destruction and transformation into something marvelous. We are like a two-year-old left to its own devices, largely driven by primitive emotions such as rage and terror and propelled by irrational greed and short-term hedonism, but with occasional flashes of insight into what glories there might be in store for us.

Probably our species has never been very smart or very mature. It’s always possible to cite a few examples of where other societies are doing some specific thing better than we are, but each of those societies have their own problems, and overall I don’t know of any ideal cultures. But time is running out. We have only a few years at most to get our act together; if we are going to do it at all, we have to do it now.

Political progressivism seems to me to be the only avenue open to us to make the changes we have to make, if we are to make them in time. The world is about to get some rude shocks, not just at the gas pumps, but everywhere. A lot of things are going to hit the wall at once, while most Americans (and to a greater or lesser degree, most of the world) goes whistling along distracted by their own petty concerns.

I certainly don’t know what all the answers are. Maybe I don’t know any of the answers. If I had my druthers, I druther have President Gore worry about it all and just tell me what I gotta do. But it’s not working out that way. So I have two choices. I can sink into denial, dissociation and drugs, like about 75% of my countrymen have done (those anti-Bush poll results mean less than we’d like to think they do; people still aren’t actually confronting reality), or I can try to keep track of what’s going on and go to work in the political arena.

For all its frustrations, I’m following the latter course, at least to the extent that I can stand to do so. I am a very lazy, very introverted person and have never actually enjoyed the nitty-gritty of politics—the door-to-door work, the phone banks, the envelope licking. But I’m doing it anyway.

The main drawback to paying attention to what’s happening is—well--it is that you end up knowing what’s happening. And most of it isn’t good. Most of it can be downright depressing. On DU I don’t need to make a catalog of everything that’s wrong. Anyone reading these words can do so as well as I can, and our lists will probably overlap by about 90 percent.

That’s the greatest thing about DU. This is not only the world’s best place to find out just about everything worth knowing. You can come here and find thousands of people who share your reality with you. You can don your tinfoil hat and give vent to your crazy ideas. You can let your paranoia hang out. You can scream and cry and rejoice among people who will understand.

DU is not an important resource. It is a vital resource. I know full well I’m not the first to say this. In fact it’s a common comment in these forums, but without access to DU I do not know if I would have been able to keep my sanity. {“WHAT sanity, Jackpine?” Who will be the first to say it?}

I guess that's why I've been around here since spring 2001. I guess that's why I've littered the DU archives with 10,000 posts.

Thank you everybody.

[Botany]

1. Pinus banksiana

I :loveya: the north woods .... I used to think good thoughts about going into
bush country. To me it was heaven with;Walleye, Lake Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Moose,
Bear, Eagles, Fox, Wolf, and Beaver.

[fishnfla]

2. Progressive politics and.......

science. From stem cell research to the recent breakthroughs in quantum physics and DNA research.

The answers are there, but we have to carve out theocrats and the type of conservative thought that gave us decades of global warming denial and leads to never ending corporate warfare.

Congrats on the 10K, JP. And yes, I will be fishing in your neck of the woods at the end of the month

[Gregorian]

3. And I don't take it for granted either.

I just finished an email to my dad who is for the first time starting think if he should drop out. He's 82. And some of his friends say it's best to just ignore the news. After being on this forum, I know what is best. And it isn't dropping out.

I sure wish I had found out about DU in 2001. Actually, I'd have been here in 2003, but after one post with all caps in the subject line, I was banned. I'm still banned. But I'm using another IP. Huh. Weird. And I also don't know what I'd do without the place. What a fantastic crash course in reality it's been.

Congratulations on 10k posts!

[sweetheart]

4. slainte

Thank you.

:hug: