Page 6 of 8

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:28 pm
by amykamala
tools are useful in adaptation and survival on a small scale, but the kind and quantity of human tools has become so vast and dense that technology has more reign over us and our environment then we have over ourselves. i think humanities major problem is trying to overbear and hold power over the earth, and each other, rather then working in sync with those htings. if our tools were designed and used for working in sync with the ecosystem rather then controlling it, a balance would be more feasible. and everyone would feel a lot happier in their lives because we wouldn't be fighting the organic order (and disorder) of things. it has a lot to do with our cultural attitude and the history of government, too.

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:42 pm
by shonky
dr ddd wrote:erm - excuse me for digging this up - but surely this has been the part of human civilisation from the start... admittedly we dont have the church burning witches in the name of god or roman emporers slaughtering men, women and children for entertainment (Also i'm sure Brutus or Judas could be defined as self-interested, sycophantic fuckwits maybe? Except people actually died on account of them). For all I know there may have been such back stabbing in caveman politics. I don't think such behaviour is exclusive to the corporate world as we live in now - more a pattern of human behaviour being expressed in a different setting.
Yeah, but I didn't live then. Wasn't inferring a timescale. We do have torture porn and reality tv if we want to watch people suffering now (or various documentary channels if you want something a bit grittier, the holocaust or true crime investigations.

dr ddd wrote: One could argue that the only reason cynicism is rife, is that modern technology in the west has given us the opportunity to act this way by relieving us of mundane tasks (such as working in fields for 15hours a day just for a bit of food) and freeing up all this thinking time to analyse how crap life is now we have modern convenience? Just a thought ;)
That's a bit of a myth about working 15 hour days to be honest. More people living in villages meant that agriculture wasn't quite as large scale as it is now so the majority of the longer hours would be spent at particular points of the year for ploughing, sowing and harvesting and more free time during the rest of the year. Don't think the really long hours kicked in until the Industrial Revolution.

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:47 pm
by shonky
And on that matter

"According to anthropologists, hunter-gatherer societies were able to meet their needs and enjoy an adequate diet with 20-35 hours work per week. Peasants doing agricultural work in medieval times, worked according to growth cycles and seasons and were thought to have worked perhaps 120-150 days in a year, although some of these days would have been long."

"There was a big incentive for industrial employers to increase the hours that workers worked because they tended to pay them by the day or week and so extra hours did not cost the employer any more. Firms that were able to get more work out of their workers for a given wage became more competitive and other firms were forced to follow. Hours rose steadily in the nineteenth century reaching 75-90 a week in factories in the US. Indeed the working week for most occupations was over 60 hours."

http://homepage.mac.com/herinst/sbeder/ ... obe15.html

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:51 pm
by shonky
Oh and this too

"Before capitalism, most people did not work very long hours at all. The tempo of life was slow, even leisurely; the pace of work relaxed. Our ancestors may not have been rich, but they had an abundance of leisure. When capitalism raised their incomes, it also took away their time. Indeed, there is good reason to believe that working hours in the mid-nineteenth century constitute the most prodigious work effort in the entire history of humankind."

http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~rauch/work ... kweek.html

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:52 pm
by shonky
So basically I'm not lazy, just honouring my ancestors :D

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:54 pm
by datura
I'm just a lazy twat, full stop. A lethargic apathetic :lol:

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:57 pm
by Pistonsbeneath
lol


my thread has become a place for the intellectuals to discuss the meaning of life n shit

imo fuck it...were all dark matter ultimately and we have no lifespan relative to the rest of the gas based universe....we mean nothing basically

we know nothing every last one of us...and that is apparently wisdom according to a lot of wise people

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:59 pm
by shonky
datura wrote:I'm just a lazy twat, full stop. A lethargic apathetic :lol:
I really wish a politician might at some point address the issue that most people don't really get a lot out of working and most work isn't essential to society continuing. Then we can lynch some landlords and hang them from lampposts as an example to the other shitfucks.

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:59 pm
by datura
Piston wrote:lol


my thread has become a place for the intellectuals to discuss the meaning of life n shit

imo fuck it...were all dark matter ultimately and we have no lifespan relative to the rest of the gas based universe....we mean nothing basically

we know nothing every last one of us...and that is apparently wisdom according to a lot of wise people
Your thread has basically become a 'Welcome Home Shonky' thread under a different name :D

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:01 pm
by datura
Shonky wrote:
datura wrote:I'm just a lazy twat, full stop. A lethargic apathetic :lol:
I really wish a politician might at some point address the issue that most people don't really get a lot out of working and most work isn't essential to society continuing. Then we can lynch some landlords and hang them from lampposts as an example to the other shitfucks.
hey, i managed to add some numbers up and photocopy some stuff last week, are you saying that was meaningless :x

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:06 pm
by shonky
datura wrote:
Shonky wrote:
datura wrote:I'm just a lazy twat, full stop. A lethargic apathetic :lol:
I really wish a politician might at some point address the issue that most people don't really get a lot out of working and most work isn't essential to society continuing. Then we can lynch some landlords and hang them from lampposts as an example to the other shitfucks.
hey, i managed to add some numbers up and photocopy some stuff last week, are you saying that was meaningless :x
"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains the jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again as soon as you are in
There ain't no short handled shovels, no axes saws or picks
I'm a goin to stay where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk that invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains"

Always rely on itinerant alcoholics to spell it out wisely :D

Not you DDD you don't travel enough :wink:

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:10 pm
by dr ddd
oh i'm lazy too, i am just much happier to live nowadays with considerably less dysentery, typhoid, plague and other such lovelies, running hot water, a (sometimes) working internet connection, central heating, laundry which consists of switching on a button rather than spending most of a day with a scrubbing board, social support and other creature comforts we take for granted. I was (and am still) generalising the point, but personally i think given the relative benefits we have a much easier (and longer) life nowadays...

And there is no reason people cant still live like this to a certain extent (and do), if you are happy to brave a change of lifestyle. I think it's too easy to glamourise such things "in the past", but lives were hard and things could be extremely tough or barbaric - unless of course you were rich or in control... Bigup the Robin Hoods of the world :P

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:12 pm
by shonky
dr ddd wrote: i am just much happier to live nowadays with considerably less dysentery, typhoid, plague and other such lovelies
Shame your pox hasn't cleared up though

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:32 pm
by dr ddd
Piston wrote:lol


my thread has become a place for the intellectuals to discuss the meaning of life n shit

imo fuck it...were all dark matter ultimately and we have no lifespan relative to the rest of the gas based universe....we mean nothing basically

we know nothing every last one of us...and that is apparently wisdom according to a lot of wise people
haha - this thread is what happens when u get old ;) I found it a great way of avoiding work actually - cheers!

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:46 am
by epithet
I've developed a habit of turning away and walking off in mid sentence when people are trying to talk shit to me. I just cant be bothered wasting time and energy forming words to utter my contempt for them. Is that cunty and should i care ?

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:50 am
by tempest
epithet wrote:I've developed a habit of turning away and walking off in mid sentence when people are trying to talk shit to me. I just cant be bothered wasting time and energy forming words to utter my contempt for them. Is that cunty and should i care ?
Very cunty, you = prick

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:00 am
by epithet
^^What should I do then ? Suffer their shit talk in silence or straight up insult them ?

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:14 am
by tempest
I dunno, if it's becoming a 'habit' you're meeting a lot of shit cunted people that talk bullshit... If it's just you thinking no one has anything decent to say, maybe your just not listening?

But I guess its possible you're just meeting too many tools and it aint your fault..

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:26 am
by parson
epithet wrote:I've developed a habit of turning away and walking off in mid sentence when people are trying to talk shit to me. I just cant be bothered wasting time and energy forming words to utter my contempt for them. Is that cunty and should i care ?
i do this.

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:36 am
by epithet
tempest wrote:
But I guess its possible you're just meeting too many tools and it aint your fault..
oh no, i do it to everyone i know and some of my best mates too. Just cant be fucked with bullshit chatter most of the time. I mean some people just like the sound of their own voices and don't know when to STFU. Sometimes i'll wind em up and pretend i'm interested just for a giggle :lol:

Is that cunty ?