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"Granted, many of you reading this could be among them [dissipative people]." Simplicius, you made me smile because readers have to be somewhat attuned to read your intellectualism.

I add that the most dissipative people are born from laziness, something less forgivable.

Regarding mindfulness, activists are an exception because they can be be aware whilst repeating actions endangering themselves i.e., paradoxically dumb and brave.

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Not to be a contrarian, but working in oncology, often one meets people who "did everything right." Meaning, they eat right, exercised and meditated, went through annual screenings, etc., and when diagnosed with cancer, they are they are absolutely stunned. It's like they thought by doing everything right, they made some kind of pact with God to be spared. At least for someone who "deviated," they can revamp their lifestyle, change their outlook, but when you "did everything right," and ended up with cancer, the hard landing is much harder indeed....

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So your contention is a healthy diet and exercise is ‘doing everything right’?

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I'm just saying that "healthy diet and exercise" is not a panacea. Never seen 99-year-old French ladies smoking like a chimney and drinking red wine? No need to tempt the Providence but to assume that "doing everything right" is some kind of a guarantee. It is not.

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What most people consider “doing everything right’ may be nothing of the sort.

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I agree with this comment. Doing everything *right* from a western doctor's perspective, usually means living a very unhealthy life.

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I read somewhere that obsessing over healthy living, ie being a "health nut" can backfire and lead to problems. It may have to do with following bad advice, or taking good advice too far. Of course, diet/exercise/meditation/fasting are positive things, but even that should be done in moderation; a bit of indulgence & intoxication is fine, as long as you don't overdo that either.

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There’s lots of bad ideas about diet promoted as “right” by the medical industry. Also a “screening” whose result “stuns” the patient may well be erroneous.

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Blue light filtering glasses did wonders for my sleep, as did getting rid of social media completely and reading before bed.

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I like that definition of mindfulness, active awareness. That’s how I feel after my meditations.

Jon Kabat Zin has really great ones.

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I'm recalling in the late 1990's, before the cellphones became commonplace, being at the mall, you know, when that was still a thing! Anyways, vividly remember constantly dodging shoppers walking obliviously the opposite way. Was always amazed how many I'd have walked right into had I not anticipated avoiding them. It's kinda the same at the big box stores these days, but more people are larger now than say 25 yrs ago, so one makes room in advance. Never mind those still spooked by the COVID crap. Would you believe I saw more than half the folks at an outdoor bus stop in Sonoma, CA dutifully wearing their masks while standing outdoors recently?! So sad smh.

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I have seen people wearing masks sitting alone in own car...

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Yeah I see that on occasion here to. So pitiful!

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LOL @ people are larger these days. So true. I used to work at "THE MALL" (just seems like it needs all caps and to be spoken loudly considering how huge a roll they played in the social lives of people our age) and you're 100% correct. In fact going back to my childhood in the 80s, walking with a good buddy into Kay Bee Toys both of us with our heads down and just kinda oblivious, my friend (not a kid or a dude to be messed with) accidentally bumped into this much bigger bully looking kid. No blows were thrown or anything, but we were in the wrong despite my friend and that guy giving each other shit. WAY before cell phones!

P.S. I left a comment over at CJ Hopkins Substack just now about masks. My dad is immune compromised and he's a smart dude. Fluid science, actually. Had cancer and is in remission, but it looks like it's coming back. In his late 70s, so I don't give him grief over the COVID jabs that I totally disagree with. Where I won't try to 'talk him down' is on his insistence on N95 respirators in public indoor places like Costco or WalMart. The mask studies are a mess and most of them rely on self-reporting and/or the use of inadequate masks including those who wear worthless cloth ones without covering their noses. So that means a bunch of them seem to say that the laws of (fluid and aerosol) physics (his specialty) don't apply, but that isn't the case. If you wear a GOOD mask, CORRECTLY, in the most risky environments, it's just a matter of physics. COVID virions are tiny to the point that most masks, even N95 won't filter anything that size out, but are almost always carried on tiny droplets of bodily fluids (spit, mucus) so wearing a good respirator and doing so properly does work.

Oh and the other thing - I really don't care that much about it and couldn't be bothered to make fun of someone wearing a mask in THE MALL (lol) but isn't it just like those "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" signs that used to appear in bars and restaurants along the beach (think Spicoli from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" - a classic)? IOW it's just a dress code of a different variety put up by private business owners whether they're right or not. Why such a backlash against abiding by a mask "requirement" when you would never think to push your luck and walk around topless (or BOTTOMless) inside a Lidz or Hot Topic?

/mask rant over

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You're good, I'm a CA employee totally subjected to the mask madness, so I'll always remain a bit bitter about it all. But I get it your dad has a special, dangerous condition. Rick Rule has that problem too, and I remember him interviewing early into COVID, and he was all "I'm not leaving my ranch for a good while!" One thing about masks that MSM was really dumb about, was that mask-mandate counties didn't have lower 'cases', but they did have lower hospitalizations and deaths. But THEY were always chiefly concerned with power & control.

Thanks I was really unsure about making my mall observations, but it seems I've hit a nerve with some, which is real cool! And Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby, oh the memories of stealing Atari 2600 games when Super Mario original was the shiz. Till we finally got caught! I miss the big Toys R Us stores too. I got chase out of 1 in my late 20's, after riding on 1 of those new little Razor scooters in the late 90's for hrs during Black Friday or some around then. Cool story yourself. Cheers man!

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Remember cassette tapes and those early plastic 'frames' they'd put CDs in? We used to walk into Musicland or Hastings at the mall and grab a tape or CD, find and remove (sometimes with a little razor blade) the little loss prevention sensor strip, then slip them up our back under our jackets and then down into the belt of our pants and walk out to go sell them in the cafeteria at HS in the winter. LOL the mall was about a 20 minute walk both ways.

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LOL oh yes I remember! I used to bring a knife into Sears and just cut through the plastic to steal the tapes. Till they busted me on camera that is! Now they got buzzer jingles and flashing lights when you set off the security alarms. Like a concert or something! Oh what fine memories LOL thanks!

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But yeah wearing a (likely completely inadequate cloth) mask at a f*cking sunny bus stop in summer weather is quite stupid. Even my mask-religious fluid dynamics dad would say so, LOL.

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"Would you believe I saw more than half the folks at an outdoor bus stop in Sonoma, CA dutifully wearing their masks while standing outdoors recently?"

Absolutely. They're part of the same cohort of poor lost souls whose primary source of information is The Press Democrat. Their mourning was pitiful to behold when carpetbagging grifter Sundari Mase took her thirty pieces of silver and left, with the village idiots that hired her holding the bag for the damage she inflicted on county residents.

These masked victims of learned helplessness deserve our compassion, which is much easier to sustain from a distance. That distance is their most fervent desire, so it's an arrangement that is highly satisfactory for all concerned.

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Isn't the PD owned and operated by NYT? I lived in the Sonoma area 1991-2004. I was passing through on the way to Santa Rosa, to go mtn bike recently. I hadn't been out there in several yrs. Doesn't look the same, appears much more run down now, certainly not as well maintained as before. Noticed a lot of neglected cars with flat tires in driveways too. Our societies collapse is almost palpable now. Thanks for the update, couldn't agree more with your statements!

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It was bought by them, Anthony, back when you lived in the Sonoma area. NYT sold to a "pump-and-dump" private equity firm, who stripped away what was left of the local news infrastructure, and then sold it to an ad hoc consortium of local investors at a profit justified by a typically deceptive balance sheet.

It is a dim and murky shadow of its former self, with NYT and WaPo syndication dominating national and international news articles. They've hired a crop of young "progressives" to "report" on local events. These young ideologues insert DEI and climate hysteria into nearly everything they write. The P.D. has become one of the most remarkably fact-free publications I've ever seen.

What you saw in Santa Rosa was emblematic of working class and lower-middle class neighborhoods, but if you'd ventured into the traditionally upper-income neighborhoods, you'd have observed what you would expect. They are still clean and their well-maintained streets needlessly repaved while the main surface streets most heavily used by working folks are getting rougher and rougher.

Everywhere you look, this polarization of income strata becomes increasingly evident. The immense population inflow pressure, combined with the strip mining of the food-growing land for boutique vineyard conversion, has made what can best be described as Thoreau's "lives of quiet desperation" an underlying theme throughout everyday existence for the majority.

You watched the beginning of this when you were there, with the massive equity migration from the San Francisco Peninsula making the area into "Telecom Valley." Rents are approaching two thousand a month for studio apartments, now, and gentrified shacks in the flood zone along the Russian River are reaching the 600K mark. Mobile homes in senior parks are well over 300K for the newer coaches.

And still the government keeps importing more people to compete for housing and employment resources that are becoming ever more scarce. Downtown Santa Rosa from the south to the north has new Soviet-style brutalist multi-story apartment blocks going up everywhere, even as the old water rationing you remember so fondly, continues.

Generalissimo Newsom of the Sacramento Junta has released his army of flying bureaucratic monkeys to insinuate mandatory building quotas into areas that cannot hope to provide the infrastructure required to support all of these people. If you can even find one, long-term RV spaces are renting in the 1200 a month range.

People are still walking out of their doors after a job loss and erecting tents along walking trails. The massive homelessness that began in 2008 has become endemic, with police clearing the sidewalks regularly to hide the losers of the competition for housing from the gaze of those offended by visual reminders of the policies they advocated for and deployed.

I sincerely hope that wherever it was you moved to, Anthony, you managed to nail down some bit of property, because it's all coming down to rentierism on steroids as the extractive commodity infrastructure that was the basis for California's prosperity is dismantled at an ever-accelerating pace.

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Wow that's an amazing write up, thanks! Yes I remember lots of cattle acreage in Petaluma being sold off to big tech in the later 90's. Nope stayed in the flats, didn't go up into the hills, and now that you mention, I do remember the roads being extra shitty now.

I relocated to Susanville, CA, 85 mi north of Reno in 2004. Bought an 1100 sq ft home on an acre. Had job drama, relocated again to Folsom in 2010, rented out the house. Looking to retire next yr and go and reclaim it! I'm so tired of suburb-city life. The noise, the traffic, the masses, the lunacy, the homeless, etc. Speaking of homeless, I've watched the deterioration locally in that too. There really weren't all that many in Folsom, at least not visible from the street. About 2013-14 started seeing homeless sleep across the street in the public library bushes. After COVID, all hell of course broke lose. Whole families, kids included, walking the streets with the homeless shopping carts. Last summer, while riding about my neighborhood on a hot day, within a 1 mile radius of my duplex, saw 3 homeless women in that near falling, hunched up ready to topple, comma stricken drugged out zombie state. Shit Sunday was out mtn biking around a small local lake, and rode by 2 shopping cart ladies on the trail. Didn't start seeing that till COVID began.

I'm a CA employee at Folsom Prison. Gavin is driving me to an early retirement. As if COVID, and then the vax mandates weren't enough. I resisted and put me through hell of course. Now the same bosses who were threatening me, and brow-beating me about vaxxing, don't understand why I don't believe me when they say they CARE. But now as you rightly observed, it's non-stop DEI-LBGT-QRX etc. They even gave us Nursing Appreciation Week Thank You cards all rainbow-themed out. Can't waste a psyop-programming opportunity. Thanks man I really appreciate your knowledge and observations!

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You're welcome and I'm truly happy for you, Anthony. Susanville was a really intelligent choice, as was the financial calculus of association with a correctional facility. I've a nephew recently retired as a correctional officer and he has a heart of gold. He's embarked on a new, much gentler part-time career that revolves around helping people.

All the best to you in your countdown to freedom. I hope you'll forgive me for offering one bit of friendly advice, which is to get imaged for arterial stenosis before you make that final move to your retirement paradise. I say this because cath labs are extremely uncommon in rural hospitals. The combination of semi-sedentary occupations and vigorous exercise has done for a number of close friends, and almost did for me a couple of years ago. I was less than five minutes from the local trauma center when my sudden "widow maker" hit, or I wouldn't be having this conversation with you today.

As far as I can tell, Banner bought out the Lassen hospital and there is no angiogram imaging at that small critical-care facility. Double-check me on that.

All the best to you, and may your retirement be a warm, meaningful and kindly passage of time.

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Ted, thanks so much, you're very awesome! Check that on the medical advice, I actually do have a health issue or 2 to deal with before withdrawing from the city madness. Buying the Susanville house was a bit of luck and intelligence on my part. I was 32, at a real crossroads of either continuing to state University, or relocate to the rural to buy a house. I felt a bit crazy at the time, but I chose the property. And the relocation, for I'm a bit of a country boy at heart. When I was 10, first time in downtown SF, looking up from the street up at those minor skyscrapers, I had a strange premonition that this all won't last. And 42 yrs later, all the shopping in the Embarcadero is now closed. Collapse may not be happening immediately, but it's happening right before our eyes!

I'm very impressed you're absolutely right Banner did buy them out. Even when I was up there 2010 you had to go to Reno to get anything really serious done. I was down at Mammoth Lakes last month, and heard that the Mammoth hospital is outsourcing birthing babies to Bishop or somewhere. No more Mammoth-borns the locals we're telling me! Really sad actually.

Anyways I really appreciate the well wishes. It's what's in my heart, and I'm gonna follow my trusted instincts. You be well my good man Ted!

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The Universe is full of love, and we can tap into that if we are willing to love other people and the Universe itself...say by hiking in the wilderness, being kind to everyone, and helping people in need..The rewards are enormous...

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I've spent 12 early days of this July camping in Mammoth Lakes, CA, skiing and cycling the mtn. I've always felt closer, closest, to that higher Power, that spirituality, the connection to the world, when in the mtns. This latest trip, I've never felt more connected, more joyous and happy, than I can remember in a long time. Made real friends while skiing for the first time, after skiing 28 yrs. Such an unexpected surprise, and reward, for my recent hard work. It's as if skiing, atop that massive mtn, is it's own little world or universe, seemingly unassailable from the outside. And we little skiers and boarders know the big bad Govs don't give 2 shits about us. My kind of people. Cheers man appreciate your thoughts this evening.

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Truly...Also wonderful are ventures into Glacier, Yellowstone, and the Canadian Boundary Waters, amongst others....When you get away from people completely, you are suddenly close to the World and its creator...

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Nice, thank you, I made it to Yellowstone, managed to time an Old Faithful eruption. Have always meant to get to Glacier too, and Canadian Boundary Waters, thanks for the tip!

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I got the same feeling when I visited Mammoth Lakes. The peace that came over me was incredible. The only other place I’ve experienced that is at Bodega Bay just north of San Francisco. Just as I passed the grocery store I felt my whole body relax. I was very fortunate to be able to camp in the parking lot at Wright's Beach for $5. It’s right on the sand before the ocean. I think it’s better than the campground because I was usually alone there.

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I left Sonoma county in 2004, but have made many trips out to Bodega Bay. Wright's Beach, I wouldn't have ever remembered the name, but I do remember the $5 camping! I was younger then, and I can't say I was aware of the calm and peace the area brings. But then I did used to go out there often to destress, relax, read or study, yes I'm really missing Bodega Head now. The ocean sounds wonderful there, the way it crashes on those shore rocks. I was actually going out there a few wks ago, went mtn biking at Annadell first, got a flat within a half an hr, forgot my tire pump, and bailed on that whole day's planned adventure. All my ties to that area are gone, and I broke my leg and knee at Annadel in 2014, and I took it as an omen to just go away. I took several dates out there in my 13 yrs in Sonoma Co. Thanks for helping me refresh my memory! And Mammoth is wonderful. There, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Rainer, I've felt a very special, unique energy. Really, going and adventuring in those areas, some of the best moments and highlights of my 52 yr life. Peace Sam!

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I loved letting the wind from the ocean blow the stress out of my body. I went there twice a month when I lived in Modesto and was going through a very difficult time. I spent 2 Xmas there when Modesto was fogged in and it was sunny and in the 70's. Yes the sounds of the waves there was magical. Lucky you to have lived so close to the ocean.

I’m back in Utah and spending a lot of time in the Uintas, but I also spent time in the Sierra up by Sonora. And I camp on Antelope Island during thanksgiving, but the water is an hour’s walk for me and there are no waves.

Glad I could take you for a walk down memory lane.

Take care.

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Thanks Sam likewise, I'm gonna have to make that Bodega run before I retreat to my Susanville home next yr in retirement. Well semi at least and a new pt job and challenge. Think I'll just run straight out to Bodega next time bring my road bike. I used to park further up the road at a beach parking and do a little ride. Memory lane indeed. Be Well my man!

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Look up Iain McGilchrist. He's saying the same thing as you. He is a neuroscientist and philosopher who delves into how we attend to the world. One manner of attending is to focus, to find food and shelter. But that can't be the only way of attending. The other way must attend to the whole environment, to be aware of danger from predators, or the need to attend to offspring. It is this fundamental need for these two types of attention that give rise to the two hemispheres of the brain, that are found in all animals.

The left brain attends in a focussed way, to be able to grasp, manipulate, and control. It freezes things, isolates them out of context, breaks things into parts, abstracts and generalizes. The right brain is grounded in reality, a changing, flowing world, where everything connects in some way to everything else. "Part of it consists of being naturally observant: of one's environment, of others, of one's own body." This is essentially the right brain's way of viewing the world.

McGilchrist contends that since the Enlightenment, the worldview of the West has become unbalanced, with the left brain taking over, and shutting out the right brain. It's not that we don't need or want the left brain's input, but that there needs to be a balance. I find that this view explains a lot. There is definitely something fundamentally wrong with the mentality of the modern world, of how moderns see things, how they process things.

I can't explain this all in a single comment. Here is a video interview of McGilchrist expaining it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrlrhuI39K4.

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Thanks I actually watched his long interview with another guy I subscribe to on substack David Bentley Hart and was using McGilchrist as a reference for another piece I was writing so I was in fact already inspired by him https://davidbentleyhart.substack.com/p/a-conversation-with-iain-mcgilchrist

I was considering reading McGilchrist's double volume book though it's a gigantic commitment.

But thanks for the comment

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I just so regret not turning off that damned TV, or 'cord cutting', until just over 4 yrs ago. Such an odd beginning journey. I only had my Ipad (my grandma's last gift to me) for several yrs until buying a laptop-to burn my CD's onto and load them onto an MP3, for skiing of all things. Through that laptop I got into YT, and listened to Lacy Hunt discuss on MacroVoices the deleterious cumulative consequences of debt, and the decreased multiplier function of ever-increasing debt. A month later i first listened to Peter Schiff, who taught me at the time (2019) that the USD had lost 96% of it's purchasing power. I've always taken an interest in economics. This new knowledge sent me down the rabbit hole, haven't left since, you all know how it goes. Yet I'll always be grateful I awakened prior to COVID, Vax, CBDC's, on and on it goes. And I'll always be grateful for noble mentors who fight their fight, in their own fashion, such as yourself, Simplicius. Thanks, and Cheers All!

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"I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of

silent seas."

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The garish spectacle around us produces dissipative people. It distracts, entertains, trivializes, decontextualizes, pacifies and confuses. It programs inadequacy and need so we obey, follow and buy. The constant overstimulation of ubiquitous media overwhelms coherent thought--it in effect manufactures autism: it becomes a struggle to sort out the abundance of sensation. It is hypnotic, glamorous and seductive. And it is ultimately abusive, drowning the self with impossible demands. On the individual level one escapes by tuning out mass culture--this is a rare maverick. For society as a whole escape is possible only through structural change. Our capitalist culture awards wealth and status on the basis of amoral, sociopathic behavior. The climb to the social-political-economic apex is a relentless winnowing out of human connection and compassion. It dishes out rewards and punishment according to our contribution to profitability and market share. This is a structural problem--that is these incentives are determined by the legal system, which regulates who owns what and who gets what. Without structural change there can be no fundamental social change.

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I see the West simply going through a natural cycle, currently of course it is the phase of systemic corruption, moral and economic decline, it will need play out before things can improve, add in where we are located also in the larger cycle and it will no doubt be unpleasant. Mark Twain's comment on history rhyming was an observation of fact.

Regarding New Age and personal development, some of it is fine but a great deal a misinterpretation deliberate or not that leads people down roads to nowhere. Then there is the the other side focusing on a development on mantras etc. to acquire materialistic wealth, a completely useless endeavor with zero personal growth. Look like for profit businesses to me.

When we are ready for actual personal growth to see beyond the illusion of the cave, events will lead us there, however we still have to reach that junction through our own effort regardless of the path we choose.

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This conversation reminds me of “Outwitting the Devil” where the title character admitted to the author that his main way of capturing men was making them into “drifters”.

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In some ways, I consider this kind of dissipative phenomenon to be a natural extension of the modern interconnected world. With the rush of everybody always telling us what to do and how to do it, the natural reaction for those who find themselves lost and adrift in the endless sea of messages is to shut down - a biological bluescreen that shuts off the information valves.

Sadly this also prevents the dissipated from changing their habits, because the valves for new information and initiative are closed.

https://open.substack.com/pub/argomend/p/global-paradox-2023?r=28g8km&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Wasn't sure where you were going with this, but an interesting tie-in there by the end.

For the record, though, these "dissipated" folks you speak of, watching TV until 6am etc, always have three things in common 1) little/no alcohol/drug consumption 2) eat lots of bread/flour and 3) drink very very little water. Just a coincidence, though, I'm sure :)

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Outstanding essay, demonstrating that one can criticise phenomena without criticising those who 'live' them!

How society got there - well, I'd suggest that the long fight against 'The elites' is one reason because it led to the now decades-long dumbing down of pupils and scholars in Western education. The current woke~ and cancel~cutlure is just the cherry on top. It'e say to glorify Greek philosopher kings or 'holistic bronze age lives' when one has no knowledge nor imagination of what daily life and the drudgery really looked and felt like.

There's also the ongoing, manufactured disconnect with the past as experienced by ancestors such as grandparents. 'Old' people not only know nothing, not only have nothing of value to teach, but must eb despised and stomped out as 'baby boomers' and a dreadful cost factor in the national economy.

I'm no guru, and my 'remedies' might not suit everybody - but to combat and overturn the habit of spending nights infant of the Tv and feeling horrid all the next day, I heartily recommend getting a dog (not a chihuahua!). They'll get you out of bed really early, in no time, after you've 'dealt' with their gifts to nature they left for you because you ere too lazy to get up and cater to their needs. Additionally, they make you get out into the fresh air - and having to play with them just might make you remember carefree days.

My other remedy is: gardening! It teaches one patience, it teaches one to really be 'in contact' with nature when having to deal with pests, it teaches one equanimity, observance of weather currents and, not least, the delight of listening to and observing garden birds.

I have one final observation: isn't it wonderful how G.K. Chesterton's wise remark has been-laying out, proving your diagnosis over and over again:

"“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”"

To which, in conclusion, his other observation can be suitably and perhaps encouragingly added:

"“The problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried.”

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Excellent, it perfectly describes the evolution of society in the last 2 centuries. where is the metaphysics? its absence is a pity justifying itself in paganism. This emptiness screams at us Lord Jesus Christ without you we can do nothing but you will not hear it because as Psalm 14 says

1 The fool said in his heart: "A lie, God does not exist!" They are perverted people who do infamous things; there is no one who does good.

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