Its cyclical, there is no end or beginning just a chain of actions. Might not be the fun part od the circle but it goes around again, we will see better days.

It requires a strong will, lots of courage, and a strong stomach to face and accept the state of the world. I'm still working on all that, but I feel like I'm getting closer and closer by the day.

Scarcity is artificial with our level of technology and our ingenuity.

It's a myth, we are able to produce more than enough even with many countless individuals in dire straits maintaining the world's economy/production. We produce so much that we can afford to waste incredible amounts of food and other goods without batting an eye.

What if the individuals slaving were given the ingredients to be happy and healthy, with their human rights and needs respected?

Personally, I believe the world would get even more productive, things would start making sense, people wouldn't have to work so hard, we'd see forward movement in our societies, and without a doubt we'd see incredible advancements.

I refuse to believe that everybody would laze about, leave the "hard" jobs unattended, and let the world rot.

If we can work this hard while we are forced to survive, forced to live in lack while the landfills pile up to the sky — there's no way we wouldn't be incredibly more efficient if people could take a second to breathe and fill their cup. If everybody could take a second and look around and see where things could be even better, where they can make a difference, everything would surely very quickly improve.

There's no way to convince me that "peak productivity" is everybody emptying their cup and breaking the glass to pay debts and to afford necessities.

there's also the matter that most of the time, you didn't have to deal with noble strangers with horses expecting your loyalty (often, not the same nobles and horses as the last ones to come around). There may be the local lord but he had good cause to keep things consistent and open up the grain reserves whenever the winter was bad and crops failed.

But the keen thing that changed in the 20th century is we went from a desperate labor shortage to a labor surplus. There was just tons to do and no giant machines with which to do them. Death was right around the corner: A boar attack here, a bad influenza there, any kind of infection (no antibiotics), so people were dropping dead often enough that every last idiot, hunchback and bastard daughter were celebrated as a strong back that could churn butter or assemble barrels or pitch hay.

In fact, society was so fraught that clergy who knew the deal would look the other way when peasants were rutting like bunnies out of wedlock in springtime. (Stories are told and songs are sung of parish priests who were a bit strict on the sins, and how they had a tendency toward morbid mishap.)

We have crusades and territorial disbutes to thank for higher ranks getting into common business. The Third Crusade (King Richard v. Salah ad-Din) squeezed the peasants hard in England. Then Richard went cooky, disguised himself as a merchant, and was seized for ransom, and a king's ransom was a lot. So the peasants were squeezed so hard it hurt the earls, and John of England (last of his name to this very day) was already a Trumpian / Neroesque asshole, and the economy was already tanked when Richard died in 1199, and at that point enough people were pissed off at unilateral monarchy they made John sign the Magna Carta at swordpoint. Several times.

And that was the beginning of the end of monarchy.

I think we have to start respecting ourselves, respecting others, and teaching those concepts to people who are receptive. To me, it seems like the only way to break the cycle called slavery.

They can dress slavery up with benefits all they want, but they don't even care to anymore. Everybody knows it's a raw deal and they are trying to scare us into thinking we have no power.

Let's not be stuck in fear and hate, in subservience and denigration, and be sovereign and resolute in the change we want to see in the world.

I don't need an external authority to tell me what I should believe and hope for. I don't need somebody to curb my expectations and tell me change is impossible, that we actually need to compromise for no real reason, that it is too "costly", or that it will take an extremely long time. I don't want to be told ANY of that when change is possible — these people simply gave up before they even started. No more am I going to be gaslit, and I hope others feel similarly.

If you can't imagine a world where comprehensive solutions manifest imminently to ease suffering, you probably aren't fit for leadership. We need change now, this is absolute insanity. FUCK the perceived costs — it's infinitely more costly to continue the current state of affairs while many, many countless individuals suffer and our precious and irreplaceable planet goes up in flames.

I hope you're wrong. I really, really hope.

pre 9/11 sweet spot

There's a line in Fight Club about how Jack's generation has no great war, out no way to prove themselves. It really is a great example of how things felt pre-9/11.

I am Jack's overwhelming sense of buyer's remorse.

No, the current climate change situation is unparalleled in human history.

...and instead of joining the boycott, proceeds to do nothing.

SO much learned helplessness in the "geeks" around me. They've given up on privacy, ownership, seemingly democracy, certainly peace for Palestine. Never been to a protest, or even considered boycotting. I'm surprised they even bother voting (centrist ofc).

plant food trees and gardens…

The average American reads at an 8th grade level, with slightly more than half reading at a 6th grade level.

We have been cognitively neutered, by design.

Every child that isn't born is a life saved.