Truth, Love, and Music

andrew · Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 5:22 pm Post subject:

Yeah, hope seems to be in short supply these days (Obama's campaign notwithstanding...). Congrats on holding on to yours!

For the internet to break up the usual cycle of human behavior is going to require that such hope somehow be infectious, that it can spread from person to person. Nobody's going to commit to working for change without hope for the outcome.
_________________
"The question is not, 'How far?' The question is,
'Do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far as is needed?'"

kinsella217 · Grasshopper Joined: 12 Nov 2009 Posts: 3

The problem, loosely defined, is that one opposite of hope is fear and fear sells so well. Given a choice, fear is lower in calorie expenditure (to put it one way). Fear draws you in. Fear requires little action.

Hope invites action. In sufficient quantities, it demands action.
The two can work in concert, though. Confronted with sufficient fear from an obvious, direct, and mutual threat, hope can run rampant.

In the 1960s, we were so afraid of Communism, we invented an improbable series of machines to send 12 people to the moon (spawning scientific advancements and technologies that continue to reverberate 40 years later).

On the flip side, in the 1950s, we were so afraid of Communism, Senator Joseph McCarthy held the loyalties of Americans in his fickle, paranoid, frozen-cold soul.

If the vehicle is the internet, what will provide the fuel? Will it be global warming? Will it be a nuclear conflict? What can inspire the masses to act for the genuine common good of mankind, overcoming the paranoid and fear of religion and ethnicity? What will finally unite people of the world in common purpose and good will, if not outright love? A somewhat rhetorical question to be sure, but food for creative and imaginative thought on an unseasonably mild November evening...

andrew · Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:37 am Post subject:

Yeah, love is another opposite of fear, as in, "perfect love casts out fear".

There are also issues and opposites pairing love and liberty, and fear and control. Seems to me the fuel is going to be the coming economic collapse, possibly coupled with further efforts by our keepers to impose a completely totalitarian surveillance state. Seems more people are waking up to what's going on all the time, just a question of whether they're waking up fast enough.
_________________
"The question is not, 'How far?' The question is,
'Do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far as is needed?'"