The Humanities

Casual conversation between friends. Anything goes (almost).
Kai lord
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Re: The Humanities

Post by Kai lord »

Virgo wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 4:22 am
I can tell you without any doubt in my mind, humanity will continue to wage warfare frequently until there is no longer any humanity. Fear drives the development of the new technologies involved. When you have multiple parties, like we do, that fear becomes self-perpetuating. The result is more of the same. That cycle will never break.
Indeed the past few recent decades are a rare long (relatively) peaceful period in human history that we have taken for granted. Now things are heading back to the way they were.
Life is like a game, either you win or lose!
Life is like a fight, either you live or die!
Life is like a show, either you laugh or cry!
Life is like a dream, either you know or not!!!
Miorita
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Re: The Humanities

Post by Miorita »

The promise I made was to keep reading the US History, continue the study of democracy, and support and defend the Constitution.

I have zero chances for fullfilling these duties. Except my father and some obscure persons, I have no chance of knowing details, not even of basics.
I worked 3 days for an African Am man and he mentioned Chicago at the time of Harold Washington. That data, that he was here then, because he was a Texan who came here earlier, was the only light that was tossed in the darkness for me to understand that his reality and mine met right then and there.

Indeed there are few people who will read the history of the place for you. I think the practice is called Chöd.
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Astus
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Re: The Humanities

Post by Astus »

Might be different in the US, but to give a well rounded education was/is the purpose of secondary/high school (gymnasium).
1 Myriad dharmas are only mind.
Mind is unobtainable.
What is there to seek?

2 If the Buddha-Nature is seen,
there will be no seeing of a nature in any thing.

3 Neither cultivation nor seated meditation —
this is the pure Chan of Tathagata.

4 With sudden enlightenment to Tathagata Chan,
the six paramitas and myriad means
are complete within that essence.


1 Huangbo, T2012Ap381c1 2 Nirvana Sutra, T374p521b3; tr. Yamamoto 3 Mazu, X1321p3b23; tr. J. Jia 4 Yongjia, T2014p395c14; tr. from "The Sword of Wisdom"
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Virgo
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Re: The Humanities

Post by Virgo »

Virgo wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 4:22 am
We are very fortunate to have the 18 freedoms and endowments
https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?tit ... advantages

Virgo
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Virgo
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Re: The Humanities

Post by Virgo »

Astus wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 9:28 am Might be different in the US, but to give a well rounded education was/is the purpose of secondary/high school (gymnasium).
Here, those are just for dodgeball.

But we do have prep schools. I do not know how well-rounded the education is though.

Virgo
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justsit
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Re: The Humanities

Post by justsit »

Virgo wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 6:45 pm But we do have prep schools. I do not know how well-rounded the education is though.

Virgo
Not sure about now, but back in the dark ages I was sent to a private Catholic girls' school that was considered "well-rounded." The school day was divided into 8 periods, plus lunch. The Freshman curriculum included Religion, English, Latin, French or Spanish, History, Algebra, and Chemistry-Physics plus phys ed once a week (there were no shower facilities). As the student progressed, there were more elective options - art, music, drama, etc . We had homework in every subject, every night. There was no talking in the halls. Everyone stood when a teacher entered the room.

I'm guessing things may have changed a bit (!) since then, undoubtedly a bit less stringent since the nuns are gone. Today the tuition for that school is $25k/year.

Due to a move, I also attended a US public high school for one year. No comparison, they were almost a full year behind me academically, and that was a pretty affluent district. Lots of emphasis on sports and dating. A very good friend of mine retired recently after 30 years as a public school teacher. Her stories are shocking.
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Virgo
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Re: The Humanities

Post by Virgo »

Kai lord wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 6:31 am
Virgo wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 4:22 am
I can tell you without any doubt in my mind, humanity will continue to wage warfare frequently until there is no longer any humanity. Fear drives the development of the new technologies involved. When you have multiple parties, like we do, that fear becomes self-perpetuating. The result is more of the same. That cycle will never break.
Indeed the past few recent decades are a rare long (relatively) peaceful period in human history that we have taken for granted. Now things are heading back to the way they were.
Yes, and there are many reasons for this.

But then again, we also have to consider how big a factor climate change can be in this (see the second link in my signature), which talks about where it will lead us.

And, as we have seen, attention spans have decreased. The study talked about in the article before was only from 2000 - 2015, and I would suspect that the trend has continued since then.

According to that study, our attention spans have dropped by 25%. That is something that could definitely lead to war, as it leads societies to break down significantly.

I also believe TikTok and WeChat are making this trend worse. TikTok wasn't created until 2016 and became popular in 2018.

Tomorrow looks bleak. I will say many prayers for humanity.

Hopefully, all dangers are averted.

Virgo
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