The phenomenon of collective absurdity

Snail · Post by **Snail** » 24 Sep 2019, 17:13

Those are my enemies: they want to overthrow and to construct nothing themselves. They say: "All that is worthless"--and want to create no value themselves.
Friedrich Nietzsche

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
Friedrich Nietzsche

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.
Carl Jung

Something is happening. Whatever it is, it seems to be accelerating. It infects people and leaves them vulnerable to manipulation by more powerful people. It appears to be for good, but always leaves chaos and pain in its wake.

How to best describe it?

Is it political correctness gone mad? Post-modernism? Memes? Nihilism?

I don't know, but it's dangerous. I'm sure of it. Beware the agents of chaos.

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 24 Sep 2019, 19:23

Our civilization is dying. That is all. This collective madness you speak of is entirely in line with that death. It has been written about before and is reasonably well understood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsaieZt5vjk&t=69s

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 24 Sep 2019, 19:49

See "Future shock" By Alvin and Heidi Toffler 1970
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock
Their premise was that the rate of change was accelerating and soon people would not be able to cope with having to constantly adapt.
Like "peak oil" we have gone long past their predicted doom date but perhaps they were a bit ahead of the times.
The book got me an A in a high school social studies course, as I understood it, and the teacher was impressed by that as he had a bit if trouble with it.

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 25 Sep 2019, 15:28

"Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad. "

woodburner · Post by **woodburner** » 27 Sep 2019, 17:05

So that is a quotation by whom? By what authority do they make such a statement?

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 27 Sep 2019, 18:00

woodburner wrote:So that is a quotation by whom? By what authority do they make such a statement?

"Anonymous ancient proverb, wrongly attributed to Euripides. The version here is quoted as a "heathen proverb" in Daniel, a Model for Young Men (1854) by William Anderson Scott"

or

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whom_the_ ... ld_destroy

stumuz1 · Post by **stumuz1** » 28 Sep 2019, 10:26

When the world seems to be imploding I always resort to the vegetable garden.

We cannot make the mad world go away, but, we can grow some really great food!

A hat tip to https://vegplotter.com

It has really helped with the rotation and planting plan.

Also climate change seems to be helping here on Anglesey. 25 years ago at this time of year I would be making clamps for spuds, putting carrots into boxes of sand etc to store them until Christmas.

Now the roots, brassicas, spuds, onions (August planted) stay in the ground until I need them. Although, the warmer winters mean there seems to be more plant diseases surviving. Cannot get leeks free from rust the last few years.