Slander, Scam and Cannabis

[Garlic]

(post deleted by Garlic)

~~~

Moderator note from Bill:

New member Garlic has asked us super-nicely to please be retired for personal reasons. We've honored that, of course, letting him know he'd be more than welcome back at any time.

To make sense of the discussion which follows and which has already started, his excellent premise (hence the original title: 'Slander, Scam and Cannabis') was to question what the heck had caused so many people in the alt community (and particularly those in the UFO/ET field) to go so far off the rails — to the extent of becoming illogical, over-credulous, deceptive, and even hostile and dangerously aggressive.

[DeDukshyn]

Commercialization and monetization of the peace movement is what killed the peace movement of the 60s ... Money destroys everything it touches ... The excessive cannabis use probably didn't help the overall motivation though

But seriously, turning anything into something to only be valued by the money that could be made by pretending to support that "anything", will destroy whatever that "anything" was initially about.

That's the way I see it, and the strategy of destroying something by turning it into a money making machine is a real one, in fact it appears that Stephen Hodges may have been attempting to do exactly that with Avalon back in the day ...


You wouldn't happen to be "Bright Garlic" come back from retirement would you?

[Bill Ryan]

Folks, I've moved the 5 latest posts to this more appropriate existing thread:

• Hemp/Cannabis and all about it

This new thread, with its interesting title, is really about how come the alternative media (and the UFO field in particular) has seemingly become so polluted in the last few years by those with disruptive and even hostile agendas.

[christian]

The responsibility lies everywhere. Yet I would encourage everyone to focus on their own responsibility.

Are you interested in drama and sensationalism, are you an armchair quarterback, are you engaging in petty squabble? Or are you doing the hard work to stay measured, grounded and focused on upholding higher standards?

I think people like to feel that they're involved and engaged more than they actually want to be engaged. Having the feeling to be part of this momentous struggle of humanity is exciting and doesn't take much effort. Making a only a little real difference, however, is a lot of hard and tedious work.

We, as a human species, are simply quite lazy and easily succumb to all the little vices and temptations that keep us stuck in the quagmire that we're in.

Actual discipline is in many ways among the hardest, most unsexy, most unpleasant, most unappealing things one could strive for, yet it's the only thing that actually enables a positive development.

[Pam]

Posted by christian (here)
The responsibility lies everywhere. Yet I would encourage everyone to focus on their own responsibility.

Are you interested in drama and sensationalism, are you an armchair quarterback, are you engaging in petty squabble? Or are you doing the hard work to stay measured, grounded and focused on upholding higher standards?

I think people like to feel that they're involved and engaged more than they actually want to be engaged. Having the feeling to be part of this momentous struggle of humanity is exciting and doesn't take much effort. Making a only a little real difference, however, is a lot of hard and tedious work.

We, as a human species, are simply quite lazy and easily succumb to all the little vices and temptations that keep us stuck in the quagmire that we're in.

Actual discipline is in many ways among the hardest, most unsexy, most unpleasant, most unappealing things one could strive for, yet it's the only thing that actually enables a positive development.

christian, thanks for this incredible post. I really need to be reminded that at the end of the day, it is discipline that is the cornerstone to change and transformation. It's interesting that I rarely hear anyone address this.

I can personally relate to wanting to feel like I am involved in something rather than getting off my butt and actually mustering the planning, commitment and discipline to actually make it happen. There have been areas of my life where I actually participate towards a transformation, then the challenge becomes a willingness to accept the outcome, even if it is an unnoticeable drop in the bucket.

[Bubu]

Posted by christian (here)
The responsibility lies everywhere. Yet I would encourage everyone to focus on their own responsibility.

Are you interested in drama and sensationalism, are you an armchair quarterback, are you engaging in petty squabble? Or are you doing the hard work to stay measured, grounded and focused on upholding higher standards?

I think people like to feel that they're involved and engaged more than they actually want to be engaged. Having the feeling to be part of this momentous struggle of humanity is exciting and doesn't take much effort. Making a only a little real difference, however, is a lot of hard and tedious work.

We, as a human species, are simply quite lazy and easily succumb to all the little vices and temptations that keep us stuck in the quagmire that we're in.

Actual discipline is in many ways among the hardest, most unsexy, most unpleasant, most unappealing things one could strive for, yet it's the only thing that actually enables a positive development.

I agree Christian, I find most of your post interesting. Your wisdom far exceeds your age. But let me add to this one. Its the "hardest, most unsexy, most unpleasant, most unappealing things one could strive for" because it makes us like a robot. The best recipe is inspiration. Inspiration will bring that discipline you wanted and then you can have the change you wanted plus you are living a life. So find that thing that inspires you and make the jump.
But wait you also need the courage to jump into that inspiration. This one is beyond me