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    United States Avalon Member Mike's Avatar
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    Default You Are All The 1%

    Historically speaking, it's true.

    Life as a human being on planet earth has never been easier. It's easier by a massive margin. It's so much easier now than, say, 150 years ago that you almost can't even imagine how much easier it is. It's unfathomably easier

    Not too long ago I was out to eat with my family when my mother suggested a toast to our endurance and fortitude in managing the current "pandemic". This as we ate our steaks and sucked down our beers in the air conditioned dining area of a rather fancy restaurant. How brave of us!

    After that dinner I got into my car, a miraculous machine that can get me virtually anywhere I want to go with almost zero physical effort. I drove on smooth streets that had been laid for my convenience. I listened to some wonderful music (on a device called a radio) as I drove along and when it got a bit hot I turned on the air conditioner.

    While driving along a friend who lived on the other side of the country called me on a miraculous device called a smart phone. And since I was in an unfamiliar town I needed instructions, so I pulled them up on google maps..and a robotic but pleasant sounding woman told me precisely how to get to the nearest grocery store. All this being possible because of the internet, of course..a cyber world of near endless information and possibilities right at our fingertips.

    I stopped at a grocery store and bought food that had been conveniently gathered and put in one location for my benefit. Pretty much any food you could possibly imagine was there. And I didn't have to hunt, fish, or grow it myself. It was on a shelf. I just had to pay for it.

    When I got home to my air conditioned apartment I emptied my groceries into a miracle of a thing called a refrigerator, which keeps all my food fresh and my drinks cold. And then I retired to my room to watch tv on an enormous screen nearly half the size of my wall. All this possible due to a little thing called electricity.

    All these things would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. All of them would have represented ground breaking miracles. Today we are blessed with this stuff. And I make a very modest living and live a very modest life! But even a guy like me, who basically lives from week to week, can have all these things if desired.

    If you have a car, you are the 1%, historically speaking. If you have air conditioning, you are the 1%. Indoor plumbing, a refrigerator, a tv, hot and cold water, a washer/dryer set, a smartphone, a comfortable bed to sleep in...if you have these things you are the 1%. So stop whining.

    The only appropriate attitude most of us should have is gratitude. We stand on the shoulders of giants, the giants that have provided all these wonderful things we have and enjoy...and all so many of us do is piss and moan about this or that. I'm just as guilty. I think one of our greatest crisis' involves a profound lack of perspective and gratitude.
    Last edited by Mike; 13th September 2021 at 15:47.

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Agreed mate, this is something I tried to point out in my own meandering way in a thread not long ago that suggested how modern times have a great deal in common with previous chapters of history - notably the Roman Empire - and that really, not so many things have actually changed except that today the vast majority of us, the common people, are much, much better off.
    "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."
    ~ Jimi Hendrix

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Quote Posted by Mike (here)
    Historically speaking, it's true.

    Life as a human being on planet earth has never been easier. It's easier by a massive margin. It's so much easier now than, say, 150 years ago that you almost can't even imagine how much easier it is. It's unfathomably easier

    Not too long ago I was out to eat with my family when my mother suggested a toast to our endurance and fortitude in managing the current "pandemic". This as we ate our steaks and sucked down our beers in the air conditioned dining area of a rather fancy restaurant. How brave of us!

    After that dinner I got into my car, a miraculous machine that can get me virtually anywhere I want to go with almost zero physical effort. I drove on smooth streets that had been laid for my convenience. I listened to some wonderful music (on a device called a radio) as I drove along and when it got a bit hot I turned on the air conditioner.

    While driving along a friend who lived on the other side of the country called me on a miraculous device called a smart phone. And since I was in an unfamiliar town I needed instructions, so I pulled them up on google maps..and a robotic but pleasant sounding woman told me precisely how to get to the nearest grocery store. All this being possible because of the internet, of course..a cyber world of near endless information and possibilities right at our fingertips.

    I stopped at a grocery store and bought food that bad been conveniently gathered and put in one location for my benefit. Pretty much any food you could possibly imagine was there. And I didn't have to hunt, fish, or grow it myself. It was on a shelf. I just had to pay for it.

    When I got home to my air conditioned apartment I emptied my groceries into a miracle of a thing called a refrigerator, which keeps all my food fresh and my drinks cold. And then I retired to my room to watch tv on an enormous screen nearly half the size of my wall. All this possible due to a little thing called electricity.

    All these things would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. All of them would have represented ground breaking miracles. Today we are blessed with this stuff. And I make a very modest living and live a very modest life! But even a guy like me, who basically lives from week to week, can have all these things if desired.

    If you have a car, you are the 1%, historically speaking. If you have air conditioning, you are the 1%. Indoor plumbing, a refrigerator, a tv, hot and cold water, a washer/dryer set, a smartphone, a comfortable bed to sleep in...if you have these things you are the 1%. So stop whining.

    The only appropriate attitude most of us should have is gratitude. We stand on the shoulders of giants, the giants that have provided all these wonderful things we have and enjoy...and all so many of us do is piss and moan about this or that. I'm just as guilty. I think one of our greatest crisis' involves a profound lack of perspective and gratitude.
    The one thing missing from that almost utopian vision is this...... a friggin laser helmet that REALLY WORKS...Everything you mentioned was leading up to the final luxury we need, want and DEMAND. When I find a laser helmet that works...then we can talk gratitude....

    I am so , so sorry, I couldn't resist.... back to topic.

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    UK Avalon Member Le Chat's Avatar
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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    But are we any happier nowadays....?

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    But this gratitude for all the goodies we have leads directly to Klaus Schwab's statement that in 10 years "You will own nothing, and you will be happy."

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Devils advocate here my friend.

    1. The true 1% have provided all these goodies but have not allowed the 99% to have a vote on how to have these goodies whilst working in harmony with nature. They chose, all on their own, to repeatedly rape her, sending her immune system into chaos, so we can live in boxes devoid of the healing properties of nature.

    And it is easily possible for all. Google Biophilic Architecture and look at some of the wondrous environments the Silicon Valley giants get to work, live and play in. Singapore has some awesome visuals of this architecture also.

    2. We have no doubt evolved tremendously from a technological perspective but are lacking significantly in behavioural evolution. The psychopaths still rule with, and encourage amongst the commons, dog eat dog. Fu@$ collateral damage of human, animal and nature.

    But, without meaning to burst ya bubble completely coz we all need the happy, I do think we are seeing a trend toward our conscious evolution. The ridiculously ludicrous current state of affairs, in so many arenas, tells me we are powering up globally. The desperation of the 1% losing control and not wanting to surrender psycopathic power is palpable.

    P.S. I want some of whatever it is you're having

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    I often think the same thing Mike. Sometimes when driving along on a rainy cold day and thinking how it would be riding a horse long distances with the driving rain in your face, a distance that would take all day and night to cover, in an hour or so in the car. Instead of parking your car when you returned you would have to feed and look after your horse, unpack your saddlebags and start a fire for dinner and hopefully someone else has gathered some vegetables and eggs while you were gone.


    I am grateful for conveniences like washing machines and food and time to explore new information and art, music and gardening. In some ways we live like kings really. I live a very modest life style and am off grid and out of town.

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Quote Posted by Mike (here)
    And then I retired to my room to watch tv on an enormous screen nearly half the size of my wall.
    I suspect a TV half the size of the wall AND it's where you sleep is not so heart-healthy.
    Last edited by RunningDeer; 16th September 2021 at 20:30.

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    That is really relative. How free you are in comparison, how much do you matter as an individual. Are we overall happier?

    Tech is a great blessing, but also a curse.

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    A couple of notes!

    1) I read in a most interesting article some years back that the most significant, time-saving and labor-saving invention ever in the whole history of the human race was the washing machine. It was a very serious research piece.

    2) As a species, we're becoming less practical, less physically strong, less intelligent and less aware (very probably less psychic, too). And absolutely more disconnected from nature in every important way. The human race is NOT in good genetic shape any more.

    The evolutionary survival-of-the-fittest pressures are all off. There are billions of humans alive today, sitting on their couches (and maybe even watching enormous-screen TVs ), who'd never have made it through the night maybe 20,000 years ago.

    As a serious point (but not the topic of this thread!), this may all be someone's plan, regarding the current depopulation agenda, to "sharpen the saw" and re-introduce some considerable evolutionary pressure to cull the weaker members of the species.

    It's a separate discussion whether or not this is a "good" thing in any way at all, but it does seem to me that this may be the agenda: not just population reduction (you can do that pretty easily with a nuclear war), but a "filter" selectively applied so that only the brightest and best make it through.


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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    A couple of notes!

    1) I read in a most interesting article some years back that the most significant, time-saving and labor-saving invention ever in the whole history of the human race was the washing machine. It was a very serious research piece.
    I’ve never owned a clothes dryer. Where I live there’s a community washing machine and dryer. I’d make the trip down and around into the dank, creepy cellar. I hunch over to dodge the old cobwebs that hang with bits of fiberglass to the other side of the room.

    I found an alternative solution. It’s a Camper’s Portable Single Tub Washing Machine. A spinner comes with it, but I purchased a Soft Spin Dryer. The spinner is gentle on the clothes and it does a wicked good job of removing most of the water content. I use a space saving clothes drying rack and folding clothes rack. Now the creepy cellar visits are minimal for such things as sheets and blankets. I’m a millionaire with those few simple conveniences.

    $ Benefits:
    • Save $3.50 per load to wash and dry.
    • No dryer heat, so clothes remain like new for years.
    • Line dry raises the relative humidity which counter acts the dry atmosphere caused by electric heat AND makes it feel warmer in the winter.
    • No ice cleats or snowshoes required.
    Last edited by RunningDeer; 13th September 2021 at 15:24.

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    UK Avalon Member Mike Gorman's Avatar
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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Quote Posted by Mike (here)
    Historically speaking, it's true.

    Life as a human being on planet earth has never been easier. It's easier by a massive margin. It's so much easier now than, say, 150 years ago that you almost can't even imagine how much easier it is. It's unfathomably easier

    Not too long ago I was out to eat with my family when my mother suggested a toast to our endurance and fortitude in managing the current "pandemic". This as we ate our steaks and sucked down our beers in the air conditioned dining area of a rather fancy restaurant. How brave of us!

    After that dinner I got into my car, a miraculous machine that can get me virtually anywhere I want to go with almost zero physical effort. I drove on smooth streets that had been laid for my convenience. I listened to some wonderful music (on a device called a radio) as I drove along and when it got a bit hot I turned on the air conditioner.

    While driving along a friend who lived on the other side of the country called me on a miraculous device called a smart phone. And since I was in an unfamiliar town I needed instructions, so I pulled them up on google maps..and a robotic but pleasant sounding woman told me precisely how to get to the nearest grocery store. All this being possible because of the internet, of course..a cyber world of near endless information and possibilities right at our fingertips.

    I stopped at a grocery store and bought food that bad been conveniently gathered and put in one location for my benefit. Pretty much any food you could possibly imagine was there. And I didn't have to hunt, fish, or grow it myself. It was on a shelf. I just had to pay for it.

    When I got home to my air conditioned apartment I emptied my groceries into a miracle of a thing called a refrigerator, which keeps all my food fresh and my drinks cold. And then I retired to my room to watch tv on an enormous screen nearly half the size of my wall. All this possible due to a little thing called electricity.

    All these things would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. All of them would have represented ground breaking miracles. Today we are blessed with this stuff. And I make a very modest living and live a very modest life! But even a guy like me, who basically lives from week to week, can have all these things if desired.

    If you have a car, you are the 1%, historically speaking. If you have air conditioning, you are the 1%. Indoor plumbing, a refrigerator, a tv, hot and cold water, a washer/dryer set, a smartphone, a comfortable bed to sleep in...if you have these things you are the 1%. So stop whining.

    The only appropriate attitude most of us should have is gratitude. We stand on the shoulders of giants, the giants that have provided all these wonderful things we have and enjoy...and all so many of us do is piss and moan about this or that. I'm just as guilty. I think one of our greatest crisis' involves a profound lack of perspective and gratitude.
    Absolutely spot on Mike, you have a way with words, straight to the point, concise and potent - we are indeed incredibly fortunate, even compared with the lifestyle of my grandparents-admittedly I am a bit of an old fart, born in 1958 so my granddads/mothers were born at the end of the 1800's, their lives were tough and they were poor hard working decent people, they had nowhere near the level of affluence I enjoy, and of course the technology we all take so much for granted would be like magic to them, literally magic.
    It is rather like that old insight about wealthy families: one generation works incredibly hard to build wealth and position, the following generation fritters the family fortune away and produces decadent, weak offspring; not in every case, but very often, we are like that spoiled, decadent generation which has zero appreciation of what we have, we have become politically unaware, indifferent, we have become obsessed with ridiculous topics and concerns which have no intrinsic value or meaning. Perhaps we deserve a catastrophe, a fall from grace, to teach us all once again the true meaning of freedom, and struggle.

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    I could do well to learn gratitude.

    I would turn it around , however, and state that the elite should be grateful, more so than us since it is they who are the 1% of this 1% you speak of. They should remember who it is they are beholden to, who made them their gazillions.

    Everyone should remember to be grateful for the wealth builders, without whom no one could 'work from home' or order in their dinners. 'Front line workers' are all wealth builders. And wealth builders are under-valued. This is so that, through Babylonian Money Magic, the majority can work at 'value added' jobs craftily paid for by under-valuing the wealth builders. There is nothing in any generation more important than those who get their hands dirty.

    Humanity is not a resource, a means to an end. Humanity is the reason for gratitude. At the present time we serve the smallest whim of our corporate overlords, and consider humanity a resource to be exploited like any other commodity.

    Human happiness is the reason for gratitude. Comparing today's society to the past merely compares degrees of contentment, but never happiness. We might enjoy comforts unheard of in the past, but half of the world does not.

    You are right, it is easier now than ever to comfortably ignore reality and live a prosperous life without once having to worry about an empty stomach, or walking a few miles to the store, in the heat.

    Our lives have become automated, fully mapped out from birth to retirement. There are even milestones we watch out for to compare stages of a child's development, and an adult's. We step on the conveyor of life and are swept away, often not realizing what's going on at all, not having to actually think about it and just going with the flow, until suddenly we retire and wonder where the time went.

    I am grateful I have lived and loved. I am grateful for life. I am grateful to be here. Did past generations say otherwise?

    While the toys of this technocratic society are quaint, and even impressive, I'll withhold judgment until society becomes civilized. Until then all our toys are still just metaphorical clubs used as a method to achieve status or as symbols of merit, a throwback to our barbaric past.
    Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee

    Free will can only be as free as the mind that conceives it.

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Quote Posted by I am B (here)
    That is really relative. How free you are in comparison, how much do you matter as an individual. Are we overall happier?

    Tech is a great blessing, but also a curse.

    Yes absolutely. It's relative. Which is why when someone says my country, for example, is a racist, ableist, patriarchal, sexist, crony capitalist disaster, I always say: oh really? A disaster compared to what exactly?? Show me something better. Usually it turns out they're comparing it to some fictional, socialist utopia in their head.

    Yes the degree to which these technologies are ultimately good or bad for our souls is up for debate. There's a good conversation to be had there. But instead of that debate I'd prefer to challenge everyone here to do without their most used piece of technology for a week. For many it will be their smartphone or laptop. For others a car. Forget that actually...just try it for a day Then come back and let me know how that goes
    Last edited by Mike; 13th September 2021 at 17:12.

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    Avalon Member Delight's Avatar
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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    I am absolutely thrilled that I was born in 1955 and had my youth in the time I did , where I did, with all my experiences and EVERY aspect of my journey. I do feel like I am a most blessed person. I love technology like automobiles, washing machines and dryers, THE INTERNET and my lap top. My favorite is hot water and my bath tub where I can soak...that is heaven.

    I love the fact that I have experienced food from everywhere and I can even vicariously experience life all over through communication.

    Everyone could have the conveniences, the freedom, the opportunities because there is only artificially created scarcity. We could figure out work arounds for every unintended negative form from our tech because its already been done and bought up and squelched. We could clean up the messes and recycle the giant mountain of plastics in the ocean and everywhere and have a great time doing it but people are funneled into selected tracks and MORTGAGED and chained by debts.

    I am NOT the 1% because that title is for the ones who have CEMENTED the structures and systems to suit their agenda and they are a miserable and pathetic lot who are deadened inside. I am NOT the (what number)% MINIONS who support that agenda either consciously or unconsciously. Because of hate, greed, envy and enjoyment when one FEELS BETTER than another, Minions go along to get along and have no INTENTION of changing themselves so the 1% are stopped cold. They are just fine, thanks.

    In the 70's I was convinced we had completely turned the corner so the world would keep the best of everything and release the issues blocking the best. I am in the (what number)% who has some reason to keep working on myself so I can become wise to the 1% and STOP the horrors if at all possible. I am INTENDING to some how ameliorate the effects the minions. Yes, you MINIONS wherever you are. I SEE YOU, WHO DESPISE ORGANIC LIFE OR ARE JEALOUS< VENGEFUL< HATEFUL. You are the ones, who if you cannot have what you want, are angry others do.

    The 1% deliberately mind controled the 99% (or tried anyway), and PLANNED TO stymy all NEW and innovative solutions, poison the earth, threaten and murder to keep people FEARFUL. They LOVE the problems and destroy the best. Planned obsolescence is evil as is inversion.

    I am NOT the 1% NO NO NO. I am the (unknown number)% who want to live and have 7 generations live and all the while LEARN and evolve. I will release all that blocks this intention, even if it is hot water and electricity and the internet.
    Last edited by Delight; 13th September 2021 at 17:36.

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    United States Avalon Member Mike's Avatar
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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Brief sidenote: i read a book not too long ago called "the way home", by Mark Boyle. A great book. (thanks Constance!)

    In it, Boyle documents his new life free of almost all modern amenities and technologies. Even writing the book and getting it published presented a major problem because he no longer had an email address, computer, and so on.

    In one part he writes about the novelty of actually writing things out longhand...how awkward it was to start but how ultimately rewarding it came to be eventually. So I tried it out myself...

    And I can't write longhand for sh!t! I mean, I can barely produce something legible. It took great concentration to do even that. I felt awkward, uncoordinated, and embarrassed. If I were to ever write anything substantial, longhand, I'd have to completely retrain myself. Remarkable

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    Avalon Member I am B's Avatar
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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Quote Posted by Mike (here)
    Quote Posted by I am B (here)
    That is really relative. How free you are in comparison, how much do you matter as an individual. Are we overall happier?

    Tech is a great blessing, but also a curse.

    Yes absolutely. It's relative. Which is why when someone says my country, for example, is a racist, ableist, patriarchal, sexist, crony capitalist disaster, I always say: oh really? A disaster compared to what exactly?? Show me something better. Usually it turns out they're comparing it to some fictional, socialist utopia in their head.

    Yes the degree to which these technologies are ultimately good or bad for our souls is up for debate. There's a good conversation to be had there. But instead of that debate I'd prefer to challenge everyone here to do without their most used piece of technology for a week. For many it will be their smartphone or laptop. For others a car. Forget that actually...just try it for a day Then come back and let me know how that goes
    I completely agree with that. Imho, it is the most important to learn to do without tech, and learn the creational process behind it (that often went through many generations) in order not to lose your soul over it.

    Once the most basic concepts are grasped and minimaly experienced, from the creation and flow of electricity, to transducers, chipsets, code, etc, one can realise what is the true power of it, while making a responsible use.

    And that could be applied to everything, from top tier computer-cars to the fork we use for lunch. (who here would be able to harvest and refine iron, and then turn it into a simple spoon?)

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    United States Avalon Member Mike's Avatar
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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Pam you leave my hair helmet out of this!

    And Paula, you are right of course about the tv. But it's so big and shiny and clear....you should see how nice it looks mounted on my wall

    Thing is, after watching endless hours of 10 minute YouTube clips I have the attention span of an adhd addled toddler. It takes me ages to read a book now. I fall asleep after 2 pages.

    I guess I'm making an argument against the technology now lol. I blame Bill and Gemma for that
    Last edited by Mike; 13th September 2021 at 18:21.

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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Quote Posted by Mike (here)
    Brief sidenote: i read a book not too long ago called "the way home", by Mark Boyle. A great book. (thanks Constance!)

    In it, Boyle documents his new life free of almost all modern amenities and technologies. Even writing the book and getting it published presented a major problem because he no longer had an email address, computer, and so on.
    Here ya go:


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    Default Re: You Are All The 1%

    Quote Posted by Mike (here)

    Forget that actually...just try it for a day Then come back and let me know how that goes
    Hah nice try Amigo, I think ~ where's that pic of you sucking a red straw with a cheeky grin; if I remember correctly.

    Anyway been there done that.  Absolutely love it.  That was bait wasn't it?  Are you seriously saying you've never unplugged just for one day?

    But hey I'm actually all in for both technology and nature ~ harmoniously.

    Couldn't think of anything worse than handwriting everything again.  Surely we can intelligently work out how to have both . . . until the day we replug back into our own "network" . . . then heck, we'll be creating books just by thinking about 'em.

    Imagination is on overdrive just thinking about all the new languages we will learn, to accomodate that kind of breakthrough 'cosmic' technology, . . . or perhaps, languages we will remember, as we brush off the cobwebs to browse through the universe, instead of Facebook.

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