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Fuck 'exploring inner space'.
That's right, I said it.
I have no problem with the investigation of self for the betterment of self, but generally all 'exploring inner space' means is you are just being useless, or producing useless artifacts. What's the real world use of your 'exploration'? How is it improving you or driving the advancement of mankind? It seems to me that general uselessness under the guise of 'exploring inner space' is one of the serious factors impeding the progress of individuals that actually enjoy the privilege of a position in which you have that kind of free time on your hands, as for a large percentage of the world survival simply takes up most of their day.
At a certain point in time (not that long ago in the scale of things), this was the case for all men. That changed with industrialization and the general increase in wealth it brought about, but at some point men became content with their condition and apathetic to its further improvement. Why?
It appears that man was it's peak both physically and mentally, somewhere in the late 50's / early 60's. I wasn't around back then obviously (I think we would benefit from the input of people who were), but it seems to me that the period of buildup after the great depression / formative avant-garde movements, had a lot more going for it as far as mental advancement in the form of education is concerned. Just look at school tests, written correspondence and the level of craft in design and manufacturing back then. The human potential was at a much higher level than in our current world of computer aided numbskull shell beings.
Education and learning, the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, seems to have been something practiced by the layman for leisure purposes or the betterment of self much more extensively during that period. Strong technological development at the time drove an inspired vision of an enlightened new industry that could reform the world, and people were excited to be a part of that. We have had the technology and industrial capability for all of the worlds population to benefit from it's resources and focus simply on improving the self for benefit of ones environment since shortly after WWII, but it still hasn't happened.
Something prevented that world from coming about. Somehow everyone lost interest. It would seem that the cultural revolution that was imminent back then has somehow been usurped by a bunch of stinking hippies. Or a few really smart guys protecting their preferred status quo through the manipulation of a hopeful, eager, but unfortunately naive and easily influenced generation growing up in a world that had known only advancement and took for granted the comforts and privileges it had brought about.
So instead of a society which focuses on maximizing the potential of the individual for the greater good of humanity as a whole, we now seem to be stuck with a massive population of ignorant, greedy assholes, either hellbent on defending scientifically deprecated religious views, or simply content to just watch porn, take drugs and play videogames, while a bunch of corrupt rulers and their generally oblivious lackies do their best to keep it that way.
Hardly anyone takes the trouble to learn new skills (anything useful exclusively to a virtual world doesn't count. It's not a new skill), and precious few people bother to further their education more than is necessary to get a paycheck, or a subsequent payrise. Useless abstract pastimes now fill most leisure time.
Think about it. It's really neat if you have been able to visualize the endless continuum of space-time after staring at a generative fractal visualization for too long while on mushrooms, and then went on to blog a rad doodle and a poem about it, but how is that helping? Did you just advance mankinds understanding of the universe or did you just do something fucking pointless?
When was the last time you learned a real new skill or gained knowledge that truly assisted you in leading a more gratifying existence, enabling you to not only better understand yourself, but perhaps also improving your influence on the condition of others?
While the title of this piece may not entirely fit its conclusion, at least you read it.
I've made a number a statements that can be probably be dis-proven, most definitely argued.
That's the point.
/rant.
Disclaimer: I know I'm pretty much just as useless as the next guy. At least it bothers me, and I have the intention of doing something about it.
I have no problem with the investigation of self for the betterment of self, but generally all 'exploring inner space' means is you are just being useless, or producing useless artifacts. What's the real world use of your 'exploration'? How is it improving you or driving the advancement of mankind? It seems to me that general uselessness under the guise of 'exploring inner space' is one of the serious factors impeding the progress of individuals that actually enjoy the privilege of a position in which you have that kind of free time on your hands, as for a large percentage of the world survival simply takes up most of their day.
At a certain point in time (not that long ago in the scale of things), this was the case for all men. That changed with industrialization and the general increase in wealth it brought about, but at some point men became content with their condition and apathetic to its further improvement. Why?
It appears that man was it's peak both physically and mentally, somewhere in the late 50's / early 60's. I wasn't around back then obviously (I think we would benefit from the input of people who were), but it seems to me that the period of buildup after the great depression / formative avant-garde movements, had a lot more going for it as far as mental advancement in the form of education is concerned. Just look at school tests, written correspondence and the level of craft in design and manufacturing back then. The human potential was at a much higher level than in our current world of computer aided numbskull shell beings.
Education and learning, the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, seems to have been something practiced by the layman for leisure purposes or the betterment of self much more extensively during that period. Strong technological development at the time drove an inspired vision of an enlightened new industry that could reform the world, and people were excited to be a part of that. We have had the technology and industrial capability for all of the worlds population to benefit from it's resources and focus simply on improving the self for benefit of ones environment since shortly after WWII, but it still hasn't happened.
Something prevented that world from coming about. Somehow everyone lost interest. It would seem that the cultural revolution that was imminent back then has somehow been usurped by a bunch of stinking hippies. Or a few really smart guys protecting their preferred status quo through the manipulation of a hopeful, eager, but unfortunately naive and easily influenced generation growing up in a world that had known only advancement and took for granted the comforts and privileges it had brought about.
So instead of a society which focuses on maximizing the potential of the individual for the greater good of humanity as a whole, we now seem to be stuck with a massive population of ignorant, greedy assholes, either hellbent on defending scientifically deprecated religious views, or simply content to just watch porn, take drugs and play videogames, while a bunch of corrupt rulers and their generally oblivious lackies do their best to keep it that way.
Hardly anyone takes the trouble to learn new skills (anything useful exclusively to a virtual world doesn't count. It's not a new skill), and precious few people bother to further their education more than is necessary to get a paycheck, or a subsequent payrise. Useless abstract pastimes now fill most leisure time.
Think about it. It's really neat if you have been able to visualize the endless continuum of space-time after staring at a generative fractal visualization for too long while on mushrooms, and then went on to blog a rad doodle and a poem about it, but how is that helping? Did you just advance mankinds understanding of the universe or did you just do something fucking pointless?
When was the last time you learned a real new skill or gained knowledge that truly assisted you in leading a more gratifying existence, enabling you to not only better understand yourself, but perhaps also improving your influence on the condition of others?
While the title of this piece may not entirely fit its conclusion, at least you read it.
I've made a number a statements that can be probably be dis-proven, most definitely argued.
That's the point.
/rant.
Disclaimer: I know I'm pretty much just as useless as the next guy. At least it bothers me, and I have the intention of doing something about it.
PS: This post was brought to you by a general frustration with the shit sorry state of mankind, and annoyance at the number of posts on spacecollective consisting of just pictures. FFS. My blog feeds show me 1000's of pictures every day already. It better be a damn good picture, or you should have something really interesting to say about it. Think before posting and add some value dammit, we're supposed to be exchanging ideas and information here. Even kindergarten has show and tell. Not just show.
/rant. again.
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