Why would one choose to be a soldier?

[Catwoman]

Originally Posted by lookout123

ok, so you are in favor of a lifestyle from more than a century ago. if we agree to this do we need to keep women's rights or can i just drag my wife around by the hair as i see fit.... bla bla bla I'm not listening bla bla bla

This is nothing to do with the 'good old days' nor is it romanticized - just common sense. IF current methods were ecologically sound, that would be the right thing to do. I could reel off a list of websites with pollution statistics, ozone destruction, oil and natural resource depletion and so on. The fact is we do not know the true impact of our relentless Dyson-powered suction of all this planet has to offer. We use more than we need; that is not contestable. There is bound to be a payoff at some point.

I am not rejecting all human advances; in fact I think these things should continue. But does it make sense to use them when we do not know their impact? Maybe.

Originally Posted by OnyxCougar

The problem inherent with this is that humans are flawed, and most humans are destructive rather than creative.

Precisely. Not all innovation is in the right direction. As a planet we have billions of dollars invested in munitions development (destruction) and substantially less in (creative) research institutions.

Originally Posted by tw

Now to muddy the waters. Rape and infidelity are such destructive events. And yet genetic research has demonstrated how rape and infidelity were also so helpful and necessary in the advancement of mankind; the 'mixing of the gene pool'. Why is one event so destructive from one perspective become so productive from another perspective? Please don't get hung up with the emotional baggage associate with 'immoral' sex. Deal with the overall concept.

Nice to see someone capable of seeing the bigger picture. But why is it such a struggle to maintain the status quo? Is it so good it warrants dying for? It strikes me as ironic that we die to fight for life. We don't need to fight for it, it's here already.

Originally Posted by Beestie

...you don't seem to be advancing a position. To be honest, what I have gotten from your posts in this thread is that everyone is parading around in an artificial reality with "conveniences" separating us from our true human nature and Emperor's clothes protecting us from the the cold reality of "the truth."

Yes, pretty much.

Originally Posted by Beestie

I'm not calling you a homeless bag lady but that's only a couple of degrees removed from homeless bag lady talk.

And what if she's right? The drunk you meet in a bar is wrong because he's drunk in a bar?

Originally Posted by Beestie

And to say that you're pessimistic because "no one understands me" is lame. So you can't be optimistic untill someone agrees with you?

No, I just feel like I'm hitting on something, slowly, and I want to advance it, but no one can help me because they don't appear to understand the first bit! You know, they don't get my hypothesis, so how can they further the experiment. That is frustrating - even if I turn out to be wrong, you must understand my apparent pessimism.

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

The thing about innovation that always fascinated me was that with almost every major invention in history, several people independently arrived at the same inspiration and were working on similar prototypes right around the same time, without ever communicating with one another. It's like mankind was "ready" for that new direction.

Finally, some awareness. Thank god. We do not need to 'do' anything to progress, it will come to us. People think in very similar ways - makes you think it is all interconnected somehow. There are no heroes or great innovators, nor do you need to destruct in order to create. It will happen of it's own accord. To assume you (or man) is in control of natural progress is insane.