Problems & things in the world these days...

[Frank]

Right, there's alot of "FREE TIBET" rallying going on just now coinciding with the Beijing Olympic Games.

We're aquainted with the Anon vs Scientology shenanigans.

We've had anti-coalition-forces-in-Iraq/Afghanistan prostests for a while.

What else is going on in the world that is worthwhile protesting over, getting worked up about or simply...doing something about?

I tend not to follow much of this in much depth, but it does interest me. Certainly: many folks have very strong opinions on this sort of thing, it strikes me as a bundle of things that're worth knowing a good bit about. But surely with a planet this big there's alot more going on than Iraq/Afghanistan/Tibet/Scientology? So, please enlighten me! What's a problem, why, and what to people think about it all?

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."
Also, some years later:
"here we are arguing about a few uppity troublemakers with a bee in their bonnet and a conspiracy theory."

[the Empress]

My research suggests that people distrust councils and view them as trying to take away their rented plots for development . . . but despite their being over a million plotholders, think it unlikely they could mount effective political organisation. But respondents softened their 'problem' responses with British humour, such as 'the weather!!!!' and 'slugs!*smiley face*' In short, the English at least, have satire rather than revolutions. So, as long as you can make an appropriate quip to any problem, you'll be OK. The only protest I've actually participated in was the closure of the post office, for which I made an appropriately amusing protest sign (in the shape of an envelope). *prepares to be flamed*

[Haunted]

Oh theres plenty to choose from if you just think about it for a moment.

Child abuse.
Corruption.
State sponsored murder.
etc.

[hr]

Now with 100% more corn

[Bizarre Atheist]

People who support fashionable political correctness, randomly believing in whatever Hollywood decides to 'care' about next.

Difficult to protest against, I suppose. The current example would be the popularity of Toyota Priuses, ethical teabags, computers made from hemp etc. Of course you can't protest against these individual 'good' things because this makes you the spawn of Satan.

So, in conclusion, I would like to protest in favour of people choosing their own beliefs and causes, rather than buying into the fashionable ones.

[hr]

[Hennessy]

Strong opinions and no gainful employment = a "professional activist".

I take an isolationist approach to these fashionable causes that afflict those of us with the tenderest liberal hearts from time to time.

There's only one question you need to ask yourself, and that's "Do I really care?".

Not "I care when I see it on the news", or "I care when I read about it in the papers", but "This thing is keeping me up at night I care so much about it, I can't eat or function properly until I do something"

Then, by all means, take your lily-white conscience and sit in front of a bulldozer in Palestine, or throw your empathetic body in front of somebody's racehorse, that might get you a couple of inches on page 19 of The Guardian, to the deep and lasting respect of those with similiar views to you, who might give you a good 8 seconds of sorrowful ponderance before they finish up their fairtrade skinny latte's and move on.

Thus is life. Don't worry yourself too much about it.

[hr]

"What happened to Spoon?"
"There is no Spoon"
Dog Soldiers

[Freaker]

- The Colombian Farc detaining Ingrid Betancourt as their prisoner for more than six years, in spite of her declining health and international prostest.

- The human rights crisis in Dafur, Sudan

- Moroccos occupation of Western Sahara and their refusal to grant Western Sahara autonomy and/or independence

- The Israel-Palestine conflict

- Mugabe unwilling to give up the presidency in Zimbabwe, although (seemingly) loosing an already rigged election


And these are just the political ones...

[hr]

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

[Campbell]

Quoting Hennessy from 21:15, 6th Apr 2008

I take an isolationist approach to these fashionable causes that afflict those of us with the tenderest liberal hearts from time to time.

There's only one question you need to ask yourself, and that's "Do I really care?".

Not "I care when I see it on the news", or "I care when I read about it in the papers", but "This thing is keeping me up at night I care so much about it, I can't eat or function properly until I do something"

etc Guardian etc

this reminded me of a lovely little passage about right wing denial, which I shall reproduce here for your delectation. It also reminds me of arguing on the sinner and tabloid stances, especially the Daily Mail

"Those of us who succumb to denial will often, I believe, go through three psychological stages. First we might try existential denial: in this case, we'll say the problem in question - for instance, climate change - simply doesn't exist. But if the weight of evidence becomes impossible to ignore, we can turn to consequential denial. Here, we'll admit the problem exists but say it doesn't really matter, either because it doesn't affect us significantly - so what if climate change hurts distant polar bears - or because we can easily adjust to it's effects. Finally, if we can't credibly deny both the problem's existence and its consequences, we might say we can't do anything about it. This is fatalistic denial. We'll just throw up our hands and declare we're not going to think about the problem; even if it wrecks the world, so be it. For the die-hard environmental skeptic, fatalistic denial is a last and all-but-impenetrable line of psychological defense"

Thomas Homer-Dixon (CIA and NSC advisor, lecturer to the World Bank)

[the Empress]

You have a particular gripe about Emily Davison? Or women's suffrage? Her exact intentions when she threw herself in front of the horse were unclear, she might not have been trying to kill herself. Do you think people who drink skinny lattes are making a particular political stance? Or just saving calories (so like me, they can hypocritically top them off with cream;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Davison

Quoting Hennessy from 21:15, 6th Apr 2008

Then, by all means, take your lily-white conscience . . throw your empathetic body in front of somebody's racehorse, that might get you a couple of inches on page 19 of The Guardian, to the deep and lasting respect of those with similiar views to you, who might give you a good 8 seconds of sorrowful ponderance before they finish up their fairtrade skinny latte's and move on.

[hr]

[Hennessy]

Quoting campbell from 20:21, 7th Apr 2008

Quoting Hennessy from 21:15, 6th Apr 2008

I take an isolationist approach to these fashionable causes that afflict those of us with the tenderest liberal hearts from time to time.

There's only one question you need to ask yourself, and that's "Do I really care?".

Not "I care when I see it on the news", or "I care when I read about it in the papers", but "This thing is keeping me up at night I care so much about it, I can't eat or function properly until I do something"

etc Guardian etc

this reminded me of a lovely little passage about right wing denial, which I shall reproduce here for your delectation. It also reminds me of arguing on the sinner and tabloid stances, especially the Daily Mail

"Those of us who succumb to denial will often, I believe, go through three psychological stages. First we might try existential denial: in this case, we'll say the problem in question - for instance, climate change - simply doesn't exist. But if the weight of evidence becomes impossible to ignore, we can turn to consequential denial. Here, we'll admit the problem exists but say it doesn't really matter, either because it doesn't affect us significantly - so what if climate change hurts distant polar bears - or because we can easily adjust to it's effects. Finally, if we can't credibly deny both the problem's existence and its consequences, we might say we can't do anything about it. This is fatalistic denial. We'll just throw up our hands and declare we're not going to think about the problem; even if it wrecks the world, so be it. For the die-hard environmental skeptic, fatalistic denial is a last and all-but-impenetrable line of psychological defense"

Thomas Homer-Dixon (CIA and NSC advisor, lecturer to the World Bank)

I am suitably amazed you not only guaged my feelings on climate change exactly, no doubt through some futuristic telepathic device, but you also posted a counter argument to it on a thread as yet unrelated to the issue.
I can't quite see how the plight of a sparsely populated mountain province of China will affect the rest of us seriously at the moment, save a few bleeding hearts dying of grief (I notice Palestine has fallen from the limelight recently, no doubt when Tibet becomes boring again it'll be back to the rock-throwing activites of displaced Arabs)

Empress, Davison had problems but no, of course I don't disagree with women's suffrage, it just came to mind as quite a tragic and uneccessary act.
Skinny Latte's, no, Fairtrade goods, yes for the political stance. I disagree with fairtrade, i'd much prefer free trade.



[hr]

"What happened to Spoon?"
"There is no Spoon"
Dog Soldiers

[the Empress]

Reluctant as I am to throw quotes at people here's a snippet from David Orr 'Earth in Mind', on the basis that your anti-environment, anti- apparently any cause, attitude seems to be based on a bizarre gut reaction against 'them', or the 'bleeding heart liberals.' You're not alone in this - people find out what I study or on one occasion prompted by my taking out recycling, and subject me to frankly bizarre rants (on the latter occasion, without me saying *anything*, suddenly started making presumptions about my beliefs then trashing them, following by a request for approval!). Nothing personal it seems, but just a gut reaction based on the 'collective derangement' described below. Teleconnections can be interesting, important and thought-provoking. I'd really recommend you read James Lovelock "Gaia", or "Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World" by Mike Davis. These might help relate what seem far flung social or enviromental events with each other, and even if you don't agree, open up new lines of inquiry into the modern world and we relate to it. Heh, sorry for giant post;)

"Erich Fromm (1955) once asked whether whole societies might be judged sane or insane. After the World Wars, state-sponsered genocide, gulags, McCarthyism, and the "mutual assured destruction" of the 20th century there can be no doubt that the answer is affirmative. Nor do I doubt that our descendants will regard our obsession with perpetual economic growth and frivolous consumption as evidence of theologically induced derangement.'

Quoting Hennessy from 00:48, 8th Apr 2008

I am suitably amazed you not only guaged my feelings on climate change exactly, no doubt through some futuristic telepathic device, but you also posted a counter argument to it on a thread as yet unrelated to the issue.
I can't quite see how the plight of a sparsely populated mountain province of China will affect the rest of us seriously at the moment, save a few bleeding hearts dying of grief (I notice Palestine has fallen from the limelight recently, no doubt when Tibet becomes boring again it'll be back to the rock-throwing activites of displaced Arabs)

[hr]

[WashingtonIrving]

"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."

[hr]

"I said farewell honey, I'll see you Judgment Day"

[LonelyPilgrim]

Consumerism, hyper-individualism, and political/social apathy - really all different facets of the same problem.

[hr]

Self-control is the chief element of self-respect; self-respect is the chief element of courage. - Thucydides