greed

The crisis deepens. Everyday life is plundered as much as the physical environment. Our predicament points us toward a solution. The voluntary abandonment of the industrial mode of existence is not self-renunciation, but a healing return.

~John Zerzan
Twilight of the Machines

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.

~ Aldo Leopold

The statement that people are propelled by their self-interest or their greed applies primarily to industrial society. It may also apply to those who have been deprived of community by the effects of industrial society, where a formerly integrated, cooperative, reciprocal mode of being in nature has been destroyed.

But since the beginning of recorded history, there have been many communities that have existed alongside the so-called Western historical civilizations, and which exhibit to this day a mode of experience and living in the world that is cooperative, community-based, consensual--and not primarily in terms of self-interest.

~Jerry Mander

I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments.

Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretense of governing, they have divided their nations into two classes: wolves and sheep.

~Thomas Jefferson
(thanks, cloudmonkeys)
--
as always, the best clips are ganked from
www.youtube.com/DEATHINKING
subscribe if you know what's good for you

redpharmacist's interview with Daniel Quinn "Where We went Wrong": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpAxV6uUxsM

zzz33333's "How To Save the World (CARRY THE NEWS)":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4ejtFCR5Gw

advicetomyclones/pennilesscripple cover of zzz33333's "life in the zoo":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeG5Bzri4KU

bravenewfilms' "Henry Kravis makes $51,369 PER HOUR. You pay more taxes":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8RsFwsODzE

this video is dedicated to woodpip, who asks great questions
www.youtube.com/woodpip

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• greed
• jerry
• mander
• daniel
• quinn
• humanity
• culture
• civilization
• is
• killing
• us
• end
• it
• now

[zapblaster]

It does seem odd to me that the final assertion of the video is that greed, in this case-- supposedly synonomous with America (and not with 'indigenous' people); is a culture that destroys life. America not only enjoys one of the longest life expectancies, but has solved and cured many afflictions that have plauged humans since our origin-- for cultures all around the world.

[pennilesscripple]

hi zapblaster--i wasn't talking about american culture, just using some americans for an example. america is a symptom, not a cause.

[MrEarthWorker]

I would like to thank you for presenting the most direct and insightful comparison of the behavioral and social psychology of living in a culture that promotes self enhancement over collective societal empowerment. I have spent many years learning that I must give and share to fullfill my own feelings of belonging and wholeness... While travelling in Asia, many of the smaller villages gave me the feeling of being HOME....

[pennilesscripple]

you're welcome EW. i've had that fleeting experience of "home" as well in small villages or even simply in the company of people who grew up in a culture that was more focused on the well being of the people and the land than on profit and production. compare that to the alienation we feel in this culture, and we tend to blame that alienation on some personal failing (as befits the culture that externalizes the harms and the "responsibility" onto the people)

[pennilesscripple]

also, EW, check the drop down sidebar for more

[1umbnonearth]

Ultimately its fear of ones own death. We know that our life is short, so we try to get as much as we can, money, fame wealth etc.. crammed into our short meager timespan while we are alive. We dread disappearing into oblivion, unfullfilled because we lost the game., did not get recognized, will never be acknowleged into the future. Greed could be a form of mental illness.

[pennilesscripple]

then can we shift from a culture based on a fear of death to a culture based on a trust of life?

[qualqui]

AWESOME Video,...truly very INTERESTIN'!!!! Thumbs up to ya pennilesscripple and thankin' my sweet sister Tanya for sharin'!! = ) 

[TheBigKiller]

The Venus Project! :)

[zapblaster]

Also, you're misusing the word indignous and attempting to imply a defintion it doesn't have. Perhaps you mean to discribe a particular characteristic or trait which many of the 'indigenous' cultures you illude to share. However,by your own proposal; Trump, Cheney, and whoever else are actually indigenous to American culture. And, many of the 'indenous' people you've shown have very different cultures.There are many similar cultures which are violent.Headbands and loincloths don't=peace or life.

[Atomikbrainfu]

Awesome!!!

[akpret]

thumbs up!

[Barklord]

this was a great video, penniless. thanks