You know, reading post after homophobic, hate-filled blog, article, and bumper-sticker, and seeing what is happening to us in places like Iraq, Iran, down the street ... I can't help but wonder if (and I hesitate to use the terms, 'cause I don't like labels) conservative and liberal values can co-exist? In the wider social landscape as well, there just seems to be no common ground, be it economically, morally, religiously or otherwise. Conflict seems inevitable, and I just can't help but feel that a MAJOR war looms on the horizon.

So, anybody know how to build a bomb-shelter? 

I would suggest that it is not conservatism and liberalism.  Rather, it is extreamism on both sides.

It would not surprise me at all if a major war happens.  It would also not be surprising if the war was over drinking water and/or oil.

I suspect that these next few decades will be a major turning point for humanity. 

Chaunte

I agree Chaunte, those are just the extremes and they have been at it for a very long time. Many issues we see today are more because of better media coverage, not because they did not exist before.

I know how you feel Amarant, I worry where the world at large is headed. Things don't look good but look deeper, it seems people are increasingly open minded, which is why there is so much backlash going on, you are seeing the desperate pleas of those losing ground. The more they lose, the louder they scream. Something is looming though, maybe the environmental issues will finally unite people. I think we have progressed as far as will can, it will take the collective whole to make that next leap.

That or we are all just doomed, in which case, it won't really matter.

I just worry about what it will take to allow for that leap, sometimes you have to destroy the old in order to build new.

The world has been a mess since humans developed opposable thumbs.

Same as it ever was.

There're good and bad things a-happenin'.   I prefer to think of the good and make the occasional reasonable effort to fix the bad.

Even the guy from Krypton could not handle it all.

We need good people to transcend the slimy grips of corporations and governments to help heal the issues concerning oil and water.     I believe it can be done and I prefer to believe it will be done.

Don't let the negatives outweigh the positives.

They can co-exist, and in fact they do.  If you think about it, the left and the right extremes are actually pretty close to one another as if they exist on a circle.  Fascist hated communists, but if you looked at Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, they weren't very different at all. 

Good things happen as do bad things.  It's a fact of life.  Sometimes things get so bad you just have to cut your losses and start over again.  What would that mean for humanity?  I don't really know and I hope it never gets to that point.  As far as the oil and water concern goes, we'll eventually run out of oil and by then we better have an alternative resource (like hydrogen) which would inadvertently fix the water problem because hydrogen cars create water.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Quote from: sd on March 09, 2008, 12:35:51 PM
Things don't look good but look deeper, it seems people are increasingly open minded, which is why there is so much backlash going on, you are seeing the desperate pleas of those losing ground. The more they lose, the louder they scream. Something is looming though, maybe the environmental issues will finally unite people. I think we have progressed as far as will can, it will take the collective whole to make that next leap.

The world is changing. It's all too easy to let the negatives overwhelm you when you take an active interest, but you're right sd. There is an opening-up, for lack of a better term, going on. Ultimately there will be a change, a big one, as hard as the old guard try to oppose it. Whether that means a shove back into the stone-age to start over or a leap through to a new humankind, who can say. But it is changing.

I heard Marianne Williamson speak Saturday night.  What an incredible woman so filled with wisdom. 
One guy stood up at the question period and stated the very bad things about the world that we all see, and she dramatically stated how we must not be in denial about those things but must find and experience trancendance.  She stated how many people are aware and awake and enlightened, and that we stand upon the stage of the world when the tide is changing.

Doesn't everybody

Quote from: Virginia87106 on March 10, 2008, 02:58:07 PM
stand upon the stage of the world when the tide is changing.

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