h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tampa, Florida – March 8, 2007

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."- Frederick Nietzsche

I’ve noticed that older people tend to become more pessimistic about the state of the external world. I’ve always thought that this was caused being unable to accept their own deteriorating condition. They fail to fully accept this and project it onto a view of the exterior world.

Now that I’m older, am I doing that? Where is my boundless optimism? Consider:

- A $960 billion dollar trade deficit.
- Shameful care of 50,000 returning injured war veterans.
- 2.6 million overhanging unsold housing units.
- Massive transfers of manufacturing and service jobs to Asia.
- British raids on Iraqi government torture centers.
- The use of mustard gas by Sunni insurgents to free 140 Al Qaeda prisoners.
- 109 Shite pilgrims killed by a suicide bomber. The blood pools wiped into gutters by boys with squeegees.
- Global warming.
- Katrina reconstuction debacle.
- Nuclear proliferation.

"Is it you? Is it me? Did we watch too much TV? Is that a hint of acusation in your eyes?" –Pink Floyd

Try turning off the telly for a couple of days

That's a great suggestion...unfortunately, Google News keeps getting in my face...and National Public Radio...and Newsprint...and magazines...

Quickly.. hide under my new Matt!!

It may not be you, but it is me. I think it it being realistic as much as pesimistic. We start out all starry eyed and hopeful and full of energy to fight the good fight. And we really think things will change for the better. By the time we hit this stage of life, we realize that every coin has two sides, that those "improvements" we were all so hopeful about have their own dark sides, that there is nothing benign or noble about nature - especially human nature, and that anything under the control of politicians is going to be fouled up. Regardless of our accomplishments,how much wealth we accumulate or how much good will we are able to accrue, we still wind up in a rocking chair with half a mind, drooling into a bib.

And on that cheery note, it's time for me to turn the computer off and go try to improve the minds of the great unwashed masses.

Recommendation: "The Reckoning", David Halberstam

Oooh! Wait! That's more bad news...

and how did you know about my bib?

What Hypatia says - plus we know so much more of the external world and many more nunaces as we did when young.

Also, I blame the media and what is considered 'news'. If you think and look there is also a lot to be optimistic about. Individual humans' kindness and compassion. Their abillity to endure and yet create magic moments. The hope you can derive from how your and other kids think and act - an unexpected smile.

Consider me an escapist.

I like the Nietzsche quote.

People are good, at least 99.9% are anyway...too many have adopted mindsets which are socially destructive...perhaps as desparate coping mechanisms...meanwhile the state propaganda organs are pumping out ignorant paranoia...keep 'em stupid, keep 'em confused, keep 'em afraid, and you have 'em by the shorts...meanwhile the corporate directors who have stolen the national strategic infrastructure, enjoy the continuing positive cash flow...

I'd go native in a heartbeat, the main issue is this habit of mine that requires a broadband connection and modern consumer technology.

What she and he said. They don't report the good stuff cuz it doesn't make a sensation. The world is a great place, but you're not going to hear about that from the media.

Just yesterday I was involved in a censorship discussion. We were specifically talking about those parents/school districts that restrict kids access to books dealing with real life problems like child abuse, drug abuse, sex, homelessness, etc. It's like they think if the kids don't read about it, it won't exist.

Personally, I would have no respect for a press that fed us a constant diet of pablum.

I share your gloom about things global and federal, Phred, but at the same time I take heart from how the village that I live in works. There are squabbles, disagreements and gossip, but when an emergency strikes -- like last year's floods -- everyone comes out of doors and pitches in to help without regard for personal animosity.

The thing that makes ~me~ perhaps most pessimistic is the moral vacuum at the center of power. The rightness of things apparently is no longer considered, only whether they can be deemed legal and whether they poll well. It is odious to me, to see such amorality parading through the halls of our government dressed in the sheepskin of evangelical casuistry.

This is not a religious consideration: atheists can be just as moral/ethical as religious zealots of any persuasion.

Yeah, but whose morality? Who's gonna start defining morality?

Thank you for that quotation from Nietzche.

I seem to remember reading years ago that when one is young one is an idealist, then one becomes a realist and finally one ends up a sceptic.

Only fools are old idealists!!

I am quite obviously a fool - but I reckon it keeps my adrenalin going and also keeps me going but being an old idealist means that one is also an optimist!!

Nietzche was also a sufferer. Many wonderful creative minds do suffer from schizophrenia. So sad that society dismisses them so derogatively.

I have been seeing some wonderful underwater documenteries lately.

I wish that I had done scuba diving.

I wish that I had learnt how to dki

I am so lucky to be able to share both these experiences both on the TV and also from this site.

Kind regards

Christiane

Hi Hypatia,

I think that your philosophy of life is somewhat like mine - except that you have managed to hang onto the realist. I do not know if I ever reached that stage!!

What news of the boxer?

With affection

Christiane

Dear Idealist,

Thanks for turning my thoughts to happier things...here are a couple of scuba tales...Did I mention that I trained young Captain Cousteau and helped him invent the Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus when I was younger?

H.M.S. Diamond Rock A3662769
The Rolls Royce Silver Cloud A3723824

The Gulf stream is warming up...maybe I can write another story soon and send pictures...the corals and trumpetfish are so lovely this time of year in Palm Beach...

Leo, can there be more than one morality, by which I assume you mean a set of principles for right action? Not rules for specific occasions, just some basic principles about how to behave toward others?

Well, for starters, I think we should treat others, like we would want to be treated by them.

Socrates said it, Mencius said it, Jainists live by it, even Jesus mentioned it.

It says somewhere in Hebraic scripture: "Don't do to others what would be hurtful to you. That's the main thing. All the rest is commentary."

Sometimes folks forget, this applies to everybody, not just one's tribe members.

That's why I really don't like to put bait on my hook.