On the political situation

On the political situation

Trump is a basic bully. He is not getting his way in the world, and outside the US, his tariff actions simply are one more factor in our product selection. Small motors, Honda and Daewoo and others win.

"The MAGA hat has come to symbolize racism, bigotry, Islamophobia, misogyny, white supremacy, homophobia." and also the right of might, the basic bully.

But he is who the US wanted as President. They got there wish. We will survive the asshole. 

Atmosphere Survival

Atmosphere survival is the concept of keeping the atmosphere in the condition it was in prior to say 1960. To do this we would need to return to a pre-1960 level of net Co2 emission, and likely a pre-1960 population. This was common discussion in the mid 60's, for those of us that can recall the time. I did not get traction then, and became a topic not to discuss for there is no solution on offer, only the eventual demise of humanity as we know it. I am not saying extinction but rather major change in the next few generations. Perhaps we will adapt to high carbon dioxide atmosphere, perhaps this will be the limiting factor to human growth. I do not know. Change is the only constant.

Temperature is one of the dimension of space. Before there was anything, there was no temperature, absolute zero, or less. Once a region of space warmed to absolute zero, space thawed, the forces separated, matter can exist, shit happens because it can. That was the beginning, 14.8 or 15 billion years ago. But a year is a long time in a atomic world. And the universe was off to the races. Change is the only constant. and in the end we die and are recycled, one atom at a time. Oh well. Perhaps humans will survive, or perhaps mutate into something else.

Out atmosphere temperature is tide to weather. There is no doubt of that. Temperature of the atmosphere is tied to weather. Expect change, that is all I know for sure.

My mind is going, as is the body, but Oh well, in the end we all just die, and the process is not a straight line for sure, but one of breaks and bends. Climate is likewise, and is generally unpredictable in extend, yet gives hints of directions. Here, warming of winters for sure, at least in my lifetime.  

As the founder of WatchTower said: "This is a business association merely ... a business convenience in disseminating the truth, which established the fundamental doctrines of this organization" as he founded a evil organization. Man made without a clear purpose other than control of people, evil and wrong to its' core. It uses the concept of religious faith to control people, develop assets, and create wealth for those who follow and rise in the organization. It covers wrong act, abuse of people, sex crimes, and other evil acts of the leaders. Not knowledge, ethics or truth, but control of the followers is the purpose now.

Ethics is worthy of study, religion is not. We are all individuals, and the adults must make their own choices as to what is worthwhile, what is right and what is not. We have no right to force our views onto others, but we may put them out there for others to read, and perhaps understand or not. All we have as free will is our opinions, aka past decisions, and the ability to ascent or reject a concept or idea. Our motivation, desire, and aversion are secondary, as these concepts arise, we ascent or reject each in turn, for action on or no action on. We may desire, but defer action, we may reject the desire, and the desire may remain. How many times? Forever may be the only right decision. Moral and immoral are just human concepts easily replaced by right and wrong. It is often not a good choice, but the best available choice, which may be a bad choice. 

Choices we make... from something else I was reading on memory aging... "Her clarity on her own family is superb, including the distance she maintains from a fraudulent and abusive sibling." Shunning of a form. Just like staying away from the religious of my family or origin.And so it goes on.



    

Empathy

Trump and his immigration policy is just wrong.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/trump-defiant-over-separations-despite-backlash-1.3979294

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-united-nations-human-rights-1.4713021

How is what trump is doing anything like right?

What about those employees of the US? Since WWII just following orders has not been a defense. So are those employees to be held responsible for their actions as war criminals?

Can trump and the employees be held out as war criminals?

Pope shit head

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/06/18/pope-francis-families-with-gay-or-lesbian-parents-arent-legitimate/

Once you realize there is no god, then the pope and his elk become a bunch of old men trying to control others.  He has no right to control others. He is just another shit head ego pushing his opinions. Just like trump.

No religion has any real authority over anyone. We just let them control us, or our ancestors, and some of us have taken back our own authority. I have more education that the pope. He has one error in his thinking, that a god exists. Once that error is corrected, he becomes just another alien in a funny hat.  

Philosophy of Life

One can develop or select a philosophy of life to direct our life, or the remainder of our life. That is essentially a religion, but philosophy tends to discount any mysticism. So we can select something, some philosophical concepts and allow those concepts to control our decisions going forward. OK. But one concept is not enough, even if we knew the outcome. For what would we trade a few thousand days for? Occupation? Well some occupations shorten our life expectation. Working in construction for one. Not through just on the job hazards, but also through the full on work, full idle cycle of exhaustion/boredom, boom/bust, what ever you call it. And not just construction, oil, energy, even auto. It is the boom and bust that we have seen since industrialization. And does philosophy help, well it can, if we are to allow our philosophy or religion to control. But not religion, for religion requires belief without evidence or logic.

We can start with life as the criteria to judge against. Anything that detracts from life expediency, or quality of life, may need to be modified or examined at least. But even then there can be conflict between what we see as quality of life and quantity, aka life expediency. We may need to make a philosophical choice, are we going to risk life with drugs, alcohol, food, exercise, work, recreation, down time, hobbies... it all becomes a philosophical question, after we take time to actually make a formal decision. Much of the time we just go with the flow... not consider the choice, and just do the next thing that shows up.

So once we define the quality of life we wish to live, the quantity becomes a partly dependent variable, more or less, on that choice. So as we age, life choice become more clear, some things should just not be done anymore, and should not have been done in the past. We were in error. Oh well, that is history. We learn and go forward into today, living differently, as we actively make decisions based on what we know, and what we think is the best choice. We can grow the philosophy, the rationally prepared criteria for our future decisions; yet we should always be examining this philosophy, there may be better philosophies to find or discover, in some cases. Fixity of philosophy is also a danger, not seeing better when it is presented. That is one more shortcoming of religion, the skeptic movement, Stoicism, what have you.

Compassion is an important virtue, but it is often twisted into altruism, an evil. Why should I be concerned about someones life if they are not? (as a response to the drug problem, for example)

Cooperation is the virtue, not doing for others, or providing for others. But life has become a struggle; we are living in an over populated world. We need to rally look to find opportunities. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway.  




      

Temp List

https://www.canadianatheist.com/2018/06/the-fundamentals-of-humanism/

Purpose or Not

https://www.atheistrev.com/2018/06/recommend-some-atheist-blogs.html  got me thinking about the purpose of this or any blog.

In my case, the purpose is personal expression, it does not matter if others read it, but I needed to say it. Others reading this is secondary, but a good effect.

As an atheist, having been a atheist for a long time, and having tried to believe in a concept god for the potential benefits, all the while knowing that there is no evidence for a god, has left me in a position of not being too concerned for others. Once I also accepted that the earth is over populated, as evidenced by Co2 levels, and humanity are going to suffer because of this... well the next generations will need to evolve the ability to live in a higher Co2 atmosphere... then human life loses value. Why should I be concerned about others lives if they are not concerned about themselves?

In my philosophy and similar reading, it is apparent that homo-sapiens are merely the current dominate species, nothing more. We too, will become extinct, likely. We may become extinct through change, with a new species emerging, but each of us become extinct. Oh well.

I have a magpie philosophy, pick out the shinny bits and let the rest go by. Existentialism shiny bit is that this life is the thing of highest value to me, so I should not do anything that lessens that value. So the drug and alcohol world will just need to leave me alone. If you do not care about your life, why should I? So how does this fit in? Well, I am atheist, but that is incidental to life, it is the clear religion. If "atheism" is a religion, then clear is its' colour. Canadian Eh.

The US is a high war industry country, it cannot be peaceful. The war industry and the gun industry are related; it needs a violent population to keep the war industry alive. Peace cannot happen with such a massive war industry. Oh well, we live next door. We need a strong border to keep out the violence. Why should I care when Americans kill other Americans, or Muslim on Muslim. It is just savages killing savages, in an overpopulated world. As an atheist, I need to be responsible for my actions, not the actions of others, especially savages.

From the Stoics, one shinny bit is some things are up to me, the rest is not. It is irrational, aka not logical, to care much about that which is beyond my control and influence. Others may try to force onto me stuff that is beyond my control, but that is not my concern, for they are at best ignorant, and possibly willfully damaging. Ignorant or arrogant, it is their choice. Another shinny bit is that it is not the event that causes us issues, but how we think about it. Take the drug fentanyl/canfentanil issue, if those people do not care about their own bodies, why should I? Well it is addiction. So is some overeating. There is treatment for drug addiction, but not for food addiction. It is all about how we think about it anyway.