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This holds truth to it

Evangelicalhumanist

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
We Never Know said:
Pretty clear and truthful

"We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge.
Quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth confused with happiness.
We are monkeys with money and guns."
Tom Waits
Click to expand...
A philosopher might word this differently (and it would take a minimum of 100,000 words), but I think it expresses something that is essentially true.

Part of what it is to be human is to be fed a never-ending "rationalization" from the "interpreter" in your left brain, trying it's best to make sense out of what it experiences. And when it can't, it can be very, very creative (see Michael Gazzaniga, Who's In Charge?") And a big part of what that "interpreter" has to deal with is the trove of "beliefs" that have been implanted in our brains from our earliest moments -- and if those beliefs have been implanted firmly enough, they become part of the story the "interpreter" weaves.

Thus, it is true that we are buried beneath the weight of information. There's so much of it, and we get it from everywhere, all the time: from what people say to us, from billboards we notice on our drive out of town, from newspapers (for the few who still read them) and television and social media (with all of its lies and disinformation). Thus, without very strict discipline (which is what the scientific method and philosophy at least try to give us) all the information can mean anything, everything or nothing, depending on how we view it and use it.

"Quantity confused with abundance?" I suspect that's correct for many of us, leading us to seek to "corner the market" on pretty much everything -- to have more and bigger TVs then the neighbours, or be richer than Croesus or Elon Musk, or have the most shoes (Imelda Marcos of the Philippines wins!). All the while not realizing that if we have "enough" and our neighbour also has "enough," we can live peacefully together and sometimes share the cost of throwing a party that makes everyone feel god.

"Wealth confused with happiness?" Oh, goodness yes, and a lot of the wealthiest people this world (and especially America) has spend most of their time fretting about how to get more, and how they can remodel the world so that all new wealth comes to them. (See Dark Money by Jane Mayer). Money in the bank doesn't make us happy, though it can make us less uneasy about the future. Knowing that there is a good fire, a filling meal and arms to hold you at the end of the day can make you much more truly happy than many, many billions of dollars.

But we are not "monkeys." Yes, we have the money and the guns, but no monkey would know what to do with either. A monkey with a stick can catch nutritious and tasty termites, but when she's full, she'll toss the stick. Humans don't know how best to use some of what we have, like money and guns, and so we too often misuse them.
 
We Never Know

We Never Know

No Slack
Evangelicalhumanist said:
A philosopher might word this differently (and it would take a minimum of 100,000 words), but I think it expresses something that is essentially true.

Part of what it is to be human is to be fed a never-ending "rationalization" from the "interpreter" in your left brain, trying it's best to make sense out of what it experiences. And when it can't, it can be very, very creative (see Michael Gazzaniga, Who's In Charge?") And a big part of what that "interpreter" has to deal with is the trove of "beliefs" that have been implanted in our brains from our earliest moments -- and if those beliefs have been implanted firmly enough, they become part of the story the "interpreter" weaves.

Thus, it is true that we are buried beneath the weight of information. There's so much of it, and we get it from everywhere, all the time: from what people say to us, from billboards we notice on our drive out of town, from newspapers (for the few who still read them) and television and social media (with all of its lies and disinformation). Thus, without very strict discipline (which is what the scientific method and philosophy at least try to give us) all the information can mean anything, everything or nothing, depending on how we view it and use it.

"Quantity confused with abundance?" I suspect that's correct for many of us, leading us to seek to "corner the market" on pretty much everything -- to have more and bigger TVs then the neighbours, or be richer than Croesus or Elon Musk, or have the most shoes (Imelda Marcos of the Philippines wins!). All the while not realizing that if we have "enough" and our neighbour also has "enough," we can live peacefully together and sometimes share the cost of throwing a party that makes everyone feel god.

"Wealth confused with happiness?" Oh, goodness yes, and a lot of the wealthiest people this world (and especially America) has spend most of their time fretting about how to get more, and how they can remodel the world so that all new wealth comes to them. (See Dark Money by Jane Mayer). Money in the bank doesn't make us happy, though it can make us less uneasy about the future. Knowing that there is a good fire, a filling meal and arms to hold you at the end of the day can make you much more truly happy than many, many billions of dollars.

But we are not "monkeys." Yes, we have the money and the guns, but no monkey would know what to do with either. A monkey with a stick can catch nutritious and tasty termites, but when she's full, she'll toss the stick. Humans don't know how best to use some of what we have, like money and guns, and so we too often misuse them.
Click to expand...

I bet you are a lot of fun at party's lol
 
PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
We Never Know said:
Pretty clear and truthful

"We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge.
Quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth confused with happiness.
We are monkeys with money and guns."
Tom Waits
Click to expand...
There is a solution, but first we have to be willing to see the problem, and to want to resolve it. Monkeys can't do that, but I think we humans can.

But will we?
 
metis

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
We Never Know said:
Pretty clear and truthful

"We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge.
Quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth confused with happiness.
We are monkeys with money and guns."
Tom Waits
Click to expand...
The above is one application we can make also that of Desmond Morris' "The Naked Ape". He also warned that this strong tendency to hoard and fight over abundance would really hurt us under dog-eat-dog capitalism eventually, and it clearly is doing just that. Jane Goodall ran an experiment when she had excessive bananas given to a band of chimps in the wild, and all hell broke loose with hoarding and fighting over more than they could possibly consume.

Today here in the States, we have millionaires and billionaires trying to hoard more & more & more, done at the expense of middle & lower-income families. They generally hate unions because unions force them to share with their laborers. They tend to hate Dems because the Dems feel more is needed to help those in need. And just one example of this malicious greed is Donald J. Trump, whose estimated worth is roughly $4,000,000,000, but that's not enough iho.

As that great philosopher, Pogo, said "I've seen the enemy and it is us!".
 
We Never Know

We Never Know

No Slack
metis said:
The above is one application we can make also that of Desmond Morris' "The Naked Ape". He also warned that this strong tendency to hoard and fight over abundance would really hurt us under dog-eat-dog capitalism eventually, and it clearly is doing just that. Jane Goodall ran an experiment when she had excessive bananas given to a band of chimps in the wild, and all hell broke loose with hoarding and fighting over more than they could possibly consume.

Today here in the States, we have millionaires and billionaires trying to hoard more & more & more, done at the expense of middle & lower-income families. They generally hate unions because unions force them to share with their laborers. They tend to hate Dems because the Dems feel more is needed to help those in need. And just one example of this malicious greed is Donald J. Trump, whose estimated worth is roughly $4,000,000,000, but that's not enough iho.

As that great philosopher, Pogo, said "I've seen the enemy and it is us!".
Click to expand...

Yet there are plenty of millionaires from both party's in congress. Way down at #50 on the list is worth over $10 million.

List of current members of the United States Congress by wealth - Wikipedia
 
Stonetree

Stonetree

Abducted Member
Premium Member
metis said:
The above is one application we can make also that of Desmond Morris' "The Naked Ape". He also warned that this strong tendency to hoard and fight over abundance would really hurt us under dog-eat-dog capitalism eventually, and it clearly is doing just that. Jane Goodall ran an experiment when she had excessive bananas given to a band of chimps in the wild, and all hell broke loose with hoarding and fighting over more than they could possibly consume.

Today here in the States, we have millionaires and billionaires trying to hoard more & more & more, done at the expense of middle & lower-income families. They generally hate unions because unions force them to share with their laborers. They tend to hate Dems because the Dems feel more is needed to help those in need. And just one example of this malicious greed is Donald J. Trump, whose estimated worth is roughly $4,000,000,000, but that's not enough iho.

As that great philosopher, Pogo, said "I've seen the enemy and it is us!".
Click to expand...
"The Naked Ape", is one of my favorite books.....
 
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