I should be clear about this..when I talk about the feminization of men I am referring to men, and the mentality of trying to be these macho man wannabe's who parade around trying to be as manly as they can while high fiving each other at the gym, while they preen themsevles in vain at the same time and worry about getting dirt on their brand new shoes..it is this sort of man that actaully FEARS the true devine feminin and rejects it. They are not in touch with their true emotions and so cannot fulfill the role men have played for so long.

True mansulinity lives in reverance and resepct of the devine feminine that resides within our planetary eco-system. The way we approach animals for instance is a perfect example of this. Hunting was once a noble, honerable thing to do. To feed and cloth your family yourself with what the earth provides. Men were hunters who had respect for the life they took. They acknowledged the cycle of life and death on this planet and the lives of the animals they took and acted accordingly.

Now we have men who could not handle hunting another animal..yet they still eat from the meat of animals who spend far more time sick and suffering than any wild hunted animal
ever would. We now have a bunch of people who have become helpless hippocrates. People in general have become removed from the reality of life on planet earth. Men are weak and often can not handle this reality..or they just show no respect for it at all.

I want to learn to hunt..but I could not even learn from my grandfather which is sad. The man often times just got super drunk and drove around on his ATV shooting at shit. I was afraid the guy was going to accidentally shoot some human one day. This is not a resepctful way to be taking the life of other beings who are dying for you and your family IMO. What happened to our elders?

Why are we so removed from this reality? I actaully hesitate to call any of this true "feminism"..what it really is is the kind of feminism that is sold to us today and it has nothing at all to do with honoring the devine feminin. It is more about breaking up the family structure, enslaving more people by tricking more of them into working full time jobs while their kids sit at daycare..it disempowers both the role of the man and women by removing them from the natural flows of earth and the most discusting part is that it is all done under the guise of feminin liberty. There have been and still are real problems having to do with the oppression of women in our society that need to be addressed, and this bs feminist movement does not do that. It's a smear campaine essentially.

It's a problem across the board. It manifests in other areas as well. Look at the dissapearance of anything we could call a true elder in our society..the people that truely rise to that title these days are few and far between. Just as we have lost our reverance and respect for the natural cycle we are emdedded within, we have lost our respect and reverance for our elders. These days people end up often dying lonely deaths in homes younger people ship them off too becasue they are too preoccupied with their government dictated work life etc they cant take care of them. Old people are no longer seen as the wise teachers they once were..and the saddest part about it is that many of them are not these wise teachers any longer. They are old people filled with the conservative propeganda that was the social climate they lived their whole lives within.

This whole feminine thing has become a movement that destabalizes the family unit, manipulates the real struggle of women, essentially disempowering men and throwing off the balance so much that people become utterly helpless to the point where you have these people running back to the discussion blabbing on about how the "system gave us this, or the system gave us that", unable to even adress the situation beyond that.

So true jamie. We need to re-connect, re-mind, & re-member ourselves with the earth, only then will our roles be returned.

This is why I'm weary of the technocratic futurists. I don't want to devolve to the point where I'm dependent on bio, nano, & robotic technology. I want to return to the earth and enjoy eden.

"Virtual reality is a fairly new concept to us; but once you grok it, it seems clear that any civilization that was capable of starflight and longevity extension, and so forth and so on, would also have a full VR toolkit under control. Well then, that means that when we go looking for the extraterrestrial, what will be the footprint? Perhaps vanished races are all around us, but downloaded into solid-state matrices that we have only recently come to the point where we could even recognize that possibility." - Terrence McKenna

so no enlightenment or levitation after year and years of consuming spice.
My take is that you can get a glimpse of what's behind the curtain, but you still "have to live" ( the words I perceived last time I thought the same question while in the...DOME).
You have to live, act in this dimension, THEN you get to die

Maybe We have it all wrong? Dying is the prize?

we can go out of the ordinary but we can't live there


Imo we should not forget that the feminist movement is still actually pushing for women's rights in areas it is quite clear that current rights are not equal. However I believe we may disagree on there being specific roles to be met by individual genders (beyond birthing and providing food for children). Sure there are other fish to fry, but there always has been and will be. I believe equality is very important to pursue as it may take quite some time to iron out all the rest of the kinks in our systems and equality will allow for a more equal participation in these changes.

So again we need to die to attachment, anger, greed, fear.... I remember being out there and experiencing the huge one-ness with whatever you want to call the DMT spirit..and asked myself " and now I have to go back there and deal with things like...shoes? and tools? And breathing? Why???? " You have to live" was the answer....

Still we don't know WHY. or HOW are we supposed to live.

Again..time for me to peek in the rabbit hole once more.

Nope, but I'm learning how.

With love and passion and checks and balances (I can get too passionate sometimes ).

I agree with you guys on the whole reconnecting with earth thing, but if you really look into it and think about it, it does seem like we are spiraling into some sort of technological sinkhole, and no matter how much people wish it wasn't so, the reality is that it's kind of inevitable. Like even if at some point in the future people realize that "uh-oh, maybe this isn't such a good direction after all" and start to illegalize all A.I. and V.R. research, there will STILL be people who will have the unstoppable passion to continue it underground. It's just the nature of human curiosity, seeing how far we can take it, what kind of crazy things we can build. Curiosity usually kills the cat, but the cat can't help it, because it's not a rock it's a cat.

So maybe instead of wishing that we could stop time and stay at the good times and continue hugging trees, maybe we should all really start to figure out ways to minimize the harm from this inevitable technological (r)evolution, and figure out ways to change our mindset about constantly relying on this organic body and maybe get used to thinking about future scenarios that might sound a bit scary at first. It's like being is this body has become an addiction for us and we just wish it would never end. But everything changes, it's just about how you integrate yourself to that change.

You seem to generalize technological society as the whole world population. In fact billions of people around the world are still living a non-technological life style. Our western industrial system has turned many of these places into impoverished civil war zones just so that we can extract their resources for our own little technological bubble. It's not that we're addicted to our bodies, it's that we're addicted to our technics.

Our entire biosphere is being completely destroyed to keep the small western tech population ADD learning, anxtious and depressed, while the surveillance state rises. These technocrats have no consideration for biological life and even their own small group of technology fiends are hurting.

It's a lose-lose situation, and not something people should just willingly accept and tell themselves they need to get over their silly natural self and move on to cyborg status. Not to mention that when they do incorporate this bio-nano-robotic technology there will be an added inequality not just between tech and non-tech world, but between those in the technology world who are "upgraded" and those who are not. That is such a mess that I can't see why we would continue all of this insanity and dis-involvement from god's natural world.

Please read some indigenous points of view on technology before completely siding with the western technocratic elitists.

We, the technological type, are the ones in the wrong. NOT the people who continue a down to earth lifestyle which technology interupts.

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal." - Albert Einstein

Your signature is a telling point of view from you. Money is the deciding factor. I beg you to take a different point of view.

I am not sure those indigenous anti tech are so...by choice.

We live in the first world, doesn't mean you have to embrace every mistake of it, or condemn every advantage.
I think we are getting closer (again) to our roots. Change takes time. We have access to so much more information now compared to just 10 years ago.

And if you own a cell phone, you are already a bit of a cyborg. The difference will be the interface that is destined to get smaller and smaller and eventually disappear. ( Google glasses) and be part of your body...say like a wrist watch has been for centuries.

@fairbanks

I'm not actually taking any sides, like I said I agree on the reconnection with earth and yeah it would be nice if we could stay in natures bosom and this planet could keep circling forever. But at the same time I can observe the gravity-like direction of technological advancement that is happening and the only way to stop it is to stop time. And I think alot of other people feel it too. So I'm not advocating anything I'm just saying we should minimize the harm from something that is very likely going to happen anyway. Better to unite our brightest minds and come up with good solutions instead of trying to stop it, making it go underground and letting some nutjob be the one to build the first AI or some other critical invention.. Now that's scary to me more than anything.

And I guess our brightest minds are already on the job, so I'm not really suggesting that we do anything in that sense. Just get the popcorn and enjoy the ride. (unless you happen to be one of the bright minds, then you should probably join them.)

And I see you relate technological advancement with destroying our nature, and yes that is happening in the western society currently but I don't think that's what's causing it, it's caused by money and individualism. With technology we could actually help this whole situation by first of all finding safe and sustainable energy sources, and eventually by transforming us into a form where we all become one and won't even bother this planet anymore.

And how do you know we are the ones in the wrong? Have you thought about all the possible future scenarios and are they all wrong? What is "wrong" anyway it's just a human concept. I don't think there is any right or wrong, things just happen with a big mass and we are tiny particles in a huge happening called the universe.

(And you understood my signature wrong, it's actually anti-money and represents my loathing for it.)

You're right. It wasn't the choice of indigenous peoples to have their land appropriated by money fueled techno-industrial progress.

The third world is inside of the first world as well though. Visit Detroit or Camden NJ, visit any indian reservation. These places as well as the rest of the "third world" are simply results of the addiction the techno-industrial first world has with their frivolous wants of google glasses and xbox.

Embracing technology as a privileged person is to accept the continued violence and genocide on land/peoples that continue elsewhere. When it eventually comes knocking on your door then you will realize.

daedaloops,

I understand your sympathy for modern technology, but it IS in fact destroying the natural world. Money and individualism are simply the smoke and mirrors of capitalism and free market that propels this techno-industrial death urge. Neo-liberalism and computer free markets are why we're in the world-wide economic collapse now. You think that more technology will help the world that's been abused by techno-industrial progress? Well that's exactly what Bill Gates thought with his large endorsement of GMO crops in poverty stricken nations. Most people in this modern tech privileged mindset think that b/c their personal life has been enhanced that the same can be applied to the dying world that was originally caused by techno-industrial progress. You're fighting fire with fire there. All alternative techno energy supplies (wind, water, solar) are unsustainable and would never be able to pick up the slack for oil, coal, and natural gas so they'd never be implemented on a wide scale.



If you consider corporations our brightest minds, sure... I always found this fight club quote hilarious but completely true: "When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that will name everything: The Ibm stellarsphere, The Microsoft galaxie, Planet Starbucks."



That's taking this planet for granted ! We already are one. We are all inter-connected, we don't need modern tech to show us this while it destroys the natural world. That's why I said you should read some indigenous points of view. If we do become connected as one in technocratic sense, it would be in a surveilled super computer were nobody has free will or natural process of thought. Just like the '60s hippies appropriated native spirituality, they continued as yuppie psychedelic technocrats appropriating native spirituality to propel the creation of a corporate computer one; but we already are one!



Modern technology IS the one in the wrong like Albert Einstein said. It's a pathological criminal. If you honestly think that all of the suffering and sacrifice of people and land for our frivolous technology is right then I question your humanity. The future scenario of modern techno-industrial progress as I see right now in context of Alberts qoute, will simply continue it's death urge of destruction and make excuses that it's for an "enlightened" earth.

That wasn't my point. I read " Memories of an economic hit man" and I know how the exploiting process works. What I was pointing out is that given a chance anybody would embrace an easier life and technology as we do. I am not a fan of the current brand of crony - capitalism, but that's nothing new either...look at how US was founded...

My point is that we should use all we have ( from plants to technology) in the right direction.

Most definitely brutha. Technology isn't inherently bad, fire is technology, permaculture is technology. Primitive peoples have their own technology that provides for an easier simpler life. The difference is that these technologies are sustainable while modern industrial technology is not. This includes the very computer we're using to communicate!

We in the west mistake modern technology as making life easier when in fact it complicates and makes life harder. They said in the 50s that technology would cut the work week down to 15 hours, but now people are working harder than ever trying to catch up with the economic disaster that this technology has created (digital free market started '92). Not to mention the indigenous peoples who struggle to return to their their native ways of life when modern technology has so deeply infiltrated their culture.

I'm not a republican and you aren't one either I agree up to a point. Having a water pump instead of walking 5 miles to the water well IS better, and having electricity to read, cure, study, communicate and cook is better too. we COULD cut the work week to 15 hours ( and have work for everybody) but we are not the one deciding. We are the ones lucky if they have a job. In the mean time the same technocrats keeps ( artificially) 3/4 of the planet under poverty, to have access to resources, cheap workforce and land. But that's not news. What is new is that we are here talking about a new way to gain consciousness, and I think it's positive.

On the other hand I can assure you, I don't own a fifth of the stuff I see around and I'm still very happy. You don't have to embrace the current culture, or dogma. Take the good, change the bad.

then read also this one. War is outdated, they bankrupt nations to enslave them now.

http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081

I'm afraid it's not simply a matter of personal choice MentalAnimal. Even if you were to completely drop out of techno-industrial society there would be no effect on the actual system's continued destruction. All personal ecological choices are simply absolving our own morals, not effecting the systemic problems.

There needs to be real revolution, like that of s. american countries, where n. america is returned to it's rightful original owners in native peoples. Great example being in Bolivia with indigenous president Evo Morales implementing policies that provide for local self-suffiency and sustainability. I think it will happen eventually b/c of the growing disillusionment in america combined with the access of information. The neo-indigenous way of the world will return! In this future we will look back on the dangerous physical and mental effects of screen technology and industrial organized society.

"I agree with you guys on the whole reconnecting with earth thing, but if you really look into it and think about it, it does seem like we are spiraling into some sort of technological sinkhole, and no matter how much people wish it wasn't so, the reality is that it's kind of inevitable. Like even if at some point in the future people realize that "uh-oh, maybe this isn't such a good direction after all" and start to illegalize all A.I. and V.R. research, there will STILL be people who will have the unstoppable passion to continue it underground. It's just the nature of human curiosity, seeing how far we can take it, what kind of crazy things we can build. Curiosity usually kills the cat, but the cat can't help it, because it's not a rock it's a cat."

Well, I dont fully agree with you here because I think this is too linear a siutation. I dont disagree with you that we are headed in that direction in general, but I see a dissonance taking place that seems to suggest more than one path will be taken..and I have a feeling that many people will follow the industrial technological path as it stands and those people will end up farther degrading their own genetics etc.

Hell, I sound crazy to most people here I know..but I have some strong feelings about this and I often contemplate the likelyhood that humanity is going to break off into a couple different "races" in the future and one of them could very well be the "greys". This is based on both my own experience that I cant begin to get into here so I wont and research into the whole UFO/abdeuction etc phenomenon.

To me, the idea that our technolgy as it is currently going is going to be our savior is a naive one. I just dont see it. I think technology is great but we need to seriously slow down and rethink everything we are doing atm. Most of our technologies are not being used for anything productive to the human race and is contibuting to the downfall of our race and our ecosystem and it is taking place at the hand of man.

Just because we have somethign revolutionary like the internet that has come out of our technology does not suddenly mean that technology is inherantly some great thing..and this is the fallacy so many get caught up in. Technology is neutral..just like nuclear physics..it's how we approach it that dictates what effect it can have down the road..

Ultimatly the most advanced technoloy on the planet is the planetary eco-system as a whole..and you could argue that our technology has been birthed from and so is a part of that same system, but then you must ask this question..What aspects of our technology are congruent with the larger ecosystem and what aspects are not? This is the real issue. have heard far too often people make the statement that "everything is natural" which is true. Everything is not congruent with the pre-existing system that we are imbedded within however. It is a truely stupid thing to destroy that which sustains you.

^ well yes, and this is whY I agree with Johnothan Ott when he says that in his opinion, the entheogenic plants seem to be the most effective method of awakening people to this realization. It is not the only method for achieving altered states etc..but that is not the point. It is the quickest method within the proper context and I think psychedelic psychotherapy has proven this to be the case.

I'd like to add to what jamie said. He brought up the most important point of all. "Ultimatly the most advanced technoloy on the planet is the planetary eco-system."

It echoes Paul Stamets when he said, "I see the mycelium as the Earth's natural Internet, a consciousness with which we might be able to communicate. Through cross-species interfacing, we may one day exchange information with these sentient cellular networks. Because these externalized neurological nets sense any impression upon them, from footsteps to falling tree branches, they could relay enormous amounts of data regarding the movements of all organisms through the landscape."

If our internet is a replication of this mycelium network then we understand why we're getting all this information. Just like how mycelium provide the fauna which is indigenous knowledge, the internet provides websites for domesticated knowledge. Which do you choose the knowledge of natural plant world, or the fleeting ADD insanity of internet. So we realize that this whole techno-industrial spin off over the past 200 years has been a re-presentation of the earth. We're copying nature by killing it, where is the logic in that? We've only been on this path of insanity for 3-10,000 years of civilization compared to millenia of years in a primitive position. We've been hunter-gatherer for 99.8% of human history, we cannot let the .2% of "civilized progress" define us!

I really cannot see the internet/computer/all screen tech to be natural. I hear that argument all the time. & Sure they're made out of natural materials, but their creation is not a natural life process, rather the opposite; ecocide. Modern technology, in terms of resource refinement for creation, can be compared to you extracting your own blood constantly and painting pictures of your body with it.