Reply To: General thought on old coal mines.

[Rezwan]

Phil’s Dad wrote:

Armed conflict between nation-states, religious factions, family clans, terrorist organizations, gangs and individuals is a never-ending part of history, and from my perspective, it always will be.

seems to me just a better way of expressing “War is the natural state;”

War is not “the natural state” by any measure and I don’t know why you are so happy to claim that.

You are confused between “conflict” and “war”. This explains why the west is so trigger happy. Like to resolve all their conflicts by dropping bombs on people.

Use of the article “the” indicates it is a dominant stage, it’s not, although conflict is pretty standard. War does occur. It can be said to be “natural”. But not “the natural state.”

Conflict is a (not “the”) common state. Letting it escalate to war is not that frequent. Family clans may argue over inheritance, but they don’t firebomb each other’s houses. Most of them use the handy court system. Just because a few have been known to go ballistic doesn’t make it the natural state. Gangs may assert their territory rights but they don’t have drive-by shootings every day. In fact, you’re more likely to be killed by a family member in an argument that is settled by a gun, than be killed by a gang member.

But just because murder occurs, doesn’t mean it’s the natural state. And even here, in America, land of gun lovers, you get what, 18,000 gun deaths a year, most of them are suicides. Out of a population of 300 million. The natural state is cancer and heart failure. If on the individual level war=murder, it is still not “the” natural state. Very few individual conflicts end in murder.

2/ The other thread is about whether we do the cause any good by “ambulance chasing” man made disasters. I think not. If that is judgemental so be it. There are times when sound judgement is the best thing you can bring to the table.

It’s not sound judgment so much as limiting and stifling. Ambulance chasing is a fine line of work with a long and glorious tradition. It does plenty of good.

And in the realm of brainstorming, why limit and censor other people’s expression? This is one way of looking at things that might resonates with people. Not with you, but you’re not the only audience. You go watch your arthouse flicks, others will watch ambulance chasing thrillers. Popcorn will be sold. The world is big with room for many views. Not all conflicts need to be resolved. We don’t need consensus. Diversity is fine.

But, Rezwan, you already have your positive message. You said, among so many other excellent examples;

(https://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/364/)

Rezwan wrote: I do want to live in a world where we transition easily from sleek urban areas with the option of jumping in a supersonic chopper to hawaii, or hopping on a horse and riding all day to the next town…

I mean, this corporate American western civilization is a bit boring. I’d like to see more anachronism and greater expanses of wild land where that could happen.

So, I have a number of fantasies of alternative futures and landscapes. None of these is very viable in the current limited resources…

There is your story. Roll cameras.

Cool! Except this isn’t a story. Just some text fragments. You need a beginning, middle, end, some sort of narrative arc and some clear tie-in to fusion. See if you can’t flesh this out into a more complete script. Also, this baby has high production values – where would get the footage? CGI budget on this is high.

And in the same thread you said

Rezwan wrote: I hear you on the holier than thou thing…So, the environmental movement doesn’t resonate with me because its focus is on punishment and guilt,…

And no whiners.

Queue the video

Yes, and now I’m experiencing your comments as holier than thou whining. Worse. War-justifying holier-than-thou anti-brainstorming creating-lots-of-impractical-work-for-other-people whining.