Ever feel that Western Civilization isn't really your bag?
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mista geechee
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Yep. All the time. I dream of retiring to Monaco something to that degree. For some reason, all my life I've been drawn to the mediterreanean (sp?) region.
I used to not care but this place (the US) is so superficial. But at the same time, it's probably the easiest place to live.
TurkeyWithaSunburn
Legendary Member
The only thing I wish is that Canada and some big equatorial chunk of the Pacific could trade places. Just as long as southern Ontario straddled the equator - you could aim Nunavut up or down to the poles so the polar bears would stay happy.
Otherwise, I've thought about ditching capitalism and living off the land in the tropics, but that's just a silly pipe dream. Dumping Western Civilization wholesale would be pretty darn hard. It's everywhere. People like me have had it pretty rough since that whole monotheism thing became popular, and to go back beyond that became prevalent...that ain't happening.
Otherwise, I've thought about ditching capitalism and living off the land in the tropics, but that's just a silly pipe dream. Dumping Western Civilization wholesale would be pretty darn hard. It's everywhere. People like me have had it pretty rough since that whole monotheism thing became popular, and to go back beyond that became prevalent...that ain't happening.
Phil Ayesho
Superior Member
Funny--- people think Monaco or Canada is not western civilization....
CHINA is western civilization, these days.
The only alternative to western civilization is Darkness, Ignorance, Superstition, Violence, Bigotry, Sickness, Oppression.
Anyone thinking America or Europe are lands of racist inequality has never spent any time in Africa, India, or Asia.
Western civilization is by far the most humane, tolerant, safe, and informed of all human conditions.
Not that it doesn't have its faults...
But it is what WE decide it will be.
Not long ago they hung black men from trees in the South...
Until we decided that that was not what our civilization should be like.
Like King said- the Arc of the moral universe is long... but it bends toward justice.
As we learn, and we allow freedom for both better and worse ideas to be expressed... the better ideas are the ones we will embrace...
Its getting better in direct proportion to our own ability to be embarrassed by ourselves in the light of a better example.
CHINA is western civilization, these days.
The only alternative to western civilization is Darkness, Ignorance, Superstition, Violence, Bigotry, Sickness, Oppression.
Anyone thinking America or Europe are lands of racist inequality has never spent any time in Africa, India, or Asia.
Western civilization is by far the most humane, tolerant, safe, and informed of all human conditions.
Not that it doesn't have its faults...
But it is what WE decide it will be.
Not long ago they hung black men from trees in the South...
Until we decided that that was not what our civilization should be like.
Like King said- the Arc of the moral universe is long... but it bends toward justice.
As we learn, and we allow freedom for both better and worse ideas to be expressed... the better ideas are the ones we will embrace...
Its getting better in direct proportion to our own ability to be embarrassed by ourselves in the light of a better example.
whatireallywant
Sexy Member
I belong in the Delta Quadrant circa 12,000 C.E. :biggrin1:
Anyway, even with its faults "Western Civilization" today is about as good as it's gotten on Earth. I wouldn't know about other planets...
Anyway, even with its faults "Western Civilization" today is about as good as it's gotten on Earth. I wouldn't know about other planets...
Jonathan2/11
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I think Texas is considered either the southern or western but I'd rather be some where up north cuz the heat down here is unbearble I just hate these 100 degree heat waves and its everyday so yea and pluse I've never seen snow before
Principessa
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:yikes: No strip malls?!?! Where do you get your half caf, low fat, caramel Frappucino's.
Ditto!
Mr. Snakey
Expert Member
Western civilization spans Russia westward to the US and then jumps to Australia and New Zealand. It has nothing to do with living in California though, it might be argued, California is the most western civilization of western civilization.
I LOVE being in the west. I love that we have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, scientific inquiry, democracy, and tolerance (in varying degrees). Traveling to other civilizations does not bother me much, but I would never live in a non-western country permanently; even westernized countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, or Japan. I have great respect for many different civilizations but think western civilization is the flower of humanity despite all its numerous and egregious faults.
If my time machine could only take me to one place in the distant past, I'd likely choose classical Athens where my smaller penis would be considered a very sexy asset and homosexuality was the norm. Sitting in the agora listening to Plato and Socrates, attending plays by Euripides, being drinking buddys with Aristotle and Demosthenes... oh man.... Classical Athens was the cradle of western civilization and is, no doubt, why I'm so attracted to it.
The Muslims and the Chinese had great civilizations until they ossified when they turned inward on themselves. There have been other great non-western civilizatons such as Minos, Egypt, Mali, Harrapa, but they all eventually collapsed. Only western civilization has stood, even surviving a major blow with the fall of Rome and Byzantium. I think the reason is that western civilization is so adaptable and it is adaptable because the dogma of the west is that there is no dogma. We will topple ideas and theories as easily as we will topple gods.
I LOVE being in the west. I love that we have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, scientific inquiry, democracy, and tolerance (in varying degrees). Traveling to other civilizations does not bother me much, but I would never live in a non-western country permanently; even westernized countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, or Japan. I have great respect for many different civilizations but think western civilization is the flower of humanity despite all its numerous and egregious faults.
If my time machine could only take me to one place in the distant past, I'd likely choose classical Athens where my smaller penis would be considered a very sexy asset and homosexuality was the norm. Sitting in the agora listening to Plato and Socrates, attending plays by Euripides, being drinking buddys with Aristotle and Demosthenes... oh man.... Classical Athens was the cradle of western civilization and is, no doubt, why I'm so attracted to it.
The Muslims and the Chinese had great civilizations until they ossified when they turned inward on themselves. There have been other great non-western civilizatons such as Minos, Egypt, Mali, Harrapa, but they all eventually collapsed. Only western civilization has stood, even surviving a major blow with the fall of Rome and Byzantium. I think the reason is that western civilization is so adaptable and it is adaptable because the dogma of the west is that there is no dogma. We will topple ideas and theories as easily as we will topple gods.
Catchoftheday
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I watched a western on my TV once..I didn't look very civilised . I don't think any of the men had bags either 
I watched a western on my TV once..I didn't look very civilised . I don't think any of the men had bags either
Wha Wha Wha Whaaaaaaa- budumdump.
I was thinking more like living in Margaritaville or some island in the Caribbean, Tahiti maybe. Somewhere where you don't need to have a cell phone and a car to live. Where people can live easier without pretense.
Key West used to be that place before it was ruined by all rich and obnoxious yankee Conde Naste carpetbaggers who "discovered" it. Don't know where it is now. Quietly hidden like it should be I suppose.
transformer_99
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I think those that are around 50 or older have had as close to that experience as possible. Those older, even living in America especially. My Dad was born prior to the roaring 1920's, lived thru the stock market crash and the 1930's great depression, building of the Hoover dam. Growing up on a farm, basically no electricity, no refrigeration, no AC. By the 1940's he enlisted and served thru WW II, while witnessing the atomic/nuclear age (and about that time actually met Albert Einstein). And I will also mention cars and transportation was vastly different from the 20's to the early 50's, when he bought his first car. Living on that farm, you could almost say he went from the days when horsepower really referenced how many horses you had hooked up to the wagon as opposed to under the hood of a car. The 50's & 60's, he worked on the space age of rockets and later the Apollo space programs, so he actually contributed to the space age. By mid 1980's he retired and has moved several times since. To this day he continues to lead as active a life as an 85+ year old could expect. Over the last 3 decades of his working life and thru retirement, he lived thru the computer age from it's inception to where we are now with them. And he and Mom did it together, being married for 50+ years. she's 11 years younger.
LOL!! I am very content to be living in a "civilized" world, with all the creature comforts that type of civilization brings with it, however, beneath this civilized veneer beats the heart of a man who truly embraces a more primal view of life.
I could, if the situation arose, very easily slip back to the less civilized "beast" that lurks in my heart. Ruthless to survive, far less tolerant of those that commit crimes that offend my personal sense of honor. No need to look to laws to prescribe punishments for outrageous acts against fellow human beings. Justice would be swift and terrible. There would be no observation of the "rights" of murderers and rapists, child molesters and those that abuse the elderly. People who find pleasure in torturing animals would find themselves a victim of their own designs.
Yes, it is nice to live in a civilized society....we have cable!! But....the barbaric, primal way could be just a little fun, too!!
I could, if the situation arose, very easily slip back to the less civilized "beast" that lurks in my heart. Ruthless to survive, far less tolerant of those that commit crimes that offend my personal sense of honor. No need to look to laws to prescribe punishments for outrageous acts against fellow human beings. Justice would be swift and terrible. There would be no observation of the "rights" of murderers and rapists, child molesters and those that abuse the elderly. People who find pleasure in torturing animals would find themselves a victim of their own designs.
Yes, it is nice to live in a civilized society....we have cable!! But....the barbaric, primal way could be just a little fun, too!!
Rikter8
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Really??!
Well Drive north studpuppy. Come on up around January 20th and I'll take you up to northern MI and you can see LOTS of snow.
I'll strap you on my sled and show you how fast we can cook across the frozen lake.
I don't mind where I live, except for the lack of sites, and that they use salt on the roads in the winter time.
I like the change of seasons. I look forward to them, so I would want to live somewhere, where that occurred.
