At this point we've (humanity) got two choices:
1) regress or
2) fully commit to planned development, with two modes of existence: farmer and city dweller.
Suburbia is possibly the biggest possible misuse of land and resources imaginable. It's just not sustainable. Cities on the other hand can and should be made sustainable. With proper development and land planning we could support billions more people on this planet without breaking a sweat. It just has to be done right and you have to be resigned to less privacy and less room and less possessions. That reality is coming whether we like it or not; so we might as well find a way to like it.
under_believer
JoinedPosts by under_believer
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My Article On Prof. Tom Wessels Online - Evolution, Bible, Climate Change
by Seeker4 ini had posted part of this article earlier, and said when the full text went online, i'd post the link to the magazine.. this is the third issue of a new magazine i'm working on with two friends who started the magazine idea.
the link will bring you to the current cover, and just hit "feature story" on the left hand side.
http://www.peoplesvoicemagazine.com/.
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under_believer
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under_believer
1st try, 0.183
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Pat Robertson Prediction
by robhic ini didn't see this anywhere here, so thought you might be amused by this story.. i was watching fox news this morning.
they had a quick story about ole pat robertson predicting a major terrorist strike in the us sometime after september of 2007. millions would be affected (he didn't specify killed or what, just affected...).
but the kicker was this:.
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under_believer
Pat Robertson is a disgusting old poop. He's an attention whore who can't stand to be out of the news for more than a couple of weeks.
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Kinda Renews Your Faith in Humanity.
by SixofNine inneed a hero?
you couldn't do much better than this guy:.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/485218p-408.... .
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under_believer
The playboy hat is just like gravy on this story, I love it. You mean someone who looks at evil Playboy could actually be a good person?!?!
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Kinda Renews Your Faith in Humanity.
by SixofNine inneed a hero?
you couldn't do much better than this guy:.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/485218p-408.... .
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under_believer
The playboy hat is just like gravy on this story, I love it. You mean someone who looks at evil Playboy could actually be a good person?!?!
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hey expioneers and exelders what goes on during......
by 5go inthe co visit during those meetings you guys go to.
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under_believer
I was a pioneer/ms. Seriously those meetings are just more boring drivel. Blah blah blah, brothers we know how hard it is for you, blah blah blah, keep up the good work, blah blah blah you guys are so great and this scripture here [read misapplied scripture] was TALKING ABOUT YOU!!! YOU were prophesied about here in Isaiah. Blah blah blah.
Nothing to envy but they look like "special treatment" and the other publishers envy it. -
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The Society Isn't about Money. The Governing Body isn't the Illuminati.
by under_believer inno, it's not a vast conspiracy for the governing body to get rich.
it's about power and control, but not personal power and control.
the watchtower society is a living, nigh-sentient entity unto itself.
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under_believer
Narkissos, that's an interesting concept, where change comes from. I suppose I should have stated it "no individual can change it." As the structure itself, as you put it, feels the need to change (and I think using the word "feel" makes the analogy more complete) the change probably manifests itself as a "movement" or swelling of support for a different course.
I think that, as many people far more wise than myself have posited, the primary stimuli the Society responds to as a united organism are financial, though perhaps a sharp drop in publisher count would also prod it into action more specific than the anemic changes it's been making lately in the blood doctrine.
Gregor, don't try to minimize your comments. You came in and called the thread fluff, asked (fine) if I was a ditz, suggested I had no point. There was more than disagreement there. I hope that my riffing on your avatar wasn't too offensive. I was trying to "flame humorously." :)
Personally, I think that they are ALL caught up in the movement. Even people who are perceived as "evil", like Jaracz, are simply archetypal expressions with very little free will. Remember in 1984, even the people at the top were simply pawns of the system, and I see the Society as being very similar to that. If O'Brien himself hadn't existed, or had quit or died, somebody else exactly like him would have taken his place.
Remember when Franz wrote those damning passages of CoC about the GB and its parliamentary procedure he was fresh from the experience and possibly a bit bitter, and rightfully so.
OUTLAW, seriously? A "cherry" airplane, like it's a '69 Chevelle, or something? Do you think they cavort around in there, getting foot massages and sipping Beaujolais? Have you ever done business travel for a living? It sucks. It's exhausting, it's not a point of envy.
And yeah... the "green handshakes" are really getting those CO's rich, I always see them retiring into huge mansions, eating at $75/plate restaurants, off those "green handshake" earnings. Dude, being a CO totally sucks ass, and then those guys are discarded at the end of their usefulness as a burden to local congregations who can barely afford to rent their own trailer homes, let alone rent one for some guy and his wife in terrible health in their golden years. I can't speak to JR Brown's "cherry ride" but the fact that he couldn't buy himself a Geo Metro speaks volumes about how rich those guys are.
Seriously those benefits you just listed don't come close to making up for a lifetime of living in a Best Western double suite, eating workaday food for your entire life and trying to decide what to do to save the morally bankrupt, doctrinally questionable religion you inherited from an insane, asexual little bastard with a messiah complex.
And jayhawk1, I don't think eating lobster, smoked salmon, and fillet mignon on special occasions really qualifies as living in the lap of luxury. -
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The Society Isn't about Money. The Governing Body isn't the Illuminati.
by under_believer inno, it's not a vast conspiracy for the governing body to get rich.
it's about power and control, but not personal power and control.
the watchtower society is a living, nigh-sentient entity unto itself.
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under_believer
Gregor, get over your fat, sugary-juice-filled, sexagenarian self. You want somebody to be responsible, because it makes the whole mess make sense to your narrow-minded worldview. You want an avatar, an agent of responsibility to point to and excoriate in your rambling, wall-breaking-down, "OH YEAH"-filled prancing. You need someone to bear the guilt.
There is no one. You resent my calling out the fact that the individual members of the Governing Body are as trapped and victimized as the rest of the victims of the Watchtower Society. You can't conceive of the idea that maybe the whole organization as a whole is evil and has taken on a life of its own.
You personally attack me and call me a ditz, because you can't wrap your broad-lipped, vacantly-smiling glass head around the idea that maybe there isn't a single evil person or body to point to and call evil and hold to account. Did you ever think, Gregor, that maybe most of the policies that are hurtful and evil about the Society came into being before almost all of the the current Governing Body even existed in that role?
And comparing them to Jim Jones? Get a life and shut your fat chili-hole. -
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What do these song lyrics mean?
by gumby inhey my fellow brothers and sister in the lord....i need some help in figuring out the meaning to this song.. it by five for fighting and it's called superman(it ain't easy) i'm stumped and i love to sing and play the song on my gee-tar.. here's the lyrics.
i cant stand to fly.
im not that naive.
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under_believer
I'm with AlmostAtheist on this one, I think it really is a song about Superman. And how much it would suck to be Superman. Sometimes the meaning's just right there.
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The Society Isn't about Money. The Governing Body isn't the Illuminati.
by under_believer inno, it's not a vast conspiracy for the governing body to get rich.
it's about power and control, but not personal power and control.
the watchtower society is a living, nigh-sentient entity unto itself.
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under_believer
GaryBuss, prove that the Governing Body is important to Jehovah's Witnesses, or the Society in general. They're a red herring--they don't matter. Like I said, run this thought experiment in your mind: kill the entire Governing Body off in a scenario. What happens? NOTHING HAPPENS. Joe Publisher keeps right on going door to door and placing the Botchtower and Asleep magazines, knowing that Armageddon is next fricking week.
Their assets, those 100+ companies, are just as diversified and decentralized as the organization itself. One of them goes belly up, big deal. HALF of them get seized by space aliens who took over the FBI tomorrow, no big deal. The Society will keep going.
Let's try this one on for size: The entire governing body turns out to be evil Satan worshipers, and they leave tomorrow and buy an island in the Caribbean, taking a billion of money with them. What happens? NOTHING HAPPENS. What's left of the Society would pick itself back up, maybe make a couple more legal entities, and go right on running assemblies, financing kingdom hall builds, and pooping on people who have a real conscience and speak up.
I am liking the cancer analogy more and more every minute.