[wiki summary]

Guidelines for posting in a dog thread You shall make no more than 1 post in a dog thread unless you have posted or replied to a trip report (or photo) since your last visit. Thanking someone for their contribution goes a long way to building and fostering a sense of community!

[fourteen410]

[Malachai Constant]

The key to MLK’s success was not civil discourse, it was mobilizing large numbers of people due to injustice through civil disobedience which was met by violence, firehouses, dogs, lynching, and murder. Civil discourse ends up with you getting ignored if lucky and killed if not. MLK was hard as nails and was jailed many times and eventually murdered.

[Anne Elk]

Sure. But his civil discourse and learned oratory were equally important; and is what's sorely lacking today. I think you missed my point. Getting mad, picking up your marbles and going home doesn't solve anything.

[Pahoehoe]

[neek]

Since this thread is already hopelessly weird and off-topic, I may as well inject some more randomness before it gets locked. The intent is to be positive and helpful, but since little goes uncriticized these days, apologies in advance. Please feel free to skip if you're only interested in the original subject. There are things you learn later in life that should be taught from an early age. One of these is that suffering is a state of mind. Without consciousness there can be no suffering. Whether it's physical pain or mental anguish, negative experience only gains meaning through the subjective lens of the mind. That is not to say these things aren't real, or can't be damaging. Consciousness is about as real as it gets (although this, too, is subject to debate). But the key realization is that your mind is one of the few things, if not the only thing, that you have control over. And like a muscle, it can be trained and improved. Anger has served an important purpose during the course of human evolution and continues to do so today, although to a lesser extent. Anger that leads to positive action, or improved relationships, is, I think, ultimately OK. But it doesn't need to result in long term emotional distress. Once you learn to recognize negative emotions when they arise and observe their physiological effects objectively, you gain great power over them. This is not easy and requires much practice, patience, and open-mindedness. But it's worth it. People have figured this stuff out and you don't have to subscribe to any organized religion to make it work, although beware of charlatans. What inspired me to write this was the earlier comment "I'm tired and lost and have no hope for the future". That, to me, is an unnecessarily bleak view of the world that is purely internal and can be overcome. It is true, we may be on the path to destroying ourselves and many living things on Earth. But is existential angst the best way to cope with this possibility, which is just one of many? Yes, destructive and hurtful attitudes persist in this world, often in subtle and insidious ways, and shouldn't be ignored. But we can do this without tearing ourselves up inside, or tearing down others. The average person of today leads a life of ease compared to the the average person of a century ago. We have the time on our hands and owe it to each other to figure this stuff out. But, this is just the opinion of someone who has definitely not figured it all out yet, so make of it what you will.

[JonnyQuest]

[IanB]

Threads like this one are part of what makes NWHikers great. Opinion, disagreement. Offense taken, discourse, resolution (or not.) Injected levity. Philosophical rumination. And drift... Gosh, it's almost exactly like what happens when real people meet in real places - and have a real conversation.

[joker]

[Pahoehoe]

[philfort]

[Chief Joseph]

[Pahoehoe]

[Chief Joseph]

[Pahoehoe]

[Randito]