# How to cope with "society"



## scatwomb (Dec 5, 2011)

So, I am probably not alone here in thinking that society is fucked up. I get depressed about what I see on a daily basis. Whether it's people mindlessly consuming, cities and farms which have destroyed native ecosystems, turning natural spaces into commodities, corrupt politicians, racism, sexism, any-type-of-ism, etc etc. And, well, at times it is all just too overwhelming.

I was wondering how people here cope. I see myself getting angrier and angrier, and, I don't want this type of negativity to constantly overwhelm me.

I used to meditate. Maybe I should start that again...


----------



## zhivago (Dec 5, 2011)




----------



## Earth (Dec 5, 2011)

Easy, take direct action.
See something that piss'es you off?? Do something about it instead of nothing.

I got real mad seeing the waterways by me get polluted, and the wildlife getting harmed, so I decided to start my own jihad to defend the air, trees, water, and animals.

I get no help, almost no recognition - and this consumes a whole lot of time and resources - but at the end of the day I know I made a difference - which, one person can indeed do on their own...


----------



## scatwomb (Dec 5, 2011)

Earth said:


> Easy, take direct action.
> See something that piss'es you off?? Do something about it instead of nothing.
> 
> I got real mad seeing the waterways by me get polluted, and the wildlife getting harmed, so I decided to start my own jihad to defend the air, trees, water, and animals.
> ...


 
Yeah, Earth, I hear you for sure. But, I guess I get overwhelmed with foundational/systemic stuff. Like, I can't for example, as an individual, get pissed off about the Tar Sands Project in Alberta or mountaintop removal or sweatshops in Mexico and go and stop it. And, I don't buy into the whole "Be the Change" stuff - I mean, sure, I can consume less and not support these industries, as an individual. But, in the end, the system doesn't change if I change as an individual. It doesn't even get better if hundreds of thousands of individuals change - it just changes the way it exploits the earth or people.

These are the things I get angry about - huge systemic things that are nearly impossible to tackle. Should people like me just buck up and try to tackle them? Even if we're going to get our asses kicked? Probably...

Oh, and, I don't drink or use drugs, so, unfortunately, I can't use those to cope.


----------



## LeeevinKansas (Dec 5, 2011)

i avoid people that give negativity or are negative. works for me. find something to do with your time, like a hobby. hobbies that dont involve others. maybe educate yourself about the natural world so you can escape this shitty one mankind has built up around you.

no seriously. you want a great way to avoid people? i think thats why half of us fucking are traveling. people i meet can say what they want, be in denial etc.....but arent all of us travelers deep down inside, arent like most of us on the road to avoid the modern world? or the poeple at least? or a certain place?
you know what i mean. we all got our stories but they pertain to (9 times out of 10) not liking the world around them.or something about it.

what im getting at is the "world around them" is nowadays cities and metropolis's, traffic and cars and buildings and companies and corporations and guns and war and media and the internet and all that shit.......... its just a big ball of chaotic hectic stressful bullshit. and we all know it. and we all contribute to it. we all have helped make this world into the shit hole it is.

but what about what if earth existed as it is now, but without the people? jus tthe animals? or maybe not as many people. just a couple hundred thousand, or like i said before, better yet nobody........

I have a friend of mine that is always and i do mean ALWAYS stressed out about something. I remember i used to drive out in the country backroads out here in kansas with him back in the day, and id always ask him or kinda "tell" him or nudge him to stop the car, turn off the music, ...get out. sit on the hood whatever. just listen to the wind. the silence. see the trees. see the sunsets. see the sunrises. feel the warmth of the sun. and look around man. you see nobody. there is nothing. i speak from my heart brother.
solitude can be beautiful as fuck. jaw droppingly gorgeous. and guess what? i remember, he started to do this shit on his own. he would even catch me off guard, tell me to shutup when i was ramblin bout my own problems, tell me to shutup and just listen to the wind.



you see, the natural world is peaceful. i HIGHLY advise studying it man. its a hobby. dont feel like a "pansy". shit fuck anyone who thinks that. go explore man. explore the natural world around you man. i dont know what you do or how you live but i think it would be greatly beneficial to your health, especially if your having probems coping with people to maybe just get away. if you cant get away then bring nature indoors. bring it with you. find away brother. it really is good for you and beneficial.


----------



## fateoficarus (Dec 5, 2011)

I fight back


----------



## Alaska (Dec 5, 2011)

Truth.^ That's all you can do. Whatever the word "fight" may mean at the time.


----------



## TheUndeadPhoenix (Dec 5, 2011)

The way I cope is I travel. While I was on the road, the only thing I was depressed about was not having a place to call my own. I had one when I had a squat, but it was in Philly and it ended up getting raided. :/


----------



## wildboy860 (Dec 5, 2011)

take direct action, be the change you wish to see in the world. if you dont do something than you have no right to complain. move to a commune or other community that agrees with what your world/life veiws are. yea... its alright for you to be depressed about todsay society, but you need to do somethngmore about it than to post about it online.


----------



## scatwomb (Dec 5, 2011)

So, okay, I personally don't care too much about being depressed. I care more about how the world is fucked up and it's getting worse and worse every day and how I want to help in changing that. Living on a commune won't do shit to change that. Traveling the rails won't do shit to change that. Hitchhiking won't do shit to change that. Dumpster-diving won't do shit to change that. And, sorry, squatting doesn't do shit to change these systemic things. I do and have done all of these things - it's exciting to live on the outside of society, living off it's excess. It feels like you're accomplishing something living this alternative lifestyle, but, it's not sustainable and completing dependent on living off the excess of an exploitative culture. I want to destroy that dominant culture.

I want to devote myself to something real, something that challenges the system on an existential level. I don't merely want to change my personal surroundings and actions, although that's something that I have done and will continue to do. I want more, and, I don't know what that looks like.

So, when y'all say "fight back", what does "fighting back" look like to you? How does your "fighting back" challenge the dominant culture in a way that actually threatens its existence?


----------



## LeeevinKansas (Dec 5, 2011)

scatwomb said:


> So, okay, I personally don't care too much about being depressed. I care more about how the world is fucked up and it's getting worse and worse every day and how I want to help in changing that. Living on a commune won't do shit to change that. Traveling the rails won't do shit to change that. Hitchhiking won't do shit to change that. Dumpster-diving won't do shit to change that. And, sorry, squatting doesn't do shit to change these systemic things. I do and have done all of these things - it's exciting to live on the outside of society, living off it's excess. It feels like you're accomplishing something living this alternative lifestyle, but, it's not sustainable and completing dependent on living off the excess of an exploitative culture. I want to destroy that dominant culture.
> 
> I want to devote myself to something real, something that challenges the system on an existential level. I don't merely want to change my personal surroundings and actions, although that's something that I have done and will continue to do. I want more, and, I don't know what that looks like.
> 
> So, when y'all say "fight back", what does "fighting back" look like to you? How does your "fighting back" challenge the dominant culture in a way that actually threatens its existence?


 
guess what. u cant do shit to change anything. so stop trying. ur never going to succeed in making this world a better place. maybe for some but not for everyone, and isnt that the point?


----------



## barefootinbabylon (Dec 5, 2011)

I could repeat the popular verbiage that after you change yourself, you change your family. After you change your family, you change your neighbourhood, and onwards and upwards until you have effectively changed the world, right?! Righhtt.. I hear you, completely, about how even our acts of living off of the 'dominant culture' are ultimately supporting its endgame - were it not for this extremely short-sighted culture of waste and consumerism, we would not be alive: it is the very nature of our culture that allows and permits us to live freely. [With the using of the word 'us,' I am hesitant and being hypocritical, because I personally am STUCK for the time being, trying to find work, save up money, so I can get out of this country... yes, yes, more escapism at its finest.] We can ALL do personal things that challenge the status quo, and I believe that perhaps the most REAL thing you can do, at least for the time being, is to try to engage people in conversations about this SHIT world in which we inhabit - and not just people on the STP message board, most of which already share these ideologies. Look at the Occupy Movement (which the po-lice forces throughout Amerikkka essentially crushed, ironically simply reinforcing 1000-fold their message) - but they actually (for a time) managed to CHANGE THE DIALOGUE within the mainstream media; they got people throughout the country asking questions, RELEVANT questions, about where we have come, how we got here, and where we go from here. Of course, everything has gone back to 'normal' by now, and yet....

I believe, with every fibre of my being, that the very things that make you, that make so many of us, so angry and even and ultimately left feeling helpless by the sheer enormity of it all... it can NOT continue, it will NOT go on much longer, and that is a DAMN scary thought. Malthus was definitely on to something, and the capitalist overlords of our country should have asked themselves: 'Just how big can this get?' I could list a wide array of factours, the house of cards, as it may be, on which our society is built: so seemingly stable, but so very, very tenuous. The past several years have begun to call into question the very concepts of our banking system, our monetary system, the Federal Reserve, the very value, in and of itself, of the green-paper-God that we have all come to worship. I ask my father quite often, 'Just how deeply into debt can a country become before its currency is rendered worthless?' and he cannot give me an answer. While the 'published' debt is around $15 trillion, if one takes into account all the government-subsidized programs (which keep increasing in ranks on a daily basis), it's more around $125 trillion. Negative. In the hole. Stocks are continuing to 're-bound,' but that is all simply speculation, that is all simply illusion - there is NOTHING REAL to back up our currency. Once our currency goes... So goes the house of cards. So goes the oil supplies, so goes electricity. So goes transportation, medical facilities, heating and central air... So begin the REAL riots.

I apologize that I haven't given you ANYTHING of substance, because I know you're desperately seeking that. Meditation - yes, meditation DOES work wonders, as does studying Buddhism and other Eastern religions themselves; I've always liked the Hindu concept that everything in this tangible, seemingly concrete world is 'Maya,' Illusion - the Buddhists say 'Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form.' This fatalistic approach which I am espousing - this 'wait until the Collapse!!' verbiage, isn't what you're needing. Like you, I don't have the answers. However, to take some sick sense of comfort in the fact that this DOMINANT CULTURE IS DESTROYING ITSELF... and then, to prepare yourself, mentally, physically, spiritually, for those chaotic days that ARE coming... I would say that's an immense task, in and of itself.

... Of course, you could always just volunteer at a homeless shelter, or something of that nature. The whole old-man-walking-along-the-beach-throwing-oysters-back-into-the-sea.... 'Well, I made a difference to that one' mentality. Keep seeking, keep questioning, don't ever, EVER give in... Life is about living these questions, these frustrations, and slowly, slowly, sloowwwllyyy finding ways to personally effect change. I would suggest Derrick Jensen's 'What We Leave Behind'... it addresses a lot of your questions/frustrations - is there a POINT to fighting back? And if so, how? better than I ever could; all I do is go ranting apocalyptic.


----------



## slurricane (Dec 6, 2011)

kill yourself.


----------



## Menyun (Dec 6, 2011)

It all depends on how far your willing to take it.... if you wanna make a small difference you dont have to do alot... community service by choice makes a small difference... if you wanna make a big difference though chances are your gonna have to risk it all including life. their are alot of extremest groups around this country find one with the same goals as you but simply joining one of these groups you endanger your rights and risk imprisonment or death so in the end its up to you as to how far you wanna take it. I will say if you take it to the extreme you have less then a 1% chance of succeeding in your goals so if you end up dead dont be surprized but you'll never know if you dont try right? Thats the rebel route anyways you can always go the acceptible route get a law degree do everything you can to promote change run for gov office and try to make a difference that way. either way though you have about the same odds of actually making a difference. one you have take the time to get the degree and exp and on the other you risk your life and freedoms .... best of luck to you in what ever route you choose I'm gonna stick with my denial myself and just live in my perfect lil world in my head. It's alot nicer.


----------



## Cardboard (Dec 6, 2011)

scatwomb said:


> So, okay, I personally don't care too much about being depressed. I care more about how the world is fucked up and it's getting worse and worse every day and how I want to help in changing that. Living on a commune won't do shit to change that. Traveling the rails won't do shit to change that. Hitchhiking won't do shit to change that. Dumpster-diving won't do shit to change that. And, sorry, squatting doesn't do shit to change these systemic things. I do and have done all of these things - it's exciting to live on the outside of society, living off it's excess. It feels like you're accomplishing something living this alternative lifestyle, but, it's not sustainable and completing dependent on living off the excess of an exploitative culture. I want to destroy that dominant culture.
> 
> I want to devote myself to something real, something that challenges the system on an existential level. I don't merely want to change my personal surroundings and actions, although that's something that I have done and will continue to do. I want more, and, I don't know what that looks like.
> 
> So, when y'all say "fight back", what does "fighting back" look like to you? How does your "fighting back" challenge the dominant culture in a way that actually threatens its existence?


 The thing is, that as long as you have already lived inside of that system, you have been trained to think that it is ruling the world. You're just as brainwashed as those that support it, in believing that the west rules the world. I don't mean this in a cruel way, but had you been raised in a different place, or a different time, you would have a different view on it.
Now I don't disagree that people are sick. There are too many of us alive to live without industrialization, without technology, without cities and metropolis'. And unless you are going to go on a mass killing spree for the rest of your life to help that cause (There are some nice, well supported organizations to help you maximize your potential), there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop this progress. It seems as well, that you are living a major contradiction, by using resources that are assisting the systemic change of the planet to serve man's needs, by getting online and posting things like this. You know about rare earth mining, you know about resource exploitation, yet you perpetuate it (without question I imagine).
Well, with the evidence of global warming piling up, and the indisputable fact that the west's consumption leads to the exploitation of the peoples of the east and south, as well as the destruction of the lands that sustain us, we see that there is more than one way to cause mass death, and lower the world population to a sustainable level.
So, it seems that thos who think they are being conciouss, are only being conscious on behalf of making the world better for people, which is the problem that got us here in the first place. As far as the progress of civilizations lifespan, they are just slowing it down. And those, who we often criticize for being the problem (consumers, CEOs, military... "the system"), are actually taking measures to push the problem over the edge, and cause a catastrophic collapse of the system which has brought us to this point.
Every idea, every belief, has a lifespan. The more you fight it, the more reason it has to survive. even those who are "anti" anything, are only perpetuating the ideas that they claim to fight (there is no such thing as bad publicity, you know?).
So what should you do? Whatever you want. I would really ask you to quit reading the news, get off the internet, and go do something you like. You seem to be having a hard time with the overflow of information that the internet offers (unless you have recently been in Alberta and Mexico, and have history in these places, a personal tie to what is happening there, and are really having a hard time with that...). If you start to care too much about these things, you start to realize that there are more and more problems all around the world, and it WILL overwhelm you. You absolutely cannot stop it. And it would be egoist to think that you even should.
Go walk down the street, and see whats wrong in your own neighborhood. I guess, plenty. more than enough to give you something to do, more than enough to work on, and possibly things you can actually take a role in changing. Give up on this view of the world, because what is right for you, is wrong for someone else, and the world feels fine. It isn't "fucked up", and it doesnt give a shit about your petty opinion.
To round things up, if you had never met the west, you might not even believe it was there. You certainly wouldn't believe that it was ruling the world. Nothing people can do will ever truly have the ability to rule the world, only their own image of it, which is so entangled in society (for those in the west), that it absolutely blinded to what the world in essence is. If humanity drives itself to extinction, the world won't shed a tear. It is infinitely more adaptable that us, and has a hell of a lifespan. we might leave things in a bad way, but they have a way of fixing themselves. Not in this outdated ecologist way that thinks they will re-balance themselves to a prior state, but to something new, different, and more suitable for the time.


----------



## BobbinGoblin (Dec 6, 2011)

barefootinbabylon said:


> ... We can ALL do personal things that challenge the status quo, and I believe that perhaps the most REAL thing you can do, at least for the time being, is to try to engage people in conversations about this SHIT world in which we inhabit - and not just people on the STP message board, most of which already share these ideologies. Look at the Occupy Movement (which the po-lice forces throughout Amerikkka essentially crushed, ironically simply reinforcing 1000-fold their message) - but they actually (for a time) managed to CHANGE THE DIALOGUE within the mainstream media; they got people throughout the country asking questions, RELEVANT questions, about where we have come, how we got here, and where we go from here. Of course, everything has gone back to 'normal' by now, and yet....
> 
> I believe, with every fibre of my being, that the very things that make you, that make so many of us, so angry and even and ultimately left feeling helpless by the sheer enormity of it all... it can NOT continue, it will NOT go on much longer, and that is a DAMN scary thought. Malthus was definitely on to something, and the capitalist overlords of our country should have asked themselves: 'Just how big can this get?' I could list a wide array of factours, the house of cards, as it may be, on which our society is built: so seemingly stable, but so very, very tenuous. The past several years have begun to call into question the very concepts of our banking system, our monetary system, the Federal Reserve, the very value, in and of itself, of the green-paper-God that we have all come to worship.
> ....



THIS^

Create dialogue (I'm sure that you do already), it's the best way to discover that you're not alone - but we are islands in a sea of ignorance.
Get prepared. Even if the real shit doesn't go down in our lifetimes, it does give you a sense of purpose.

dialogue+preparation+organization=action


----------



## wokofshame (Dec 8, 2011)

Ultimately the earth will heal from all abuses- clearcuts regrow, topsoil rebuilds. People forgive and forget. Two generations back my grandmother watched her father get put on a train to Auschwitz, only 80 years later I ride trains for shits and giggles.
"All this will pass" Have faith in the power of healing and time. I have a lot. Many people in this part of the world call this faith God and it's preacher Jesus. If that's their name for it, it's cool with me.


----------

