If We All Vanished Tomorrow (from Mark Morford)

I don't usually just copy/paste entire articles...but I really liked this one. Since most people are too busy to trouble themeslves with clicking a link to access an article elsewhere...no matter how good it might be...I decided to save them the trouble.

If We All Vanished Tomorrow
What would *really* happen if all humans disappeared? The Earth grins at the thought
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, October 20, 2006

Of course you already know. Of course you can merely look out the window and see the traffic and the plastic and the smog and the bad haircuts and the war and the Paris Hilton and the Bush and say, well duh.

But imagine the result anyway. Imagine for a moment that every human on the face of the planet was suddenly whisked away to the divine gurgling ether in one big blast of cheery Armageddon nothingness, all the Bible-waving True Believers carted off to a giant sex-free harp-filled cosmic Wal-Mart while the rest of us leap to the next luminous transformational echelon of timespacelove.

What would happen, really? How would the planet respond if all bipeds disappeared tomorrow?

You can probably guess. Almost immediately, the planet would shudder, shift, align itself anew. Immediately, all endangered species would begin to recover. Light pollution (that is, pollution caused by industrial light) would soon vanish, followed by a great reduction in air pollution, methane gasses, chemicals in fresh water. Soon, all bridges and dams would collapse, roads would become overgrown, buildings would decay, corals would regenerate, most organic landfill would decay and vanish. And that's just the beginning.

In other words, as the fascinating/depressing cover story in the recent issue of New Scientist points out (along with this nifty graphic from the Times U.K.), the Earth would quickly begin to recover mightily from the deep disease that is human existence. What's more, the planet would, by every estimate, quickly become a whole lot healthier, more balanced, back in harmony with itself.

Translation: We have wreaked just a horrific amount of damage and done just about exactly zero good for the place while we've been here. It is, obviously, not the most heartwarming thing to accept.

Perhaps the good news is, with the exception of some nuclear remains, were our species to vanish entirely, most traces of man's existence would wink out within about 50,000 years, and almost all traces within 200,000. Not bad at all, considering the extent of our damage. Pretty much a blip on the geologic timescale, really. Don't you feel better?

Humans are the single most dominant and destructive species in planetary history. But sentient man has been around for what, a million years? The Earth has been here for roughly 4.5 billion. No matter how you slice it, the Earth still sees us as just another fly in its bedroom. A particularly obnoxious one, no doubt, but still a fly. Isn't that reassuring?

There are two ways to react to such a viewpoint: One is to say oh my God what the hell is wrong with us and just look at how much damage we've wrought and the pain we've inflicted, look how much better off the place is when we're out of the picture and what can we do to make less of a violent impact and improve our karmic outlook while we're here because oh my God this can not be good.

Option 2 is to ask: Who the hell cares? If all our remains vanish in a couple of hundred thousand years, does it really matter how much damage we inflict? After all, there's no way to say whether or not the planet really gives a damn one way or the other about our species, given how our entire existence has taken up but a flutter of an eyeblink of time anyway. Hell, we could nuke the whole place tomorrow and the planet would merely shudder and shrug and pause for a few million years and start all over. Right?

How do we really measure our impact? Soulless GOP warmongering oil execs see this planet as merely one giant oil well to be sucked dry. Millions of humans, if they think of it at all, merely view the Earth as a giant sandbox, a mute playground to be trammeled and paved over and drilled into and burned through and sliced up like so much ecological pie until it's all gone and we're forced back into the caves to beat each other with clubs over the last scraps of beef jerky and nuclear Twinkies. I mean, who cares?

I have friends who don't exercise. I know plenty of people who still smoke and drink a ton of beer and get stoned frequently and eat gallons of processed foods and watch TV like it was pixilated cake and the last time they truly got their hearts pumping was when they had to walk five blocks from their house to the sushi joint because their car broke down.

They just laugh. What's the point of eating right and exercising? they say. Why the hell spend all that money on yoga and gyms and vitamins and try to take excessive care of the body when we're all just gonna break down and die anyway? What's the point? Just to live a little longer? Who wants to live to 90 anyway? Why not enjoy life's vices now and let the body wallow and slump? This is what they say.

It is the cutest viewpoint, like, ever. The initial reply is almost too obvious to explain: The point of a healthy lifestyle is not to live longer. It is to live better, right now, in the moment, to breathe deeper and dream more lucidly and step lighter and orgasm stronger and be able to touch your toes and touch your lover's toes and try, just try, to evolve, just a little, while we're here, in fits and spurts and groans and via healthy snifters of Oban 14 and lots of tongue kissing in the street.

It's about paying attention. It's about tuning in. It's about respecting the physical so as to connect more profoundly with the spiritual so as to try and hone the interdimensional so as to prepare, somehow, maybe, if this is at all possible and many, many gurus and healers and mystics and wise ones truly believe it is, for some sort of massive cosmological transformative goobleslamdinglewhap. Hey, it's your choice.

Maybe the planet is no different. Maybe we should take care of it because it makes our lives better and our orgasms stronger and the trees look at us without cringing and begging for a divorce. You think?

We take care of it because it's the vessel. It's the womb. It's our collective body and it's the place that holds us and feeds us and plays with us in the park while at least some of us try to prepare to get sucked back up into the grand Mystery to see what the hell happens next.

But truly, the Earth may not really care. If we abuse her to death, she might merely shake us off like a bad rash, a nasty head cold, a giant whining bipedal kidney stone. After all, despite all our bitching and stomping, we really ain't all that.

But your soul. Your soul cares. But you knew that already. Right?

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Thoughts for the author? E-mail him.

Mark Morford's Notes & Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on SF Gate and in the Datebook section of the SF Chronicle. To get on the e-mail list for this column, please click here and remove one article of clothing. Mark's column also has an RSS feed and an archive of past columns, which includes another tiny photo of Mark probably insufficient for you to recognize him in the street and give him gifts.

As if that weren't enough, Mark also contributes to the hot, spankin' SF Gate Culture Blog.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2006/10/20/notes102006.DTL

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©2006 SF Gate

Currently reading : Tales of the Dying Earth By Jack Vance Release date: By 01 December, 2000

my Celebrity Look-alikes

...and hell...I look like ass in that photo too.
Imagine if I was look'in as good as usual!

Comments from MySpace FitterHappier Wow. Mr. Big! How cool is that? Posted by FitterHappier on Saturday, October 07, 2006 at 9:15 PM Jenni No, Ashley, Dale Jr. is waaayyy hotter than Mr. Big. Mr. Big is really old. Um, how does Chris look like Jessica Biel?! wtf? Posted by Jenni on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 2:59 PM FitterHappier Umm....I like "old" men. Did you forget? Posted by FitterHappier on Saturday, October 14, 2006 at 9:12 AM

What I believe... (World Politics)

I believe that we're just over the threshold into a new era. That new era goes by many names today: Postmodern, Information Age, Digital Age, etc. It is defined by a seemingly conflicting polar-duality of loss of faith and an increase in spirituality; a crumbling of moral judgment and a rise in moral fortitude. It's an era of seamless interconnectedness throughout all strata of society, and yet a deepening of social divides and personal isolation. This place in history finds all aspects of civilization, globally like never before, discovering and redefining itself with reckless abandon. Man may have never in its short existence been so far removed from its primitive beginnings, and yet wholly engulfed by its primal self.

We are truly at a crossroads. Many choices lie before us, and unlike the crossroads of eras past, we are set not to choose one, but all of the possible roads ahead on our continuing journey.

I believe that we are on the brink of a highly stratified, decentralized, chaotic global democratization.

That's not to say that all peoples of the world will be living in free liberal societies by the end of century. It is however, to say that at a regional level, the peoples of the world will be living in societies of their own choosing made possible by popular consensus. Such is the case in the middle east today where free elections have led not to free democratic societies, but to somewhat oppressive old world cultures. When faced with terminal uncertainty, uneducated man has a tendency to collect toward the known and structured.

The uneducated are never more dangerous than as members of a society where every individual has the power to change the world.

In the world of today, there is only one truly effective weapon…the weapon of knowledge. The only way to truly defeat the ills which face us, is through the unimpeded education and intellectual empowerment of the world at large. No amount of hand-outs or hand-holding can hope to equal even a single bit of free knowledge bestowed on those thirsty for the taste.

To put a Christian perspective on this argument: We were born to the world in a state of bliss and ignorance. Then we took for ourselves the fruit of knowledge and with it came hardship. Overtime, we learned that to be more like the maker we so longed to become, and to ease our personal hardship, we must horde this fruit and protect it from others. With this ability to increase and horde knowledge, we truly became something of gods in our own rights, while leaving the masses of less-thans hungrily behind in the hardship. However, I believe that we have now reached the plateau of that form of godly existence. If we hope to continue increasing our knowledge and easing our hardship, we must not emulate, but ascend beyond, the god-like state we have so long strived to achieve. We must not be as the God, fatherly hording away knowledge. Instead, we must harvest that fruit and feed the masses. Only then will we have the strength as a people to push forward in the days ahead…into this new era.

Comments from MySpace

FitterHappier

Sylvia Browne says that humans have only got about 95 more years on this planet. So I guess it doesn't really matter, huh? Posted by FitterHappier on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 12:18 AM

Coalition of the Disaffected

Though I’ve noticed limited coverage and a spattering of mentions across the various media, I wonder if a very dramatic development in the balance of world power isn’t being overlooked by the major media outlets…or perhaps it’s just being ignored.

Over the past few years, and especially during the last year, socialism has had something of a quiet revival of revolution in key regions around the world. This is no more apparent than in the Americas.

In the Americas, the rolls of socialist leaning countries, who have begun positioning themselves as important world players, grows every month. Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru and Mexico now have all either moved strongly to the left or come under increasing leftist control with each passing day. Along with Cuba, these countries have formed strategic alliances with China, Russia, Syria, Iran and even North Korea, among others.

There can be no doubt that the alliances: economic, political, military, etc of the countries listed above, should be of major concern to the U.S. and its allies.

Consider this…Iran is already flexing the new found muscle it has been handed by the U.S. bungling of Iraq. Should it become the regional power we have now positioned it to become, our efforts toward democracy in Iraq should fail, and the resulting government align itself with Iran, what percentage of world oil reserves would be under Iran’s control? What percentage of total world oil, gas, and other energy reserves would a strategic alliance of China, Russia, a Middle East controlled by Iran, and a South/Central America dominated by a socialist alliance, control? Faced with this obvious threat, what would be the response of “The West”? Considering we are hamstringed by the UN’s apathy and indecisiveness at every turn, could we even respond in time to head-off such a chain of events? Could those we have disaffected in an effort to reign supreme soon form a coalition leading to our ultimate demise?

While I plan to present a more detailed argument for concern during the next few weeks, I wanted to point out the obvious here and solicit comments on the subject.

UPDATE 02/01/2007:
Well it looks like things are falling into place for the Coalition of the Disaffected. Recent news articles point to the continued strengthening of ties and deeper cooperation of our lesser and "former" enemies. Not to mention huge steps toward out-right socialist states in South America.

Here are just a few news articles from the past week:

JTW News - Chavez, Morales, Correa bypass U.S. in deals with Iran, China

North Korea, Iran cooperating on long-range missiles

Socialist Ideology Takes New Roots in South America

Chavez to Rule by Decree -- 01/31/2007

Diario Las Americas - In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez is the State

Upside Down World - Sandinista Government Takes Power in Nicaragua

Today in Investor's Business Daily stock analysis and business news

An Ultra Right of Center Leftist Capitalistic Fascist is Born???

An Ultra Right of Center Leftist Capitalistic Fascist is Born??? ...one can only hope.

It's my baby I'm talking about here. Faced with the never ending crap of the world and the never ending stream of people more than happy to pour it over your head, I think she may have seen the light!!

Check out her latest comments on "The System" in:
I think I'm becoming a conservative!?

The Frothy Sea of the Cosmos Theory

"Imagine if you will a dimension not of sight, or sound, or time, but of mind."

That phrase is the famous opening words of the Twilight Zone. It's catchy. It's quirky, and it just might be the most insightful tagline ever on TV. Now I know it wasn't up against much competition on the idiot box, so that may not be saying much. The idea behind the phrase though...oh that idea...that idea is most definitely saying a lot...a lot of cosmic proportions.

Let's do what we were asked to do for just a moment.

Imagine a dimension. This dimension is not one of a physical world, so sight, sound, even time, have no real meaning here. It's a dimension where anything is possible and everything is. There are no stars here. No planets. No trees. No people. No molecules or even atoms. In fact, in this dimension there is only an infinite, eternal, swirling, undulating foam. A sea if you will. A frothy sea, but it doesn't stretch out with a flat surface like the seas you're used to. It doesn't even stretch out in three dimensions, but it is never ending. It is everywhere. It is everything...and everything is it.

I know, that's already getting confusing. That's ok though. In fact, it's expected, because we aren't just imagining any old dimension here. We aren't even REALLY imagining a dimension at all. What we are imagining is much more than just a dimension. Much more than a mere level or form of existence. What we are seeing in our mind, is in fact the ONLY dimension. The only true existence on any level, in any way, in any form. What we are seeing in our minds...is Reality.

But hold on a minute...dont go trying to wrap your thoughts around that just yet.

Reality. The only true existence. The only thing that is...the all that is...ever will be...ever was...this reality. The every day world of solid matter and Newtonian Physics. The atoms, electrons, and sub-atomic particles of Quantum Physics. The cosmic strings, black holes, and 10 dimensions of String Theory. The angels, demons, heaven, hell, and God of monotheistic religions. The gods and goddesses, elementals, and magical energies of paganistic religions. The aura, karma, and mystical cosmic energies of new age and eastern religions. Philosophies. Dreams. Everything you think you know and everything you don't know you don't. They are all part of this Reality. This reality that truly exists in only one place...your mind.

--- more to come ---

Comments from MySpace

	SoulSentinal	I hope there is more to come. At this point it appears you have not even got the tip of the iceberg yet. Quote: "Reality. The only true existence. The only thing that is...the all that is...ever will be...ever was...this reality." This reality in my opinion is is unphathomable. -- This Comment was Edited for being WAY too damned long ;) -- Posted by SoulSentinal on Wednesday, June 07, 2006 at 10:59 PM
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	FitterHappier	Well, finally my turn to post a comment! That other one just kept going and going and going...... Is that proper blog etiqutte? I mean, come on if you have that much crap to post, put it on your blog. Geez! Anyway...... Chris, so are you saying that you know everything you know so therefore you know everything? Or could it be that because of everything that you don't know, you know nothing. So deep........ Posted by FitterHappier on Thursday, June 08, 2006 at 9:56 PM
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	monkeybrains803	Naturally I'm saying, "I know everything I know, therefore I know everything". That's been my tagline since I was like five. But of course...I guess it would be more accurate to say, I know nothing, therefore I know everything. Because really...to say I know everything, would mean I really know nothing. Which then of course, I'm simply saying that I know everything I know, so therefore I know everything...which is true in a strict sense. For something to exist to me I have to know it...at least at some level...even if I'm not aware of it. So if everything that exist to me is something I know, then you could rightly say, that I know everything I know, therefore I know everything. See? That makes sense doesn't it? hehe Posted by monkeybrains803 on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 3:27 PM
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	The Ultimate Awesome	so i think youre saying that all reality comes from our mind...but then that makes me wonder like how do we know what comes from our mind is real... when i dream, if i get hurt in that dream i wake up to find that im not hurt at all...so then...what was my dream? to most people the dream i had wasnt reality because what happened in the dream did not continue after i woke up...but yet a dream comes from my mind, so it must be reality i wonder if there are different types of dimensions...reality being what we live in everyday consciously...and non-reality being our dreams and things we cannot see or possibly detect, but exist i saw a little bit about the string theory on GPBS or whatever that station is called and the part that interested me most was the matrix theory...the matrix theory predicts that there are 11 Dimensions sorry to quote wiki but :) "Matrix Theory M-theory predicts the existence of eleven dimensions. One of these known dimensions is time. This dimension does not relate to space in the same way as do the other three known dimensions, length, depth and height. This leads to the hypothesis that the other seven less known dimensions could be related to the known four dimensions in other non-spatial ways also. Previously, string theorists suggested that these other seven dimensions were tightly compressed to account for the way they are not observable within space. But using time as an analogy allows us to perceive that these other dimensions could be powerful expansive dimensions that are woven to the physical fabric or matrix of the universe in other unseen ways" im sure those things wont matter much to us in the long run...but you never know...im a big fan of weird stuff happening :) i dont know if i sound stupid or not lol...i mean, i did make a D+ in physics..i suck at science Posted by The Ultimate Awesome on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 2:43 PM
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	monkeybrains803	Doesn't sound stupid to me! Of course I did make a D in Physics myself. But that wasn't my fault. Like I told Mrs. Stuabbs over and over, "I like the theory, but the math just isn't right. You can't expect me to be able to do math that is just wrong." I kicked butt on the theory. Knew it before she ever had a chance to explain it, but the math. Well...it was just flawed. Not much I could do about that. Now dreams, I think they could be exactly what you're saying there. They could also be windows on another dimension, they could be memories accessed from some place we've stored them out in the cosmos. Or they could even be something as odd as mini-cosmos created spontaneously in our minds as we sleep that pop into existence and then fade away as we wake. When it comes right down to it, even though others may not usually experience them with us, the fact that they exist in our mind technically makes them just as real as the shared reality of experience we have in our normal physical plane of existence. I like dreams. There is nothing cooler than learning to control your dreams. Waking up inside a dream and being able to bend it to your will...that's probably about as close to god-like as most of us will ever get in this stage of existence. Lucid Dreaming is what it's called and if you've never done it...you have to try it. If you like the Matrix Theory, you might want to read the books "Elegant Universe" or "The Holographic Theory of the Universe". Also you might want to watch this, but it's like an hour and half long and you really need to watch it when you won't be interupted or bothered. I can't say all of it works for me, but it's awful close to my view of things in a lot of ways. Posted by monkeybrains803 on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 3:22 PM
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	monkeybrains803	Well...it looks like Google got smart and removed that video. I'll have to see if I can track down another copy of it. Sorry. Posted by monkeybrains803 on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 3:29 PM
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	FitterHappier	My Theory My theory on time is..... well, a little difficult to explain. I believe that time is not made up in layers (imagine building a wall with legos) where one layer is put down and then another on top of it, and then another. I believe that time is more like a combination of a huge rubberband and a never ending ball of yarn. The rubberband does not have a begining or an end, but it is one continuous loop. It can stretch and shorten, twist, and overlap itself to suit its present use. Now imagine this huge rubberband being wrapped up like a ball of yarn, no specific pattern, just around and around and around...overlapping itself in random places each time it goes around. This is how I believe that seeing a ghost (or spirit or whatever you wish to call it) is possible. If I'm in 2006, and this ghost is from 1914 then how can we be in the same place at the same time? Because my place on the rubberband and his place on the rubberband have overlapped. Sometimes this may last for awhile, and sometimes it may only last a second or two, as the different places slide past each other as the band is being twisted. But who twists and stretches the band? That's where religion comes in....... and that's when this simple theory gets a bit complicated. I guess, now I have to follow in shadoe & monkey's footsteps and post more about it on my blog! Posted by FitterHappier on Sunday, June 18, 2006 at 11:13 AM
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	The Ultimate Awesome	that idea is cool, it's crossed my mind b4 too but i never looked into it anymore than that Posted by The Ultimate Awesome on Monday, June 19, 2006 at 1:21 PM
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FitterHappier

On Dreams... Dreams are indeed a part of reality, just as a fictional TV show is. Even though they are not a physical thing that you can hold and move and touch, they are still relevant to reality. As we've discussed above, not all of reality is a concrete thing that you can see or touch. Anything that you or I or the billions of other people in the world have ever thought or ever will think becomes a part of reality. Now back to the dreams: Just because it hasn't happened in the present, doesn't mean that it didn't happen in the past, or won't happen in the future. If you believe in reincarnation (and I do), then couldn't dreams be a way to look into your soul's past or even a preview into the future? Could they serve as a warning of actions and consequences in this life? Here's the "BIG ONE"... Or because they don't take place in this dimension (plane or whatever) could they be a way for us to think and do in a totally different way than is possible when we're awake? Does this mean that all of life's mysteries could be answered in our dreams? Maybe. The important thing to remember when discussing these type of things is, to think about it for yourself. Believe what YOU believe. Be opened minded and if you get "stumped" on a particular part, ask someone. There are plenty of people out there that are willing to share their ideas. Above all, trust your gut feeling and never be afraid to "call bullshit" (in your own mind, so as not to be rude) when you just don't think that something you're hearing is right for you. Posted by FitterHappier on Sunday, June 18, 2006 at 11:52 AM

Number One Selling Christian Christmas Gift for 2006 is here!!

Mark Morford, the near-god like editorialist from San Francisco, has done it again. Thats right kiddies! This time he has found what is sure to be the number one must have gift under the tree for this years Christmas give-fests.

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces" the real-time strategy shoot'em up from the good people at Left Behind Games, Inc.

Take hold of God's mighty weapon of wrath and destruction...the M-9 sub-machine gun. Rip the non-believers a few new prayer holes...its ok God said so. So bash a few skulls, blow off some arms and pray someone right into the grave. All in the name of the one true bad-ass God.

You can even switch sides and take on the Christians as a member of the Anti-Christ's Global Community Peacekeepers. Oh yeah baby thats the stuff! Nothing tougher and more lethal than those U.N. rough necks in the big baby blue helmets! I know how I'm gonna be spending my Sunday mornings around Christmas time.

You have got to check this thing out. Just make sure you aren't drinking Coke at the time...that stuff burns when it comes out your nose.

Jesus Loves Machine Guns (Mark Morford):
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/06/07/notes060706.DTL&nl=fix

Can Christian Video Games Compete? (ABC News):
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1958823

Left Behind Games:
http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/index.html

Comments from MySpace

	FitterHappier	What do you expect from the people who started the crusades? Still a funny story though. Posted by FitterHappier on Thursday, June 08, 2006 at 9:42 PM

G-CHILD

Buwhuahahahaha!!! I couldn've said it btr myself!!! Freaking tards!!! LOL!!! Posted by G-CHILD on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 at 3:53 PM

"Evil Abstinence"?

So say there are higher beings than us. Be that those of us who have passed on. Those of us who are simply not in physical form at the moment. Those of us who have ascended. Or perhaps just beings which operate on a higher level than we do. Whether we call these things: Angels and Demons. Good and Evil gods. Elementals. Spirits. It doesn't matter.

Lets assume for a minute they are there.

If they do exist. Then would it not also make sense, assuming they have free will to do as they please, that some might choose to do negative things? It seems that for balance to be, there must be a negatively aligned being for each positively. Assuming that holds true

Then do we really want to be going around calling on them? Raising them? Conjuring them? Because whether we call them angles/demons, gods, elementals, or simply see them as a reflection of a particular aspect of our inner selves...it doesnt really matter. If they are actual beings and they decide to lead us in the wrong direction. Cause us harm. Just screw with us. That's a bad thing. A dangerous thing. Or perhaps they just don't like meat sacks and like to fuck us over every chance they get.

Taking the perspective that its possible, since the universe is infinite, that this COULD be the case. Wouldn't it make sense to at least educate those who deal in such realms to the possibility and teach them to protect themselves from such things. To actively act against such things?

Now that's what I'm saying when I say, Dont you think that they could at least exist and should be explained in Wicca?

The proceeding is from an IM chat I had with Shadoe earlier today. We were discussing my view that mainstream Wiccan practitioners don't seem to take the negative, or evil, side of the cosmos seriously. In fact, from the literature Ive read and the blogs Ive perused online, they don't even seem to acknowledge that it exists.

If it were one or two, I would say they were just fluffy bunnies and didn't know any better. The sheer number of sites and books spouting the same light and happiness happy happy butterfly view of Wicca and Witchcraft however seem to point to something more institutionalized than fringe.

While Shadoe was quick to point out that true Wicca does acknowledge the darker side of our wonderful little cosmos, she didn't allay my fears of tweenie witches conjuring spirits to help hold the rollers in place before their big junior prom night. Which leads me to ask

Does mainstream Wicca practice Evil Abstinence?

We all make fun of the Christian parents who sit little Jeremy and Sara down and say, Sex is to be left for marriage. God said so. So you should save it for marriage because it is bad not to do so. Then cry and scream and blame the world for the swelling in their daughters belly six months after they gave this little pep talk in place of signing the permission form for Sara to take part in Sex Ed classes at the local middle school.

Is mainstream Wiccan literature doing any different for its newbies?

To simply say, You should always do things in a positive way because the Rede says so? Or drum the golden rule into a newbies head. Or worse yet, to simply pretend the dark side doesn't exist, and expect that alone to protect the newcomer or child from evil energies, is preposterous, short sided, naive...hell it's a down right Christian thing to do.

We are all human. Telling someone NOT to do something is only going to make them want to do it more. Telling someone its bad and forbidden is going to make them itch just for a taste. You just cant expect any different. As long as we are in Human form, we are still in fact Human. Stupid is as Stupid does...and Humans...we're a pretty stupid lot.

So why don't mainstream books and sites and leaders include more about the dark side of the cosmos? Why don't they push their initiates and newbies to learn to defend themselves actively against such dangerous forces? Is it because, like the doe eyed Christian parent they simply think saying, don't will make someone not? In some cases, maybe. But I don't think it can be denied, that in many its simply a matter of economics.

A religion or practice devoid of any negativity is bound to sell better and be more attractive to a greater number of people. The more people who are attracted, the more books are sold. The more books sold, the more money is made.

As bad as it sounds...and as many hexes as are sure to come my way...when it comes right down to it, the thing that causes many mainstream Wiccan not to acknowledge the evil forces of the cosmos may just be the very root of it all...Money.

Money. You simply cant get more Christian than that.

If they aren't caving in, they're getting hit by trains

We're looking for a new house.

So we thought we'd found a good buy in Warrenville. Made an offer. Signed a Contract. Had the Inspector come out and...the floors are falling in.

Went back to the looking again.

Found another house. Even better than the first one. Loved it. Had pretty much decided to make an offer on it. But there was this one little nagging thing...it is in Graniteville. Graniteville of course being the site of the train wreck and chlorine spill about a year and a half ago. So I decided to do a little online investigating to see if there had been any further reports of damage etc to the homes in the area.

I type "graniteville sc train wreck home damage" into the google. The first link I click on has this nice big aerial photo of the train wreck. The picture still shows the piled up train cars with corrosive chlorine gas spewing out and sliding across the ground toward some homes in the lower right of the...

...oh son-of-a-bitch!

Guess which little house I see right down there in the bottom right of the photo. It's the little gray house just to the left of the date caption on the photo above.

So I don't know. I just can't bring myself to buy a home, no matter how good it looks, or how many inspections it passes, knowing it was so close to the wreck it actually made it into the stock photo which will forever be associated with a disaster.

Here we go again.

Comments from MySpace

	FitterHappier	Well babe, I guess it's better to find out now than later in both cases, right? Oh and by the way, this is the proper spelling "Graniteville." You left out the first e a couple of times. Look at the end of the word- "eville." Kind of makes me think of how a British villan would say "evil." Maybe it's a sign. Posted by FitterHappier on Thursday, June 01, 2006 at 6:13 PM

	monkeybrains803	There I fixed it. Must have been my spell checker. Posted by monkeybrains803 on Thursday, June 01, 2006 at 7:13 PM

FitterHappier

Yay for falling down houses! Posted by FitterHappier on Friday, June 02, 2006 at 6:30 PM