This is what we call life?

[spice]

" When he speaks of turn on, tune in, and drop out, he talked about dropping out of your own ego games "

Yes, that's true. But that is not what the 'Drop out' part refers to, sorry.

It makes reference to not forcing yourself to live in a culture that doesn't resonate as 'true' within your own heart and mind, and he goes to great lengths elaborating on why he calls todays culure ( Westernized culture, specifically ) 'Fake'
and ' Plastic '....he defines all of our culture as an ego-game,
someone else's ego-game. If theres one thing worse than being caught up in your own ego-game, it's being caught up in someone elses. Again, he takes great pains in many of his writings to explain HOW and WHY THIS culture is FAKE.

I notice you write these missives from the Netherlands, and I'll re-state what I said to someone else earlier;

Pretty easy to be optimistic from over there. The big machines tentacles are only at the 'feeler' stage as of yet, but the EEC is ominously rumbling, and I am not confident there will be a refuge for anyone before all is said and done,
so enjoy it, because the confrontation is eventually coming.

 

[magickmumu]

I don’t care about someone else his ego games. That’s there problem.
To be caught up in someone else his ego game, is to be caught up in your own.

Don’t get me wrong, Im totally for freedom.
I am happy to live in The Netherlands because of the freedom we enjoy.
The last couple of year’s things started changing.
Freedom is getting more and more under attack.
I am not optimistic about the future. I see things getting worse all the time.
But, I will not give in to fear, hate or anger. I refuse to let this happen.

When I look out of my window, I see children play and riding bikes. I see people passing by. They don’t look fake or plastic to me. This fake plastic world Tim Leary is referring to is (as I understand it from his books and interviews) a state of mind. To drop out is to drop out of this state of mind.
And when you’re dropped out and you find yourself in a place that (like you said): doesn't resonate as 'true' within your own heart and mind. You go look for people and places that do resonate with your own heart and mind. I found that all my live I was surrounded by these people, my own family and friends.
Maybe you don’t agree with me that’s fine. Tim Leary is not around to ask what the meaning of this 60 slogan really is.
If you want to live outside of society, be self sufficient, grow your own food; go ahead make the best of it. I’m all for it you got my support and I wish you good luck.

 

[spice]

" when I look outside, I see children play and riding bikes, and people passing by, they don't look fake or plastic to me "

Is it the language barrier?

Don't you understand that i am referring to manipulated abstractions which control our existences indirectly but powerfully?

It isn't the people that are fake. It is the continued support of a bankrupt belief system, that system being westernized capitalism as practiced by todays neo-cons...
Thrrowing your optimism and emotional support behind these criminals only guarantees more of the same. A reality
of manipulation, and domination.

You are quite selective about what does and doesn't affect your reality tunnel. Do you think that global warming, oii profiteering, and war-mongering, and exploitation are all aspects of reality are totally unrelated to your own?
Remember, we are a biosphere, everything is connected.
Everything. It goes beyond causality.
Denying connections where there are connections amounts to being an ostrich, refusing to contemplate solutions is cowardly.

Perhaps a complete dropping out is not the answer, but a non-participation, coupled with some realistic alternative lifestyles may be. Passivity on the part of the populace is what they have always been able to count on, the herd instinct to follow, follow, follow the leader, even off the edge of a cliff.

Sure there are aspects of modern life which are convenient. That doesn't necessarilly make them constructive,wise, or good.

 

[magickmumu]

Dear Spice.
Understand that I had a dark period in my life. I hated the world and the people in it.
I was swinging from feeling alright to feeling miserable to feeling lonely to feeling angry and back again. Somehow this changed over the years. Psychedelics played a big part in this change. I started to come into contact with what you could call inner peace or acceptance.
I started opening up to the world and the people in it. It’s my choice not to let hate, anger or fear affect my realty tunnel as you call it. I don’t like feeling depressed.


It’s my choice. You don’t have to agree with me. It’s a personal thing.
A state of mind.
That’s all.

Peace.

 

[st.bot.32]

Understand that I had a dark period in my life. I hated the world and the people in it.

I can hear where you are coming from. I grew up in a somewhat extreme belief system that taught me to basically hate the world and the people in it, thinking I was better than them for having privy to some kind of "truth" (meanwhile hypocritically feeding and living off of the world). Even after escaping from this belief system it has taken many years to deal with the mentality. After taking psychedelics a couple times I discovered just how much of it was and is still buried in my psyche. On my first LSD voyage which I took right after coming out of a particularly dark period of my life, I discovered how much I hated myself, which was a positive thing in the long run.

For me, what I was doing was judging others (and myself). I'm done with this. I tire of it. There are other things I would rather focus my (limited) energy on, like creativity, developing a sense of human warmth, and being there to help friends in need. It has not been easy, the world is a dehumanizing place and negativity unravels those efforts in mere seconds.

Besides, as long as I use unregulated substances, and who knows what cultural side effects that has (because I'm buying from god knows who and who knows who they are also selling to), I feel I don't have the right to judge anyway. :wink:

 

[st.bot.32]

"
Perhaps a complete dropping out is not the answer, but a non-participation, coupled with some realistic alternative lifestyles may be. Passivity on the part of the populace is what they have always been able to count on, the herd instinct to follow, follow, follow the leader, even off the edge of a cliff.

I do hope that lifestyles alternative to what we are living now that are realistic come about. Such lifestyles have to have more to offer than mere sustainability though, the human soul needs more that that if it is not to wither and die.

You may be right in one of your earlier posts tho, perhaps it is easier for me to think positively because I do live in a place that is probably one of the better places there is to live (if our current asshat of a prime minister doesn't mess things up in the next two years)... the city I live in is very much environmentally and socially conscious, organic food in every corner store, etc etc.. If I had stayed back where I grew up, in a small town in province Bush for President, CANADA I would probably hate the world a lot more right now. (But then again that would be the true test of my viewpoint on life, wouldn't it. I dunno.)