Wow, I haven't posted in quite a while. I've had thoughts, many of them deep and somewhat complicated, but I've found myself either not quite knowing how to put any of it into words, or feeling like those words don't really sound right. Or, option three, I've started writing and found myself questioning the whole thing. Not really the best frame of mind to be in whilst attempting to present a case :)
This is something I was contemplating a while back; being able to go back into your past, whether to relive certain moments or simply review what you learned from them, to prevent the same mistakes from being remade. Actually, to be honest I can't remember what I was thinking exactly, but this feels like it's along the right line.
The silly thing is, nearly (and possibly every) event taking place in the world is one that has been repeated at some point in the past, be that yesterday, last week, last year or a century ago. Each event, then and now, has a process - a cause and an effect. We know what causes dispute, we know what causes war. We know the effects of each, and they aren't pleasant, not even really for the people that come out closer to the top (I won't say 'winner' or 'at the top' because there is always some kind of sacrifice even in being the stronger party). Yet, even with this knowledge, it all continues to happen.
The vicious cycle we're caught in seems to indicate that human nature, our historically enforced habits, really do drive us. In trying to make peace we end up sparking war.
So many factors come into play - cultural and social backgrounds and situations, dominant religious beliefs, political systems - that are all human designed and constructed concepts, policies and beliefs, that are basically the 'guarantee' that there will be disagreement, there will be dispute, and there will be battle. Yet it's impossible to unravel all this because it's such a complicated, deep, fixed group of systems. I wouldn't say 'fixed' as in unalterable, only as in things that are embedded so deeply in some societies that they can't be eliminated (without some sort of possibly presently uninvented tool/s).
How about all this on a personal level - if we could revisit past dreams or real experiences to prevent repeated situations? Would we? Or are some repeated actions just hidden desires that can't be suppressed? Not that we want to find ourselves in uncomfortable situations, but perhaps there's an element of even these situations that we seek to revisit (in the present or future). I can't quite think what at the moment, but there could be something :P
When it comes down to it, how many people act the way they do out of expectation or fashion? (Similar things, but what I'm trying to say is, acting on the one hand, out of pressure, or on the other hand, enjoying being a part of the crowd, being accepted [another type of pressure?]). A topic covered recently at uni was personal autonomy, and the question of whether it really exists or not. Are we really autonomous individuals given our ideas, perspectives, beliefs and values are based on a combination of family, social, cultural, political, economic, education (etc etc) factors? Or are we simply led to believe we are by clever advertising strategies? How many people would really choose to suffer through war? I fully respect the many soldiers who have battled for the sake of patriotism and as a result of their character. Just want to clarify that. My question is, are these ideas of pride (and everything associated) embedded in us through school, for the very reason of participating in war (and other things).. i.e. the point of education is for the older generations to ensure they have fully trained groups to carry their rituals into the future? I definitely think learning is a great thing; knowledge is wonderful (the way it is and isn't used is sometimes questionable), but this question is now in my mind from a lecture I heard last week.
OK, this is getting pretty long, (had to make up for some missed weeks!) but I think it's something to think about.. or a few things. Or an insomnia cure ;) One thing I hope (I don't necessarily believe, but one can hope) is that we will actually learn from the economic crisis and different politically-rooted problems around the world, and somehow reshape the planet into a friendlier, cleaner, more efficiently operated grand piece of rock, flora, fauna, cement and the homo-sapiens we call ourselves.
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