Can our pictures actually achieve anything positive?

[Zorki5]

Speaking of Western societies and mortality:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/03/health/death-rates-up-2015/index.html

480k deaths caused by tobacco & alcohol... Yeh, right.

I'm amazed 45.5k deaths from breast & prostate cancer were not attributed to global warming.

[Rob C]

480k deaths caused by tobacco & alcohol... Yeh, right.

I'm amazed 45.5k deaths from breast & prostate cancer were not attributed to global warming.

Could be they really are: hotter weather leads to more epidermal exposure as well as more drinking of alcohol. Combined, those could also increase the birth rate and, consequently, more female children, thus increasing the number of breasts available and, obviously, the consumption of yet more alcohol in various plans and endeavours designed to access them.

Nothing happens in a vacuum.

Rob

[Rand47]

. . . Nothing happens in a vacuum.

Rob

Rob,

The proverbial "butterfly effect."  I think there are many more interconnections in all areas of life than we could imagine. While the nihilism of eastern philosophy is unappealing to me in its proposed answers to the big questions of life, in respect to the interconnectedness of all things there is a deep truth.

Rand

[Rob C]

Rob,

The proverbial "butterfly effect." I think there are many more interconnections in all areas of life than we could imagine. While the nihilism of eastern philosophy is unappealing to me in its proposed answers to the big questions of life, in respect to the interconnectedness of all things there is a deep truth.

Rand

Absolutely; and though I'm not a particularly religious person in the sense of prescribed orders, I do have a deep faith in some unknown form of divine creator. I think that much of this faith is based on the increasing complexity that science discovers in the most 'simple' of things around us. Accident seems ever more unlikely to me. I'd even allow that as part of my own life and the way it panned out.

There's the old saw about what's for you not passing you by, and I do find this borne out in reality; so much I aimed for eluded me, but other things better just fell into my unsuspecting lap. I'm sure others can find alternative ways of reasoning this out, but I'm happy enough with my own suss of the matter.

Rob C

[Ray]

As someone who worked on the line as firefighter and emergency medical technician for 30 years, I think I "may" have a passing aquaintence with achieving positive results from negative outcomes.

Good! Now you should apply those principles to other situations. 

LOL Your penchant for subtle self aggrandizement and assumed omniscience is absolutely amazing.

Thank you so much for implying that I create the impression of being omniscient. Wow! I didn't realize that. 

However, I should point out that Buddhist philosophy considers the 'self' to be an illusion. Your impressions of my 'self aggrandisement' exist only in your own mind. 

[Rand47]

Good! Now you should apply those principles to other situations. 

Damn, I never thought of that!!!  Thanks, Ray!  As I said, you're a hoot, my friend. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

As for the self being an illusion in your worldview, I'm glad to know that you prefer I consider your self non-existent from your own perspective.  Be thee off to my ignore list.

Rand

[degrub]

"nothing but stardust"

[Rob C]

Just watched the Avedon video Darkness and Light for the umpteenth time... amazing fame and success doesn't really solve anything - never did. In fact, I think it creates more problems than ever.

We are dark creatures, with depths probably best left unexplored.

Rob C

[Ray]

One disturbing aspect of human behaviour is the 'ad hominem' attack in response to a rational and reasonable argument, or an expressed opinion on some matter which is actually separate from the individual, such as a photo. I encounter it myself on this forum, from certain individuals whom I shall not name. 

The best explanation I can find for this behaviour is the Freudian and Jungian theory of 'psychological projection'.

Generally, if someone presents an argument or opinion which is disturbing in the mind of a certain individual, such an individual might often try to protect himself from the consequences of serious consideration of the argument or comment, by projecting his own, subconscious, negative qualities onto the person making the reasoned argument.

I always try to avoid such projections, and instead try to address the logic and rationality of the argument or the critique. Of course, I don't claim to be perfect, and sometimes I also fall into the trap of responding to ad hominem attacks in like manner, but very rarely. 

[Rob C]

One disturbing aspect of human behaviour is the 'ad hominem' attack in response to a rational and reasonable argument, or an expressed opinion on some matter which is actually separate from the individual, such as a photo. I encounter it myself on this forum, from certain individuals whom I shall not name. 

The best explanation I can find for this behaviour is the Freudian and Jungian theory of 'psychological projection'.

Generally, if someone presents an argument or opinion which is disturbing in the mind of a certain individual, such an individual might often try to protect himself from the consequences of serious consideration of the argument or comment, by projecting his own, subconscious, negative qualities onto the person making the reasoned argument.

I always try to avoid such projections, and instead try to address the logic and rationality of the argument or the critique. Of course, I don't claim to be perfect, and sometimes I also fall into the trap of responding to ad hominem attacks in like manner, but very rarely. 

Yes, there really isn't much point, though I'm not saying that with any particular reference to this thread.

For myself, I usually tell the guy I'm walking away from it. There's the problem of perception, of course, where doing that makes it look as if one has given in or hasn't an argument with which to respond, which isn't the case at all: one simply realises the pointlessness of the argument when the other person intentionally won't see the obvious.

When I first began to post online, a friend told me that one has to develop a thick skin. I'm no longer convinced that's an essential; I think what is essential is judgement as to when to hold and when to fold.

Rob

P.S.

A further disappointment of online life is the relative lack of interest/ability that's shown to get into anything that requires some degree of thought and personal opinion. It's like some great order of blandness has been decreed.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... I don't claim to be perfect...

Nor modest?

[Rob C]

Nor modest?

History is littered with the forgotten corpses of the overly modest. That some may indeed have much about which to be modest isn't in dispute, though.

;-)

Rob

[Rob C]

Now, there's a contradiction in terms.

;-)

I just knew you had been a lawyer!

;-)

Rob