It’s always the old to lead us to the war
It’s always the young to fall
Now look at all we’ve won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
And so we allowed the birth of many prophets on earth
And since the followers were human they were born with a curse
They began to claim superiority to their brothers
And for eighty-five thousand years conquered each other
And when they prayed before battle they were praying to me
Killing in God’s name cause war is my destiny!
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Ooh, I remember that one! I first heard it mentioned in a story called A Song for Lya years ago, made me wanna look it up. In hindsight, it’s a bit too emo-solipsistic for my taste, but still touching,
I wish I could let you know you are not the last of your kind, even if we are conceptually separated by our relative positions in each of our so-called ‘realities’.
Your expression of fear of what may come to your world is arguably already be true in mine, at least to some extent… and it pains me. I work against it within my own life, and have hope for greater peace in the future – and not, let me be clear, the peace of a scorched planet.
Your words moved me greatly, and for what it’s worth, you will be remembered. And that which is remembered, lives.
While Gravedust’s comments are certainly in character, they should not be applied to our own world. Once we step away from the 24 hour news channels, and look at the data, this is the single most peaceful time in all of human existence. Murder (1-on-1 violence) is down. Raids (10to100-on-10to100) are almost non-existent. Wars (1000+-on-1000+) are down. That isn’t hope, that is just fact. The 24-hour media now has to scour the globe to find violence for us to see. Even with WWI and WWII the 20th century was not the bloodiest century by a good margin. Of course don’t take my word for any of this, but check out the data. A good summary of the social science data is Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined” and it does certainly cite the source studies it uses (74 pages worth). That said, there is still a bunch of violence in the world and we have a ways to go. But the trajectory so far is positive and human achievement in reducing violence have been significant.
In spite of my lament above, which is sympathetic with Gravedust, I agree with you and am glad we are moving in this direction. Some days it seems we are further from it than others, and that is when I feel the pain behind his words more keenly.
May we all find the path to peace, internal and external, and share that peace with others.
Not sure to what you are referring, though she certainly looks displeased. She’s at least a little more appropriate to this comment than the one on my earlier one.
Let’s see who/what this one gets! Perhaps it will be startled at my metathoughts, or simply smirking at the vagaries of existence.
Thank you for the book recommendation – I may have to look that one up :)
I’ve been saying roughly what you’ve been saying for a while myself, just with mere crude data to back me up, pointing out how much of the world is basically at peace today.
Although there are counter-arguments from recent history. One attempt to measure this trend in recent years has been the Global Peace Index, which shows a worsening trend in its mean and median scores between 2008 and 2013, for instance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index).
But the comforting fact is that, overall, things are getting more peaceful.
The worrying fact is that we’re living in a time of wealth and abundance, and it’s still not enough for everyone. I’m worried about what’s going to happen when everything starts to run out…
Competition is a very deep-seated urge. Instinct says that guy over there who looks like he’s doing well is getting all the best food and all the best mates, so you’d better step up your game or you’ll get no food and no mates. And even when you are secure in all your fundamental needs you think that guy is happier than you and that if you had what he had you’d be happy too.
And this is not a bad thing. Humanity has accomplished amazing feats on the desire to be the best. It just needs to be channeled appropriately.
Gravedust should know that he is in fact not the ‘last of his kind”. I am pretty sure Syr’nj and Fr’nj (and arguably Byron but I am not sure) are also “his kind” in this context. Am I wrong or does Gravedust just not realize this?
I can imagine a future where mystics are no longer around and have instead been supplanted by some sort of MMORPG equivalent of exorcists and where lost spirits are beaten down and annihilated instead of guided onwards to whatever afterlife exists for them.
That always was the way of the world in the past. It still is for the rest of the animal kingdom.
Only in humanity has the death become a distant enough threat that every little thing is regarded as heinous. And so humanity is so caught up in being outraged over petty little nothings, so mired in its own complacency that it comes across as self-satire.
In short, Tombdirt… what you fear is the best of all possible outcomes… because only when humanity learns again to respond sensibly to the bad and the good, rather than with surprise and outrage, will satisfaction ever really be attainable.
And thus, Gravedust predicts the War Economy…
Except we know by now that this story is set in present-day/near future America. So he’s not technically predicting anything.
what a buzzkill
Dwarves are heavy.
Better than just being dense…
Gotta say though, i’m really digging this side of Gravy ^^
It spreads like disease, there’s no sign of peace
Religion and greed, cause millions to bleed.
-A Lifetime of War
Has man gone insane!?
A few will remain.
Who’ll find a way…
to live one more day…
through decades of war?
[Sabaton FTW]
It’s always the old to lead us to the war
It’s always the young to fall
Now look at all we’ve won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
(Phil Ochs)
And so we allowed the birth of many prophets on earth
And since the followers were human they were born with a curse
They began to claim superiority to their brothers
And for eighty-five thousand years conquered each other
And when they prayed before battle they were praying to me
Killing in God’s name cause war is my destiny!
[Ill Bill]
Goblaurence: “But this thing? This big, bloody, gory heap of nonsense that’s happening right now? This is life, take it or leave it.”
Coming next week in our new series Neutral Zone Café: “My Dinner with Gravy”, in which Gravedust and Goblaurence share a meal and life philosophies.
I would pay to see an occasional strip like that.
More like sharing “medicinal” herbs.
I second paying to see something like that.
Wake up.
Read this.
Find booze.
Drink booze.
Shiver.
Nice comment/av combo, there….
Scorpions: the reason for war.
“Time spent wishing is time wasted.” – Janitor’s Grandmother, Scrubs
Keep movin’ forward, Gravedust. We’re all pullin’ for ya.
*mockingjay salute*
This one’s for Rue.
…a what now?
Aww, now I want to give him a hug. Though I’m not sure it would make any difference to him.
Have to agree with Gravy, them scorpions gotta go.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
-Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach, 4th/final stanza
Ooh, I remember that one! I first heard it mentioned in a story called A Song for Lya years ago, made me wanna look it up. In hindsight, it’s a bit too emo-solipsistic for my taste, but still touching,
I bow not yet before the Iron Crown,
nor cast my own small golden sceptre down.
– J.R.R. Tolkien, Mythopoeia
Gravedust…
I wish I could let you know you are not the last of your kind, even if we are conceptually separated by our relative positions in each of our so-called ‘realities’.
Your expression of fear of what may come to your world is arguably already be true in mine, at least to some extent… and it pains me. I work against it within my own life, and have hope for greater peace in the future – and not, let me be clear, the peace of a scorched planet.
Your words moved me greatly, and for what it’s worth, you will be remembered. And that which is remembered, lives.
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
Going with the “1984” speech, are we Gravedust?
Anyone else looking forward to see what new Gravvy comes out of the New Chapter Hat tomorrow?
I’m thinking it is time for Sepia. This is the second best “ask an adventurer” Bro Tom’s was best of course.
While Gravedust’s comments are certainly in character, they should not be applied to our own world. Once we step away from the 24 hour news channels, and look at the data, this is the single most peaceful time in all of human existence. Murder (1-on-1 violence) is down. Raids (10to100-on-10to100) are almost non-existent. Wars (1000+-on-1000+) are down. That isn’t hope, that is just fact. The 24-hour media now has to scour the globe to find violence for us to see. Even with WWI and WWII the 20th century was not the bloodiest century by a good margin. Of course don’t take my word for any of this, but check out the data. A good summary of the social science data is Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined” and it does certainly cite the source studies it uses (74 pages worth). That said, there is still a bunch of violence in the world and we have a ways to go. But the trajectory so far is positive and human achievement in reducing violence have been significant.
In spite of my lament above, which is sympathetic with Gravedust, I agree with you and am glad we are moving in this direction. Some days it seems we are further from it than others, and that is when I feel the pain behind his words more keenly.
May we all find the path to peace, internal and external, and share that peace with others.
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
SC – did your avatar recently have SRS?
Not sure to what you are referring, though she certainly looks displeased. She’s at least a little more appropriate to this comment than the one on my earlier one.
Let’s see who/what this one gets! Perhaps it will be startled at my metathoughts, or simply smirking at the vagaries of existence.
Light and laughter,
SongCoyote
Thank you for the book recommendation – I may have to look that one up :)
I’ve been saying roughly what you’ve been saying for a while myself, just with mere crude data to back me up, pointing out how much of the world is basically at peace today.
Although there are counter-arguments from recent history. One attempt to measure this trend in recent years has been the Global Peace Index, which shows a worsening trend in its mean and median scores between 2008 and 2013, for instance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Peace_Index).
But the comforting fact is that, overall, things are getting more peaceful.
The worrying fact is that we’re living in a time of wealth and abundance, and it’s still not enough for everyone. I’m worried about what’s going to happen when everything starts to run out…
Competition is a very deep-seated urge. Instinct says that guy over there who looks like he’s doing well is getting all the best food and all the best mates, so you’d better step up your game or you’ll get no food and no mates. And even when you are secure in all your fundamental needs you think that guy is happier than you and that if you had what he had you’d be happy too.
And this is not a bad thing. Humanity has accomplished amazing feats on the desire to be the best. It just needs to be channeled appropriately.
Mr Gravedust also refuses to end on a pun.
Gravedust should know that he is in fact not the ‘last of his kind”. I am pretty sure Syr’nj and Fr’nj (and arguably Byron but I am not sure) are also “his kind” in this context. Am I wrong or does Gravedust just not realize this?
darn did not expect that
Hmm.
I can imagine a future where mystics are no longer around and have instead been supplanted by some sort of MMORPG equivalent of exorcists and where lost spirits are beaten down and annihilated instead of guided onwards to whatever afterlife exists for them.
That always was the way of the world in the past. It still is for the rest of the animal kingdom.
Only in humanity has the death become a distant enough threat that every little thing is regarded as heinous. And so humanity is so caught up in being outraged over petty little nothings, so mired in its own complacency that it comes across as self-satire.
In short, Tombdirt… what you fear is the best of all possible outcomes… because only when humanity learns again to respond sensibly to the bad and the good, rather than with surprise and outrage, will satisfaction ever really be attainable.