Impressions:
KJV wrote:
Ecclesiastes 1:1-18
[1] The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
[2] Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
[3] What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
[4] One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
[5] The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
[6] The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
Stressing our temporary nature, the fact that pushing for self-actualization purely with personal possessions and achievements yields a null outcome.
KJV wrote:
[7] All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
[8] All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
[9] The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
[10] Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
Reminds me of what a lot of the baby boomer generation did - great new ideas and social experiments initiated that caused all kinds of societal and economic grief. We always just thought that our ancestors were barbaric and ignorant, or at least they did, and we're learning from their mistakes while their parents and grandparents, I think after a while any good idea that's religiously enforced gets lost in the dogma aspect - ie. people can choose to think it through or not nail it down to reality.
KJV wrote:
[11] There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
Each generation isn't just born with every prior generation's wisdom in its instinctive memes. Every new generation literally is that, new, the quality and accuracy of history largely effects whether a generation has to the wisdom to make the world a better place or is naive enough to destroy it. Speaking of the now in that regard though - this was bound to happen, putting our hands on the stove to realize its hot, just because the wisdom our societies have amassed in the last few thousand years have been lost just because they haven't been articulated in current layman's terms - hopefully the mistakes we make now and our ability to observe them as, as we like to see ourselves the most rational and intellectually evolved in human history, hopefully we can articulate the nature of these mistakes well enough that people can get a good grasp just from reading the history books (written word and the clarity of it is powerful).
KJV wrote:
[12] I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
[13] And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
[14] I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Goes back to the first quote I made and is just a reminder - mankind hasn't changed a bit (well, save Viagra, palm pilots, and lattes).
KJV wrote:
[15] That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
Its a decision, your goal orientation is up to you. If you feel the need to gratify yourself by the status chase, its insatiable and you'll never be happy.
KJV wrote:
[16] I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
[17] And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
[18] For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
Hehehe, the more you can see the stupidity in other people's actions, the more you can see how they're making the world a worse place and there's nothing you can tell them to set it straight - it weighs on you. Its a choice, the status chase is basing your needs for happiness on the outside, the later - seeking true wisdom, brings you inner peace and puts you right with yourself but... the world around you will bug you out. There's no such thing as the perfect world, perfect happiness (at least here) but the later route at least internally isolates and pulls you out of the stupidity and in that sense you have a certain degree of happiness and stability that other people without it quite literally can't because the outside world never stops changing, good things never stay the same, and they fall victim to that over, and over, and over.
08 Sep 2008, 11:45 am
