Post your First World Problems right here

well, while I merely live in the aspiring first world now, but I was lucky to have an epiphany deep in the freezing cold(to me)of a Caucasus Mountain winter a few years ago
the situation was brought about by the bitterness of the weather, my isolation and loss of electricity that went on for weeks
at first, it drove me crazy, furious at times, but eventually something extraordinary happened, my mind and body calmed down enough at some point that I just surrendered to well, everything my situation, the fact that I was powerless to change much of it and that waiting around for the power to come back on was just absurd

This is a liberating feeling. I allow myself to get mad at times, but it's healthier to make the best of a situation. I sometimes feel like a soul reborn into the body of a bird allowed to fly, but reborn into a pet bird trapped in a cage. It's hard to explain why I feel this way, but something about your assessment makes sense.
 
"I have really enjoyed the last couple of times I went places not under the influence."

Enjoyed your comment here, "Robby"....especially this above....drugs, alcohol, and other distractions are a lie....."feel your own pain". I have seen the devastation...up close and personal.

We all need to be thankful for whatever we have.....it can all be taken away in a flash.
 
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I guess it comes down to me seeing this thread as having a "tongue and cheek" quality that implies that "first world" problems are somehow less than those in more poverty stricken / primitive / whatever you want to call it.

Tongue planted firmly in cheek. I am all too aware of the absurdity of my petty complaints. And they are petty. Even by First World standards. We feel deprived, plagued, cursed, relative to those around us. Compared to those in developing nations, we have it good. Compared to that upper 1%, we feel deprived of something. What? Material goods? Political power? Freedom to travel and explore other cultures due to lack of resources? Relative deprivation. I think don't sweat the small stuff went viral precisely because we all realize most of our everyday stressors and complaints are actually small stuff not worth sweating over.
 
This is a liberating feeling. I allow myself to get mad at times, but it's healthier to make the best of a situation. I sometimes feel like a soul reborn into the body of a bird allowed to fly, but reborn into a pet bird trapped in a cage. It's hard to explain why I feel this way, but something about your assessment makes sense.
This is true....it is healthier to try to make peace with ourselves first.

I still get mad as hell at the police state that we have created. I can see how it happened but it doesn't make it any easier to take.

The world has been trashed by the so-called First World and we are trapped in a snare of our own creation.


The First World.....this is Fear country.....
 
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This is true....it is healthier to try to make peace with ourselves first.

I still get mad as hell at the police state that we have created. I can see how it happened but it doesn't make it any easier to take.

The world has been trashed by the so-called First World and we are trapped in a snare of our own creation.


The First World.....this is Fear country.....


I agree, but don't have the answer to that problem. I am not a public cause kind of person. I tend to focus on me and my own. I know plenty of people who feel the worlds pain and they tend to be in pain or conflict whenever I talk to them. To be globally noble but suffer greatly or to shrink your personal world to a healthy and manageable state, I don't know what is better but I know what works for me.
Mr. Keene, I have appreciated your contributions to the forums as of late, thank you.
 
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Tongue planted firmly in cheek. I am all too aware of the absurdity of my petty complaints. And they are petty. Even by First World standards. We feel deprived, plagued, cursed, relative to those around us. Compared to those in developing nations, we have it good. Compared to that upper 1%, we feel deprived of something. What? Material goods? Political power? Freedom to travel and explore other cultures due to lack of resources? Relative deprivation. I think don't sweat the small stuff went viral precisely because we all realize most of our everyday stressors and complaints are actually small stuff not worth sweating over.


I don't agree with this, it is that 1% that hoard that contribute to the poverty of the rest of the World right down to the manipulation of the food market. Turning a blind eye because we're alright is un-good. I honestly don't moan about anything in my life, I've got a great family and some good friends.

There's a great quote in a film called Looking For Eric. The main character is called Eric and he has these conversations with Eric Cantona. At one point Eric is moaning to Cantona saying he's got everything, money, big house, can have anything he wants, etc. Cantona just replies, "Do you think my friends are better than your friends?"

That said, corporate greed has removed our democracy and it keeps much of the World in poverty. Live your life in peace but stand up to those who stand in the way of others doing the same.
 
I don't agree with this, it is that 1% that hoard that contribute to the poverty of the rest of the World right down to the manipulation of the food market. Turning a blind eye because we're alright is un-good. I honestly don't moan about anything in my life, I've got a great family and some good friends.

There's a great quote in a film called Looking For Eric. The main character is called Eric and he has these conversations with Eric Cantona. At one point Eric is moaning to Cantona saying he's got everything, money, big house, can have anything he wants, etc. Cantona just replies, "Do you think my friends are better than your friends?"

That said, corporate greed has removed our democracy and it keeps much of the World in poverty. Live your life in peace but stand up to those who stand in the way of others doing the same.

Hear, hear. :clap: Apathy born from convenience is the downfall of the people and what the man wants more than anything.
 
I don't agree with this, it is that 1% that hoard that contribute to the poverty of the rest of the World right down to the manipulation of the food market. Turning a blind eye because we're alright is un-good. I honestly don't moan about anything in my life, I've got a great family and some good friends.

There's a great quote in a film called Looking For Eric. The main character is called Eric and he has these conversations with Eric Cantona. At one point Eric is moaning to Cantona saying he's got everything, money, big house, can have anything he wants, etc. Cantona just replies, "Do you think my friends are better than your friends?"

That said, corporate greed has removed our democracy and it keeps much of the World in poverty. Live your life in peace but stand up to those who stand in the way of others doing the same.

I was not suggesting that one be apathetic. Is everything filtered through a political lens Charlie? In the end, nothing really matters. We will be dead and oblivious to the icebergs melting and civil wars in South America and pandemics. I try not to get worked up about things I cannot control. Doesn't always work. But I have one life to live. It is my life. I am responsible for my own happiness. And isn't that what we all want--to be happy?
 
I was not suggesting that one be apathetic. Is everything filtered through a political lens Charlie? In the end, nothing really matters. We will be dead and oblivious to the icebergs melting and civil wars in South America and pandemics. I try not to get worked up about things I cannot control. Doesn't always work. But I have one life to live. It is my life. I am responsible for my own happiness. And isn't that what we all want--to be happy?

That may be true that nothing really matters...but while I'm alive it sure seems too. When I look at my kids and grand kids...it matters. I'm going to do the best I can for them...and then I gotta let it go.

I don't know why, but when I see starving, abused and destroyed children it hurts me. When those small kids were slaughtered in Sandy Hook or I see people dying of Ebola or the innocents killed in stupid wars it bothers me. Yeah I want to be happy....I'm sure all of us do but corporate greed...First World greed is really destroying everything that makes life good.

I sure don't have all of the answers but I agree with Charlie Cheswick , live your life in peace but stand up to those who stand in the way of others doing the same.
 
Hear, hear. :clap: Apathy born from convenience is the downfall of the people and what the man wants more than anything.

Yet when people are not apathetic, such as the Scots referendum and its huge turnout, they are accused of being in thrall to corporate greed because some think they chose wrongly.

This whole 1% is running the world thing isn't really much more than an updated version of the shape shifting lizard conspiracy. Capitalism runs most of the world because it works for a significant number of us. Where capitalism had not been the overarching philosophy those states and territories have failed. Those very few which survive either stick their fingers in their ears and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist, such as North Korea, or, as in China, try to bolt capitalism onto their existing vicious, deluded ideology, and hope the middle classes don't wake up too soon.

For all its faults the nations which practice capitalism best are also first in the queue to send aid across the globe, and to step into humanitarian crises. You wouldn't fancy waiting for China to send you a bag of rice for your dinner, would you? And they've got loads of it.

Capitalism is often talked of as being about supply and demand. Actually, it is a lot more about demand and supply. Companies which fail to find a demand for their goods and services go out of business.

We need oil so we employ companies, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, to go and get it for us, and others to turn it into a myriad of useful things. People queue for the iPhone 6 for a week not because they are brainwashed into parting with their money, but because it is a good product. They queue for it based on exactly the same set of guiding principles they employ when they do not queue for the latest Nokia.

It's entirely possible that in a couple of centuries time the technology we are familiar with today will have developed to a point where it cannot be improved upon, and it will just be. Much the same reason people gave up on building a better anvil, or as mobile phones were limited in their size by the ability of the human hand to use them so got larger again, perhaps the motor car too will be just so, to go along with the wheels it rides upon.

Do I need a fifty inch plasma? No. I could get along with a portable black and white television. Do I need a smartphone? No. The one plugged into my wall in the corner over there does much the same job. Do I need a new car? No, a fifties jalopy could get me where I want to go.

So why do I have them?

Because I don't want to live in f***ing Cuba.
 
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Do I need a fifty inch plasma? No. I could get along with a portable black and white television. Do I need a smartphone? No. The one plugged into my wall in the corner over there does much the same job. Do I need a new car? No, a fifties jalopy could get me where I want to go.

So why do I have them?

Because I don't want to live in f***ing Cuba.
I don't have a 50 inch plasma. In fact I don't watch TV. Don't have cable or any kind of TV channels. I drive a very old car. Don't have a smartphone.

I don't live in Cuba.:confused:
 
I don't think anyone has a problem with Capitalism, it's Corruption that sticks in the craw.
Corruption, corruption rules my soul......:guitar: Crank this up!



From the drip drip drip of the teardrops
To the chink chink chink of the cash
To the end end end of the friendships
To the wack wack wack of the bash
Corruption corruption corruption
Rules my soul
Corruption corruption corruption
Rules my soul

From the tick tick tick of your time's up
To the yes yes yes of 'I'll sell'
From the fact fact fact of the souless
To the pact pact pact with hell
Corruption corruption corruption
Rules my soul
Corruption corruption corruption
Chills my bones
Corruption corruption corruption
Rules my soul
Corruption corruption corruption
Chills my bones

From the scream scream scream of the babies
To the retch retch retch of the youth
From the lie lie lie of the righteous
To the lost lost lost way I feel
Corruption corruption corruption
Rules my bones
Corruption corruption corruption
Chills my bones
Corruption corruption corruption
Rules my soul
Corruption corruption corruption
Rules my soul
Corruption
Corruption

Order in the court
Decision to abort
The monkey wants to speak
So speak, monkey speak
Speak monkey, speak
Speak monkey, speak
Speak monkey, speak

Everything leads to corruption
Everything leads to corruption
Corruption
 
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Sounds like you do, actually. :p
I bet I have more fun with less.

The demand and supply that Barleycorn is talking about is bogus. We are being tooled by corporations, big business and Mad Men all over the world..... to want and desire soulless crap we don't need. I don't buy it.

There was and still is so much beauty in this world...natural beauty...but many people would rather watch it on TV. If it ain't on the TV eye it ain't shit. So says the capitalistic defenders. I don't buy it.

Most of it, anyway.:cool:
 
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Yet when people are not apathetic, such as the Scots referendum and its huge turnout, they are accused of being in thrall to corporate greed because some think they chose wrongly.

This whole 1% is running the world thing isn't really much more than an updated version of the shape shifting lizard conspiracy. Capitalism runs most of the world because it works for a significant number of us. Where capitalism had not been the overarching philosophy those states and territories have failed. Those very few which survive either stick their fingers in their ears and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist, such as North Korea, or, as in China, try to bolt capitalism onto their existing vicious, deluded ideology, and hope the middle classes don't wake up too soon.

For all its faults the nations which practice capitalism best are also first in the queue to send aid across the globe, and to step into humanitarian crises. You wouldn't fancy waiting for China to send you a bag of rice for your dinner, would you? And they've got loads of it.

Capitalism is often talked of as being about supply and demand. Actually, it is a lot more about demand and supply. Companies which fail to find a demand for their goods and services go out of business.

We need oil so we employ companies, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly, to go and get it for us, and others to turn it into a myriad of useful things. People queue for the iPhone 6 for a week not because they are brainwashed into parting with their money, but because it is a good product. They queue for it based on exactly the same set of guiding principles they employ when they do not queue for the latest Nokia.

It's entirely possible that in a couple of centuries time the technology we are familiar with today will have developed to a point where it cannot be improved upon, and it will just be. Much the same reason people gave up on building a better anvil, or as mobile phones were limited in their size by the ability of the human hand to use them so got larger again, perhaps the motor car too will be just so, to go along with the wheels it rides upon.

Do I need a fifty inch plasma? No. I could get along with a portable black and white television. Do I need a smartphone? No. The one plugged into my wall in the corner over there does much the same job. Do I need a new car? No, a fifties jalopy could get me where I want to go.

So why do I have them?

Because I don't want to live in f***ing Cuba.

Well said, as always. :)

I bet I have more fun with less.

The demand and supply that Barleycorn is talking about is bogus. We are being tooled by corporations, big business and Mad Men all over the world to desire soulless crap we don't need. I don't buy it.

There was and still is so much beauty in this world...natural beauty...but many people would rather watch it on TV. If it ain't on the TV eye it ain't shit. So says the capitalistic defenders. I don't buy it.

Most of it, anyway.:cool:

Just because a person is a capitalist, doesn't mean they'd rather watch tv than say, go hiking!
 
Just because a person is a capitalist, doesn't mean they'd rather watch tv than say, go hiking!

That's true. But when you look at the environmental destruction all over the world it's obvious that the past model is no longer sustainable. The drive for more comfort and materialism and the worship of money and power is driving us into a trap. In fact we are trapped. Capitalism led the charge and everyone is following. It's pretty obvious how this is going to end up. "Everything leads to corruption...." as Iggy sings. The curse called man.

If you would rather hike than watch TV...I salute you.
 
That's true. But when you look at the environmental destruction all over the world it's obvious that the past model is no longer sustainable. The drive for more comfort and materialism and the worship of money and power is driving us into a trap. In fact we are trapped. Capitalism led the charge and everyone is following. It's pretty obvious how this is going to end up. "Everything leads to corruption...." as Iggy sings. The curse called man.

If you would rather hike than watch TV...I salute you.

I honestly believe that the problem is more related to a change in values than it is to capitalism.
I think many parents are failing miserably at teaching their children what is really important. There can be capitalism without this endless pursuit of consumption.
I like having all of these choices - all these things to buy, if I really want them. But I don't need them. I teach my kids that we don't need them.
Too many people believe that money+more stuff=happiness and fulfillment, and it doesn't. Not at all.
 
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