/lit/ - Literature

wow this IS a thoughtful cake for a female

The fourteen words

Our civilization is first and foremost a civilization of means; in the reality of modern life, the means, it would seem, are more important than the ends. Any other assessment of the situation is mere idealism.

>>13748894
Yes. Now what do we talk about here?

"Mankind no longer saw technology as merely a tool but now pursued its advancement as an end in itself. Society served technology, not vice versa. Individuals were valued only insofar as they served this end."

>>13748894
Ik weet. Wat is je punt?

>>13749000
Citation?

>>13748894
History moving too fast for you?

>>13748894
damn, that shit sucks.

>>13748894

The advent of religion and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

What can you do about it?

>>13749101

Jacques Ellul

Fuck you, try to take away my air conditioning and see what happens

>>13749135
Which of his works? What page number?

>>13749141
AC allowed.

>>13749150
Oh we’re good then

>>13749142
Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (1954)

Unsure of the page number at the moment. Don't have the copy in front of me.

>>13749135
i got technological society few days ago from amazon as some reprint but it was a nasty, very small format, shit binding etc. which one do u have

Hydrogen fusing into helium and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

>>13749110
>the advent of religion
And, pray tell, when was this advent? Don't tell me, you prancing buffoon, you cretinous moron, that the first man was an atheist. Please don't make me laugh. Man in the past has created religions to explain what he could not explain, as the pagans did. We have risen from those primitive superstitions and the pendulum has swung to the other extreme (scientistic atheism).

>the consequences of religion
Everything has consequences. Science does. A replacement for religion does. So on and so forth, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

>a disaster for the human race
I'll bet you think most wars were waged over religion, when in fact there were several motives- politics, land, women, money, glory, etcetera.

>>13748894
The invention of the pointed rock and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

>>13749195
>yxour post
>pic related

>>13749195
The birth of this anon and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

>>13749197
Elaborate please.

>>13748894

Yep.

I just want to know how people that understand this go on living. Like what's the point after that? Unless you live a life of decadence or don't care about having children.

Please read camatte after you've read kaczynski, I need other people to talk to about him.

>>13748910
Huh I never noticed that coincidence before.

>>13749216
Clearly the first step toward industry, toward man dominating man through artifice, trickery, and harnessing the natural world toward base ends is the creation of this first object. Man henceforth places himself in the servitude of objects by relying on them, relying on their creation to satisfy his rather simple ends. The object creation becomes increasingly complex over time, the systems of objects lead to greater systems in order to sustain the further growth and acceleration of themselves, often at the expense of the natural human condition.

We find ourselves exhausting our planet and the very spirit of our species in the name of worship, kowtowing to this simple fucking drive to accumulate for its own sake, ostensibly to make life easier and better, but truly in servitude to the object.

You see, the invention of the pointed rock and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.

>>13749252
Interesting take on that. I'll have to considerate it. I more agree with Kaczynskis oversocialization theory more than anything.

>>13749249
What to start with?

>>13749210
in actuality this woman has a point.

Her uterus hold more power than God.

for all intents and purposes there is no God, or God has nothing to do with mankind or simply doesn't exist.
That womans uterus however does exist, and can bare me children, which is infinitely useful to me as a biological animal

>>13749266
Man had it better as primordial muck.

>>13748894
>"I'd like you to think about the mail for a second..."

>>13748894
Help, this post really makes me want to bomb innocent people.

>>13749312
fedora tier thinking

>>13749000
Technology has become the west's god and there is nothing we can do about it.

>>13749230
>I just want to know how people that understand this go on living.
Cant speak for other but alcohol and anime mostly desu. Well that and taking a perverse pleasure in ruining other peoples fun by explaining it to them

>>13749494
>Technology has become the west's god
quite literally
>there is nothing we can do about it.
we can embrace it

>>13749312
awful

How do we stop liberal capitalism?

>>13749505
>Rejecting the marginalization of ESP and psychokinesis as “paranormal,” Prometheus & Atlas makes the case that psi is only “super Natural” insofar as our reductive modern scientific models have occluded Supernature for practical purposes.
Sounds insane. Going to give it a read.

>>13749505
Embrace by what means? I already work in tech.

>>13749521
It’s awesome

>>13749526

>>13749534

>>13749514
With socialism

>>13749504

So working a boring job(most likely) just to spend it on drugs and watch anime? I feel like one would just kill themselves? There's no point to anything.

>>13749505

Why embrace something that is destroying society? Unless you gain pleasure and are satistfied from just pure decadence?

>>13749563
>So working a boring job(most likely) just to spend it on drugs and watch anime?
Electrical engineer in the oil industry. While it is kind of boring the whole being a massive hypocrite is the part that's really a problem. For now im stuck with it, and it restricts my ability to say go to environmentalist protests to talk to people amenable to seeing the problem of tech.

>I feel like one would just kill themselves? There's no point to anything.
Long term I hope to find Something I can do that might help push things in a better direction. Sure its realistically as very long shot, but what is the penalty of trying? Everything fucked anyways. For now I guess at least I get a sense of how the industry fueling the technological beast operates?

>>13749709

I haven't joined the big boy workforce yet, but I've gotten a STEM degree, and with all the stuff that I know/am learning in regards to the fucked up world I don't know how to convince myself to even get a job.

Nothing worthwhile to realistically shoot for, and no interest in giving money to the world.

Tedians? Kazynskians? Anyway, people who are into Ted are just Landians who haven’t read Land yet

>>13749738
I don't identify under the name of a single man. No man should.

>>13749734
Ya learning about how the world actually is hasn't exactly been, lets say, invigorating.

>>13749738
Just got Fanged Noumena, wont get around to reading for a while since I guess there is a fair bit of marxism I have to get though first to get it. But is is a good intro to his stuff?

>>13749312
would like to kill you.

>>13749563
>Why embrace something that is destroying society?
Eh, I dislike vague statements like that. There are a myriad of causes and effects to things, one of them simply being perception. I cannot say if things are bad or good, just that there are causes and effects. DESU i feel that we are just in a cultural millaise atm in general in the west, and most of our big "problems" Are not really that dire in the grand scheme of things. IDK about you, but I am personaly doing fine, and as both a product and contributer to society that means something.

>>13749802
Does it actually mean something?

>>13749802
>most of our big "problems" Are not really that dire in the grand scheme of things. IDK about you, but I am personaly doing fine, and as both a product and contributer to society that means something

climate change is pretty much the refutation of everything that you have just said.

>>13749853
Funny thing is would climate change really be a thing if we weren’t letting minorities industrialize? Same with animals going extinct.

>>13749802

You're doing fine and there definitely are some pros to tech, but the cons might outweigh them if you consider the multitude of illness(mental and physical), degeneracy, corruption, nature(if that's something you care about), etc. These are leading to permanent detrimental changes in life.

>>13749110
go back to r/atheism nigger

>>13748894
The mechanization of the world has entered into a stage of most dangerous, excessive tension. The face of the Earth with its plants, animals and people has been altered. In a few decades most of the great forests have disappeared, have been transformed into newspaper and consequently climatic changes have occurred, which threaten the agriculture of entire populations; countless species like the buffalo have been completely or almost completely wiped out, entire races of men like the North American Indians and the Australian aborigines have been brought virtually to a state of extinction.

Man is an element of all-living nature, which rises in rebellion against nature. He must pay for this defiance with his life. Through this act of defiance man distinguishes himself from all other living things, which as pure nature are blended with the tapestry of the natural universe. Mankind is the hero of this tragedy. He is but an episode, a moment in the destiny of the world. The greatest part of the tragedy of human civilization is already past. The end dawns. We stand today at the climax, there, where the fifth act begins. The final decisions will be reached. The tragedy comes to a close.

>>13749195
I hope this post is a joke anon...

Oh, yeah, it's totally The Industrial Revolution that's the problem and not urbanism lmao
Midwit fucks

>>13749252
man himself is artifice of his own will

>>13749948
Jesus, is this bait? Urbanism is a byproduct, if not one of the most glaring and lasting results, of the industrial revolution.

>>13749960
this. man is creatively free. creation isn’t some static thing that an abrahamic god “finished on the seventh day and rested”. man is literally creating the reality around him all the time and he is free to make it what he will

The sneed revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the moe race.

This thread is a fucking soi overload. You're so used to industrialization that you are blind to the fact that it is responsible for almost every creature comfort you have. Does a human race living like pigs hold any value higher than that of a pig?
I'd rather we burn this earth to a crisp in nuclear fire than just revert to living like animals.

>>13750093
based and technepilled

>>13749975
Because Babylon was so great, retard
Other way around brainlet

>>13750093
so it's like the comfort of ignorance

>>13749110
Abrahamism has been a diaster.
>>13749195
Fucking moronic neckbeard opinion.
>>13749230
Learn to de zionise you brain. Think for yourself and determine your own essence independent of fake kabbalistic monoculture. Its cringe because they made it cringe, (because they hate independent thought and fear criticism worse than anything else because if we were ever able to crack through the edifice of their lies their power structure would come crumbling down- don't count on this though because the species has been breed to essentially be cattle since Abraham-) but wolves dont lose sleep over the bleating of sheep.
So your free to decided. Personally I just want my words and to be left alone.
>>13749252
The rock wasn't the problem tard it was genesis 1 28 and the priest class scaring the fuck out of everyone with their hell bs.
>>13749494
This board. Your an individual tard you can worship what you want. Or, you know, you could think for your fucking selves. Smfh.
>>13749505
You can literally do anything with your power. Ta-ar-ds. Its like you all never heard of the transvaluation.
>>13749514
Everything has to be about other people. Leave them the fuck alone. Who gives a fuck if (si)civilisation goes to shit. Its always been doing that. Just carve your own niche.
>>13749761
Precisely. Be independent or be a slave. Be courageous enough to think for yourself or live in fear.
>>13749928
Yo did not write this yourself nigga, who did? Its true af. All we have left is inventing our own characters so we can enjoy the decent.
>>13749948
Yes we were fucked as soon as we settled and lost the hunter gatherer state. Fear is the driver of it all, but you, anon, whoever you are, needn't be afraid.
>>13749975
I can see what you mean, but cities have been around a lot longer than industry. They mean more the settling down of civ out of nomadism.
>>13750093
Comfort is weakness imo. Life should be forged from the land with not more than a horse and plough. If you don't like my opinion just get fucked.
>>13749085
My first post in this thread.

ganache > icing

>>13750233
>Comfort is weakness imo. Life should be forged from the land with not more than a horse and plough. If you don't like my opinion just get fucked.
That plough is a product of industrialization though (arguably industrialization has been underway since we started to use metals). The modern horse is the product of thousands of years of selective breeding.

If you think that living on the equivalent of 1 dollar a day is life as it should be I can't really argue with that except ask why you are giving in to your own weakness.