[Closed] Waiting for the bombs.....and the futility of modern life..

Humans have been at war since humans existed.

We've(UK) had a quite a nice little run of peace lately but by n large we are nasty b'stards who do a lot of fighting. Thats why the world is run by northern europeans.

I would ride a bike more, dont read/watch the news/fb and enjoy the party.

Surely we have been 'waiting for the bombs' since the 50's. Having grown up in the 70's and worked for the MoD in the 80's the cold war threat was always 'real' of at least perceived as a real threat. We have had a brief hiatus from Nuclear destruction in the 90's and 00's where we were busy managing lesser threats to humanity such as Taliban and its offspring that live in Oil rich areas.

You have to wonder if it doesn't suit the powers that be to keep us a little scared and to look to daddy for support and shelter.

Additionally, am I the only one walking to work (through the hoards of people doing the same) this morning wondering what the point of it all is?

No.

I can't be the only one that feels like this?

You're not.

Bring it on.

Life isn't futile, there's beauty in every sunset and every good deed.

War is just one of natures ways of cutting down on the human population every now and then, of trimming of the dead wood and letting the strongest, cleverest and dirtiest to survive.
It even allows us to make huge strides in technology and medicine as well as a bonus.

[/brightside]

We've(UK) had a quite a nice little run of peace lately

Apart from the Falklands, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

Bored at work? Listen to some of Dan Carlin's fantastic Hardcore History podcasts. "the Destroyer of Worlds" (start of the nuclear age) is pretty good as is "blueprint for Armageddon" (The first world war). Its far better to know how events like this have unfolded previously than to ponder your navel despondently.

WRT Putin: Russians like to make you feel scared, its in their culture. They just want to see that you're scared and then they take you out and get you drunk, take you to a strip joint and laugh at your inability to down another round of vodkas. It'll all be fine.

WRT Mr Kim: China are pretty peeved with him. I suspect they'll deal with this. Trump might send some tomahawks in to select locations, but full scale war is unlikely at this stage. If the fat one conducts an air blast (even just as a test) then things may change. But that's likely to be a localised conflict.

Booooooring.

Just because we've had a short period of no nukes man, doesn't mean the threat hasn't always been there.

Stop navel gazing and enjoy the last futility of what ever you life has left to give.

Its not worth worrying about. Everything will be fine. Have a sausage roll...

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😀

Worry about what you can control. Me worrying about Putin/Trump/Jong-Un will make not a single bit of difference to how they act so I refuse to waste any time doing it.

If you're questioning the futility of your life I'd suggest that you should change the bits you can change (your job, your friends, your hobbies, etc.) instead of what you can't (see above).

what the point of it all is?

I've not actually achieved anything with my life

blocks (can't swear at work) By whose standards?
Have you laughed? have you had a good time doing things you want to do? riding your bike perhaps, always gives me pleasure, if so then you've certainly lived a lot more than lots of people who watch TV in the evening, rather than getting out n about on a bicycle.
BUT yes there is a futility to it all and recently I've come to the conclusion that when I'm 50 (42 now) I will spend at least 6 months travelling the world. Both my parents died early from cancer so chances are I might go the same way and I don't feel I've spent enought time seeing the world. What my wife will make of this I've yet to find out but I want to do it solo and while I'm young enough to be able to enjoy it.

What Lunge said.

I'll add that comparing your life to others is also futile. Sure, some folk "do amazing things," but plenty more are happy to spend their dole money on nose candy and Special Brew. And social media has given people the ability to project a facade of how awesome their life is whilst hiding all the shit bits, don't fall for it.

Ha, wondered what sort of responses I'd get - the only one I was certain of was Binners and his sausage rolls...

I'm thinking much the same thing about the travelling. I'm pretty poorly travelled (well, I've travelled a lot but only for work), so I need to address that. Also think I'm a bit burnt out with work so maybe a bike ride round the globe might do the trick. Obviously it'll be a bit more difficult if they lob nukes about but at least I won't need to pack the Gabba....

hot_fiat - thanks, will give that a try..

Life has always been futile. It was worse 800 years ago when all you could do was work and die.

And there won't be a nuclear war. When two giant superpowers were vying for control of the world, there wasn't. Some tiny dictator isn't going to set it off. China won't sign up to annihilation and hundreds of millions of deaths for the sake of Kim.

There might be a bomb let off though, would be a humanitarian and environmental crisis, but I doubt it'll be war.

My life is so bereft of meaning that nuclear oblivion barely makes it into my top ten of things that could spoil my week 😯

I'll add that comparing your life to others is also futile. Sure, some folk "do amazing things," but plenty more are happy to spend their dole money on nose candy and Special Brew. And social media has given people the ability to project a facade of how awesome their life is whilst hiding all the shit bits, don't fall for it.

Amen to that Cougar

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I could die today and (for me)it would all have been enough.
This is not to say that I have done or felt everything that I ever wanted to do,but from a very young age I latched on to the saying "This is not a rehearsal,don't waste the time you have".So from my teens to my forties I took every chance I could to experience everything that came my way and explore all the things and places that I was curious about.The best bit is,that now in my 50's I can still remember so much detail,like some super computer my tiny brain is managing to store all this information and let me understand who I am and how a lot of the world works.So my real worry has less to do with bombs or war(which I can't do much about)and a lot more with not losing my mind and staying on this trip as long as I can.Life is good,eat it up.

I have this design (from the Daily Mash, obvs) on my phone case to constantly remind me of the futility of my daily existence.

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Embrace it! 😀

I listened to that clever Chinese fella on BBC this morning: It's all posturing - "Nobody wants war".

I wouldn't particularly care if a nuke fell on me 'ead tomorrow though. I've had enough of this shite.

There really isn't much point to life. Just don't waste the best years working in some miserable shit job wondering about what could have been...

Agree with lunge above.

We all feel down about things at some point but we also need to maintain some perspective.

We live (well most on this forum) live one of the luckiest countries at the most luckiest times any human has ever lived.

Especially if you are a white male - and with no family commitments - if you don't like where things are for you, change them.

My current gig is at one of the most successful brands in the world - I am amazed when people complain - you should definitely push for things to improve yes - but complain! - go live in the slums of Delhi and see how your attitude changes.

[i]go live in the slums of Delhi and see how your attitude changes.[/i]

More whataboutery meaningless bullshit

Cool new word for me "whataboutery" - thanks for that.

I just mean perspective is needed. We are in the best time to live right now -
there are no excuses - If you don't like where you are in life - change it.

If we die today in a storm of nuclear detonation, or in 50 years time dribbling in a nursing home most of us will still not have achieved anything worthwhile in our lives so what difference does it make when it happens. there's nothing to be afraid of in death it will just be the same as not being born and that wasn't scary.

If there's going to be a nuclear war I'd rather it was a European one so it would be over quickly rather than a gradual death due to the effects of a global nuclear winter. I'm not afraid of death but I'm none too keen on suffering.

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Read Maslow Hierachy of Needs and Marcuse One -Dimensional Man then get back to us.
Or you could just ride your bike more.

most of us will still not have achieved anything worthwhile in our lives

Depends on your definition of 'worthwhile' doesn't it?

[i]Cool new word for me "whataboutery" - thanks for that[/i]

See Cougar's post up there ^^ for suitable definition.

Truth is there is no point to all of this - we as humans have always sought to justify our 'special existence' but there isn't one. We exist to produce the next generation and we've done so well at it that the world is over-populated with humans we literally have no point any more.

The upside of that - like a life-long Sunday morning, we don't actually need to do anything if we don't want to, human nature and our less than benevolent overlords will push towards 'the grind' but we don't have to, so we're free to enjoy it.

I wouldn't worry about bombs too much, we can't do anything about it - the last 'worry free' time for Brits was between the 10th of April 1998 when the Good Friday Agreement took place and Sept 11th 2001. 3 and a bit years when the chances of being blown up either by Terrorist or foreign Government was negligible and we ****ed all that up.

More whataboutery meaningless bullshit

it's not whataboutery, it's about perspective. walk a mile in another man's shoes, etc.
I recently spent a day in Soweto, it's not something I embraced or chose to do, but I left with a more positive outlook on my own life. the people I met there have hopes, dreams and aspirations; reasons to be. I was envious of that.

most of us will still not have achieved anything worthwhile in our lives

Speak for yourself. I once farted so loudly I woke everyone in the house up

Speak for yourself. I once farted so loudly, I woke everyone in the house up

Your own house?.....Amateur!

I watched that programme about busiest cities, there was a guy living in a cupboard because it was all he could afford. Then women from the Philippines sitting next to a train station on a Sunday because it was their only day off from being servants or cleaners and they had nowhere else to go. oh, and they have to sleep on a kitchen floor if they're not lucky enough to have been given a bed in a cupboard.

It all could be worse, put down Facebook and the new and go out for a ride or something, hug your stepchildren, stop worrying about something out of your control, some people have **** all

Oh don't tell me.... you let rip one that woke a whole street up? This massive trouser eruption having been caused by the enormous build up of gases only a large tandoori munchy box can provide?

You never miss a chance to revel in our gastronomic poverty, do you?

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Oh don't tell me.... you let rip one that woke a whole street up

Nope just the whole house.....

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To be fair, the acoustics are fabulous 😉

This massive trouser eruption having been caused by the enormous build up of gases only a large tandoori munchy box can provide?

You never miss a chance to revel in our gastronomic poverty, do you?

Peace through superior fryer power.

I once farted so loudly, I woke everyone in the house up

I once farted so badly my daughter vomitted

I watched that programme about busiest cities, there was a guy living in a cupboard because it was all he could afford. Then women from the Philippines sitting next to a train station on a Sunday because it was their only day off from being servants or cleaners and they had nowhere else to go. oh, and they have to sleep on a kitchen floor if they're not lucky enough to have been given a bed in a cupboard.

Ah, I think you're mistaken - that was these chaps:
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Apart from the Falklands, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria

Of our own choosing, none of those countries was threatening your home.

England hasn't been under direct threat from since 1945 (with the possible exception of Irish separatists) but previous to that it has nearly always has been. Romans, Saxons, Danes, Normans, French, Spanish, Germans, Scottish, Ourselves and much of the time they succeeded so life was pretty grim.

OP, if you are feeling like that now why not cheer yourself up by watching some decent tele.

I recommend the Handmaids tale, I nice positive picture of how things may look in the future.

R D Laing Said "life is a sexually transmitted disease, with a 100% mortality rate.

That tickled me greatly for some reason.
Either way there will be good parts and bad parts finding a balance is the tough part i guess.

Truth is there is no point to all of this - we as humans have always sought to justify our 'special existence' but there isn't one. We exist to produce the next generation and we've done so well at it that the world is over-populated with humans we literally have no point any more.

Aside from the biological functions nothing else? We have the capacity to be better than that.

Not dissing the OP's comments, but those further up the food chain love people like that, like us. Just drift through our existence, let our lords and masters do what they like, carry out your function for the economy, and when you can't, **** off and die.

Our leaders, people like trump, they are just little boys throwing stones, that mindset has helped them get to the top of the pile, the mindset that recognizes the same traits in other leaders, and perceives them as a threat, it poisons the rest of us with it in the process.

But we are not completely innocent ourselves, as we let people with this mindset get there in the first place due to our indifference, our "I don't do politics" bollox. And in return they give us stuff like nationalism, and competition/capitalism, if we are not fighting someone else, where are fighting amongst ourselves.

That's why stuff like racism, sexism, the worst of capitalism, and insular sh*t like brexit(nationalism) has to be eliminated as far as I'm concerned.

Our next revolution shouldn't be technological, its got to be about us freeing ourselves from all the above, and as a Human race work together to resolve the challenges we are currently burying our heads in the sand over, the stuff that our current knight in shinning armour, Capitalism either exacerbates or completely ignores.

These new kings and queens are continuing to shape our future, and at the moment we are being dragged backwards by the very people who benefit from nations and citizens being at each others throats.

Other animals seem to do OK without the extra bits.

They don't do OK - life in nature is miserable.

[i]life in nature is miserable.[/i]

Ah will you quit it with the whataboutery! 😆

life in nature is miserable.

Tell that to my ****ing cats? An easier, more cossetted existence to difficult to imagine

Think they care about Trump? Or Kim Jong Un?