Monday, September 01, 2008

Utopia

Human beings will be happier, not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That's my utopia. Kurt Vonnegut

4 comments:

Peter Dodson said...

Great quote. I've long believed that the best seller of ditching civilization is on the personal level - we will be happier as a result. We won't have more stuff, but we will have more love and friendships, plus we all won't be so damn depressed.

Curt said...

Peter,

You wrote: "Great quote. I've long believed that the best seller of ditching civilization is on the personal level - we will be happier as a result. We won't have more stuff, but we will have more love and friendships, plus we all won't be so damn depressed."

---

I agree. In BEYOND CIVILIZATION, Daniel Quinn brings to light this meme: "Civilization must continue at any cost and must not be abandoned under any circumstances."

This idea alone is the cause of most of our loneliness and despair, I think.

I lived with my grandparents when I was in my late teens to well into my twenties. And during that period I suffered from some major bouts of depression and anxiety.

On a cold, gray, snowy February day, I remember staring out my grandparent's sliding glass patio doors and saying to my Grandma as tears rolled down my face, "Is this all there is to life. Is it just about work and weekends off?"

She reassured me that I had a lot to look forward to in my life, which at that time helped me out. She, after all, had more life experience then I had.

Some time later, on a sunny Summer day, I was in my mid-twenties sitting in the library of my hometown of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin reading ISHMAEL. Tears rolled down my face again. This time not from feeling depressed, but from feeling relief knowing there are other ways to BE. This knowledge alone is part of the reason why I haven't been depressed in a long time.

Peter Dodson said...

Tears rolled down my face again. This time not from feeling depressed, but from feeling relief knowing there are other ways to BE. This knowledge alone is part of the reason why I haven't been depressed in a long time.

I think this knowledge has set a lot of us free - the problem for me is that sometimes Mother Culture calls me back. She's a tough old broad.

Curt said...

Hi Peter,

You wrote: "I think this knowledge has set a lot of us free - the problem for me is that sometimes Mother Culture calls me back. She's a tough old broad"

I'm not clear on this. How does Mother Culture call you back? Do you have an example? Right now I can't think of any in my life.