I feel sick. I need help.

[bhekti]

I read an article this afternoon. Roughly translated from Indonesian, it is entitled “Looking Through to the 2030”. A very utopian article, as you may guess. The main idea is that countries must begin to prepare their capital, especially man power. It says:

“The spirit of innovation, reformation and creation that takes root in the development of capable man power is ultimately needed in the middle of the rapid current of change. Those that do not change will extinct.”

Then,

“Only nations with the capability to master the high and advanced technology will take benefit. Nations that cannot anticipate will collapse and be downtrodden, remaining off-stage from the world that is presenting progress.”

Then,

“ In facing this challenge of the future, it is not enough for people to come inside, looking what one has in one’s hand. People also need to look outside, monitoring the strength of other nations. Competition is inevitable. The forward movement will continue in the spirit of high competition. There will be the overthrown, being unable to accomplish the race. Nations that lose passion will lose strength and be left far behind.”

Question (help me out): Why did I, when finished reading this article, immediately felt sick in the stomach that I wasted my lunch in the toilet?

The automatic lunch wasting did not help. I felt violent, resistant, and still do. I feel like wanting to smash everything. I hear voices and see images in my head. I lose balance. What’s wrong with me? Is there something wrong with me? What is going on with me? Can anyone help me, please? Can anyone explain?

I realize that I am being strange here. But still the sickness is there and it really disturbs me. I think I should have given you more information about this sickness, but for now this is the best I can do.


PS:
to make you be more acquainted with the article, it also says:

“The employment of nano-based technology will solve the many and various problem of humanity, such as the one in the area of health and food. It’s been predicted, there will be no more food problem. Man can eat anything without fear of diseases. Genetic ailment will be extinguished. The blind will see, the deaf hear.”

And, no, it does not say anything about war, or wars.

[mir]

oh, jeez . . . i hope you're okay and feel better . . .

as for why the article may have made you feel that way, well, first, it's pretty hard to read - the thing i would start practically crying at if i saw it on a test. but also, it's pretty harsh - change or die; and perhaps you think - as i do - that that really isn't going to happen. i don't know . . . but the utilitarianness of that article disturbed me a bit too . . . is that it? anyways, i hopw you feel better about it . . i had nearly the same reaction today because we started a cless on genocide and i'm not going to say anymore because i don't even want to remember.

good luck and hopw you feel better . . .

[byquist]

Agree with MIR that whoever wrote this one-note tirade should be sent to the nearest shrink, to start gathering a sense of balance. Life, ideally, should be much softer than such a mechanistic, and Machiavellian-susceptible, viewpoint.

Unfortunately however, we don't have to look far to see indicators or proofs of this author's viewpoint, so this writer is pointing out dangers that we have to avoid, pursue through, or subjugate -- not always an easy task. But, you should not have to lose your cookies over such a perspective, because YOU will decide the steps YOU will take. You can glean some wisdom or prudence by examining what others think and see for the future (be they bad or good), but you carve out your own path.

Change doesn't have to be presented in such a cantankerous mode; change can be pleasant, liberating, zesty and enobling. It can be lighthearted, whereas this author drags others down. Watch out for such nullifiers. That it made you sick only shows that you practice the positive, not gloom and doom.

[blp]

If it's any comfort, your reaction is very common and, in a way, a very rational one to the state of the world.

Coincidentally, I just read this, from the beginning of 'Girl Interrupted' by Susanna Kaysen:

My roommate Georgina came in swiftly and totally, during her junior year at Vassar. She was in a theater watching a movie when a tidal wave of blackness broke over her head. The entire world was obliterated - for a few minutes. She knew she had gone crazy. She looked around the theater to see if it had happened to everyone, but all the other people were engrossed in the movie. She rushed out, because the darkness in the theater was too much when combined with the darkness in her head.
And after that? I asked her.
A lot of darkness, she said.

I had my own similar problems with this sort of thing in my early twenties. Sartre's Nausea was great comfort.

At the risk of sounding like a hippie, try not to let on about this stuff to doctors. You could end up on some kind of powerful medication, which won't solve anything, just deaden your feelings and take away your sex drive or make you fat or something. The medical response to this kind of thing totally ignores the fact that it's about something, a genuine concern. The point is to figure out what terms you can come to with it. If you're hearing voices, that may actually be of some use. What are they saying? Whatever it is, no matter how awful, you can reason with them.

William Burroughs describes this kind of thing as demonic possession, which is silly, but his method for dealing with it is spot on. He said, the only way to deal with a demonic possession is to let it wash through you. This really works. Whatever comes up, however awful, however much it seems to be right inside your head, lie back and watch it and listen to it as if it's on TV. The whole point is that there's nothing you have to do but let it play itself out. Treat it as a new experience. Learn that it can't really hurt you.

[rachel]

This is totally sickening and I am ashamed to say that my country has already started and is quite far down this path. Only she calls it helping others to help themselves. A few examples:one of our provinces has a so called wondrous good premier who wanted to clean up our health care and have a surplus in the coffers. A few weeks later all those on income assistance, mainly mothers left behind and in poverty through divorce, and all single people on it, were sent a letter telling them they had to leave and would be given a one way ticket to the city of their choice. What a nightmare. Many in despair came to my province because it has the mildest weather. So they flooded social services here and suffered. It is one of the reasons I am passionate about my street ministry, but it is not enough. And also, many merchants complained about the panhandlers, especially a certain three, out on the sidewalks every day. Within four months of the complaining, one was found dead, his body thrown into a garbage dump, the second dead in a back alley, the third bludgeoned to death in a similar area. Clean city now.Those three wouldn't co operate and go to one of the programs to get them off the street. I don't know what happened or by whom. it just did.
throwing out older people from the work force is a big thing here and many in their forties or older have bosses just twenty, especially in the social service sector. And the military is going thru some really wierd scarey stuff. We live in a military city, I won't get into it. It is all about change and fit in or ...........daily. And euthenasia is practiced in our country. It was first done in secret, but now it is out in the open. Children that have handicaps have been euthenized and parents themselves have participated. It is really heartbreaking. And in our province alone over seventy five children were murdered by parents just this year, many given back in to custody of violent parents. no one cares much about the little ones it seems.We also have one of the highest mortality rate of infants for a 'civilized' country. Yes we are on the move higher and higher so we can compete against other countries and not be left in the dust.

[jackyyyy]

Great post, Rachel!

[mir]

oh my god . . . that's like a horror story. where is this? i think America these days is often being heartless or just plain stupid - like in the case of not being allowed to use stem cells for research when they could save millions of lives and would be thrown out otherwise anyways - but god . . . i can't even barely beleive that .. .

[rachel]

I am in Canada dear mir. I love my country, but I see that if we don't rise up and do something we shall just end up an oppressed people with no hope for generations to come.

[Jay]

Only a reminder: stay out of current politics please.

[rachel]

okay. Is simply reporting something that is happening in my country, not judging the government wrong? Just wondering is all...

[mir]

no . . but i think Jay is saying that maybe the thread isn't a political one? come on, the whole fun of having a conversation is the way it turns out in a completely different direction that it started from. and something like the thing happening in Canada i think is really important, if really scary too. isn't there some kind of constitution there? is canada a democracy?

[bhekti]

I am much sober now. I got ill for two days, but now I am fine. No drugs, only some traditional treatment with ointment, a coin and a good neighbor.

Looking back, I am quite surprised that I could fall ill because of an article. Illogical, but it did happen. I was knocked down by a written thing.

This experience reminds me of a line by Roland Barthes “no doubt this is what reading is: rewriting the text into the text of our lives.” Reading can be a fatal contact. Something of the article "re-writes" the text of my life, from "healthy" into "sick".

PS:
thank for the posts. thank you very much.

[rachel]

no . . but i think Jay is saying that maybe the thread isn't a political one? come on, the whole fun of having a conversation is the way it turns out in a completely different direction that it started from. and something like the thing happening in Canada i think is really important, if really scary too. isn't there some kind of constitution there? is canada a democracy?

Well a democracy in writ I suppose Mir. But more I cannot say.
I wonder at the world, the direction it will take.

[Themis]

isn't there some kind of constitution there? is canada a democracy?

Whether there's a constitution or not has absolutely nothing to do with the question whether Canada's a democracy. And yes, it is. Even direct democracy.

[cuppajoe_9]

Whether there's a constitution or not has absolutely nothing to do with the question whether Canada's a democracy. And yes, it is. Even direct democracy.It was a representative democracy last time I voted. For the NDP. Which was a bit futile.

[Themis]

It was a representative democracy last time I voted. For the NDP. Which was a bit futile.

Oops. :blush: Sorry, my source was wrong.