Grog's Ramblings

I am much more concerned with my happiness than I used to be. I'm a selfish, greedy bastard. I deserve to be. I want to be HAPPY. And so I have evil thoughts towards that which keeps me unfulfilled or unhappy in the slightest way.

To me, happiness is a good relationship with all the living things around you. That means your family, your friends, your spouse, the pets you share space with, the lawn around your house, the plants and animals you eat, the trees you kill for paper and lumber, the streams you pollute by buying plastics and electronics, everything you touch and everything you affect. I share the notion that the water, the soil, the rocks, the entire earth is alive.

Kill your television. Or at least tune it to PBS and break off the tuner knob.

Commercials keep the general public in patterns that are wasteful and unfulfilling. My friend Marc thinks corporations rely on making people insecure in their natural personal looks, surroundings, abilities, etc. and seek to fill this breach in self esteem with products that will never bolster the self esteem that they wreck. This cycle is perpetuated by constant new trends that they advertise and promote. All I know is that I hate being manipulated, I want to be talked to directly and clearly. Commercials work because they don't talk to you directly, they toy with your emotions, and as seen together they make me yearn for products that I buy and then wonder why I bought them.

I have become happier since I made it harder for commercials and advertising to reach me.

From a larger perspective, our culture is one that mines the ground, chops down the trees, pumps oils from underground, manufactures things, uses them a few hours or a few years, and then buries them in a big hole. All the while, polluting the rivers, the air, killing the native species out of THEIR homes. No other species on the earth does this. It is because we have technology, the science, the ability to make tools, record how to make them, and improve on how we made them in the past. I don't think that technology is evil, I just hate the lack of compassion for the other living things, and the endless need for more junk. Like carbonated sugar water. Or fancy clothes. Or electronic junk. Or cars. Many people trade in their cars because they're tired of them, not because the cars don't work anymore.

When I got tired of looking at my jeep I put steer horns on it. That improved things greatly. I hate the fact that I have to own a big steel contraption to live day-to-day. But I'm not going to throw it away until it's thoroughly used up and trashed.

I hope I will never date a habitual smoker. Smokers as a group are needy whiners that harm themselves and leave their trash everywhere. They often don't have a good relationship with the nonsmokers around them. Blah.

Why is the world population ballooning out of control?

I don't know. My guess is that eating 'new foods' makes people have children faster and more often. And they want more children to help with all the work that living in civilization requires, and to take care of them when they are old. But it's the biggest single problem that we face as a world society.

New foods: Grains, Beans, Potatoes, Sugar, Dairy, anything processed or artificial. Anything that requires coooking. These appeared in our diet around the start of civilization, circa 10K years ago, give or take. Almost all the profit in a grocery store is in these foods. Almost all of the advertising promotes these foods. I avoid these foods. They hold little or no nutritional value to me.

Old foods: Meats, Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts, Berries, and most things edible alive or raw. We've been eating these for millions of years. These are the foods that my body wants. Eating only these food groups cost me twice as much in restaurants or in the grocery store. But worth it.

My reaction to milk advertisements: The American Dairy association is propagating crap. Fear-based crap. There's a billboard near my house that has a picture of Rodney King on it that says "Feel like a King. Three glasses a day." A large percentage of americans get SICK from drinking milk. I would get sick from drinking a glass of milk now. It is an unnatural, new food, it coats and glues up your intestines, and is not required to be healthy. Attack the SOURCE of osteoporosis or other health problems: probably it comes from eating grains and ground seeds: bread, pasta, biscotti, etc. I used to LOVE milk. I drank a gallon a day in high school. When I couldn't get milk I drank half and half. But not anymore. And I feel much better.

Conventional Western doctors suck. They only look at symptoms and don't look at how to be happy or healthy. Ask your doctor how to be healthy. Chances are good that he doesn't have the foggiest idea. These are the ones in charge of the nation's health? Many people have back pain. They go to their doctor. Does their doctor try to figure out what's wrong? Does he prescribe massage or relate the person to a specialist? Or does he just prescribe pain pills which solve nothing? If I get a broken bone I'll go to a doctor. But I will not rely on them for feeling good.