Name one small change you have made or could make to your life that would be of great benefit to the world if everyone did the same? ECOTRAIN QUESTION OF THE WEEK

in ecotrain •  6 years ago 

On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero -



"Go home, kill Mom and Dad and then hang yourself."

Stokely Carmichael, answering the question of a white middle class youth, how they, the white middle class youths, could help the blacks.

I just love black humor!

Now this was in the good old days, before PC gave racism a bad name and before white lives did matter.




But that idea of self-termination is still a pretty valid idea if you think it through. The fucking planet would be much better off if we would all make this small change to our life.
Instead of the poor planet having to send earthquakes and tsunamis, hurricanes and volcano eruptions, droughts and bad harvests and shit, trying to rid itself of that surface nuisance, that evolutionary cul-de-sac called mankind, it could just relax and enjoy itself again, just like it was before the first ape thought it would be cool to walk upright.

The problem with this is that I am not really a doer, so killing myself is not an option, I´m more of a let-it-be-er. That´s probably why the Indian idea of renunciation strikes such a chord with me. The Anti-Nike! Just don´t do it!




So on the 4th of December in 2004 I stopped eating animals.
The reason I did this was because I joined a Yoga ashram in Germany that day, it was one of the rules of conduct there, it was not on the menu, and if you were caught eating meat somewhere outside, you would get kicked out and since I did not want to do it in secret and/or become a hypocrite and lie about it, I just stopped.
When I left the ashram in 2014, after almost 10 years of pretending to love all beings, I did not go back to my old ways of eating animals, why would I? Nothing to it but to not do it.

So if you look at statistics of German meat consumption, I have saved countless lives in all those years, have not used up lots of resources like water, land and plants for the production of my steak, and overall been a pretty good guy.

The biggest animal I´ve ever killed was a 50 cm long pike, during my juvenile fishing years. I guess, killing is a rite of passage also, gotta do it, if you want to become a real man. It´s that reptile brain thing.
It was a weird moment though, one moment the fish alive, next moment dead, and I was the guy who did it.
But at least I killed what I ate.




Ain´t we cute?




Eating goose around Christmas time is a big thing in Germany.
Restaurants offer whole-goose-dinner-specials for groups of people, magazines dish out goose recipes, people buy goose for their Christmas dinner, there´s a bit of a goose frenzy during that time of the year.
So last year a video went viral where one farmer was selling beautiful, healthy, radiant, organic, free roaming, white, alive geese on a market. People could choose their bird and then the farmer would kill it, pluck it, etc. and hand over the corpse to the customer. A TV crew was filming everything and it was so weird.
Some women where crying, shocked to see the killing, the production of their Christmas roast, up close and personal, in yer face. Obviously they preferred to get their fix in the sterile, clinical environment of a supermarket, where the end product is nicely packed, often bears little to no resemblance to the animal it came from and the customer is very far away from the actual killing, which is usually done by poorly paid Eastern Europeans in big slaughter houses.
Some people said it was good to be reminded what it means to be eating meat, that animals have to die for it and events like slaughtering in public would make people more aware of that fact and maybe lead to a more conscious consumption of meat.

I guess if people had to kill animals themselves, there would be many more vegetarians.
That was maybe the rationale behind a teacher visiting a slaughterhouse with his class, so the kids could see how their burgers were produced.
Boy, did this guy get into trouble afterwards! Some kids got traumatized, parents were up in arms, the director was not amused, the usual drama.

Medicine must be bitter or it´s no use. - German proverb




Apart from not eating animals, I don´t have a car, don´t go to Starbucks, McDonald´s or other outbursts of American imperialism, don´t watch TV, don´t read the papers or listen to any kind of state propaganda, don´t vote, don´t smoke, don´t drink alcohol, and I don´t do to others what I don´t want them to do to me.

So I have given you a few examples of stuff which, if you didn´t do it, would make the world a better place if everyone did the same act of non-doing.
And it´s so easy. Just don´t do it!
Don´t Kill is so much easier than Love Thy Neighbour.




@ecotrain


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Just acts of kindness. I start with remembering birthdays. Just trying to connect with others.

Spending more time with my kids!

Well done on your words
Really, this is life .. nothing lasts
Thanks for sharing‏..

I feed the birds in my garden and I us water butts now if everyone done these two things it would make a big difference. Cheers mike

I would have bought Intel Corp stock when it was one penny, then I could afford to do anything I want. I could eat the biggest steaks money could buy. I could feed the homeless with the biggest steaks money could buy. I could raise exotic cats and feed them the best steaks money could buy. Oh, and I could live on solar power and off the grid and drive electric cars. I could do a lot of things different and would not have to hang out on Steemit or facebook. Then again... maybe I wouldn't do any of those things. I would live in peace though!

The thing I always try to do is a lesson I learned from the late Stephen Covey.
'First, listen to understand. Only when you do understand, then speak to be understood.'
The world, and Steemit, need people to listen and understand others lives and point of views before attempting to make yours understood.

i used to not care about where i put my trash, until i saw these videod about what the trash does to our nature.

from then i never NEVER throw my trash on the ground or in the forest.

everyone should learn to respect our nature and start using trash cans

Yes, that´s right!
Using trash cans is such a small and simple thing to do, but has a huge impact.

But i guess people are too lazy,

or they actually want to see our nature destroyed.

that is sad :(

if we all planted a tree a month we would have a greener planet and not a concrete jungle

I have helped others on the street, give them food to eat instead of money .

That´s very kind and proactive!
Thanks for making the world a better place.

I carry my trash with me when I am not around a trash can and pick up at least 4 pieces of trash when I am out on bike rides and walks.

It is a good story that mixes a black humor, the experience in Germany and some of its traditions, eating birds, meat and the goodness of the vegetarian, in particular life is a balance of things and good, and the rest can enjoy it !

great answer, was not sure what to expect with that first picture, but it is very fitting and yes it is a lot easier not to kill than love thy neighbour xx

This was great - likedeeler strikes again. Loved the German medicine proverb. That’s one of the reason we homestead- to diy this whole meat thing. I knew if I was going to eat meat I had to be connected to it.

Obviously they preferred to get their fix in the sterile, clinical environment of a supermarket, where the end product is nicely packed, often bears little to no resemblance to the animal it came from and the customer is very far away from the actual killing, which is usually done by poorly paid Eastern Europeans in big slaughter houses.

Yes! So glad that happened. We need more of this “eye opening” non clinical LIFE medicine for people.

세상을 나은 방법으로 할수 있는 방법 어떤게 있을까요??

🤔 use google translator...

I stopped breathing. I guess if everyone would do the same..... Wait... I'm kinda dizzy.........

Posted using Partiko Android

Pee sitting down.

i would def smoke more weed and not give a fuck what no one thinks ....i would run away from home and never look back ...

If people understood the trivium and used its methodology, that would be a huge step forward!

Adopting a plant based diet

@likedeeler this is impressive, well the thing that i have done which if people join is gonna help the world as helping the fatherless and motherless!.. Am a newbie check out my post here: https://steemit.com/steemworld/@ikemsamuel/12-proper-manners-you-should-teach-your-child

a romantic vision about the world...
the world is more hard than that. You have enough to choose eat or not eat something like meal and about those that haven't nothing. Everything is so beautiful for those that woke up and can have five or six meal a day. I respect your ideas and I appreciate your post... but life looking beyond your window... is not so simple. 😎

I just love your sense of humour. And yes, not killing is so much easier than loving your neighbour in some cases (not that I have bad neighbours...or at least: not anymore). I always say that I wouldn't be able of catching something and killing it to eat if I were ever lost in the woods or something. There would probably enough wild-growing food around to survive on. Unless you get lost in Alaska in the winter of course, that would be a completely different story. In fact, I spent nearly three weeks in the jungle in Malaysia once and survived eating all kinds of things I never even knew grew there. Some with risk of losing my life because we didn't quite know if it was edible LOL. But we were lucky to find coconut, mangoes and bananas, so it wasn't hard. Those weeks were very cleansing and I felt like I was reborn after it! If it weren't for the tiger tracks we saw around our tent, we probably would have stuck it out a bit longer. But to me, that was the sign for us to get back to the 'real world' since my name is not Mowgli ;) And yes, the Germans do go through a lot of meat. I was never really a meat eater (my family was though) and I used to always be appalled by the enormous pieces of meat covered in sauces our neighbours and my family would go through on a festive day.

When I was a kid we did not eat that much meat, we ate a lot of vegetables from our garden.
So I never really liked those dishes in restaurants where you had a big piece of meat and only a few potatoes and vegetables, or a small salad with it.
Where in Malaysia? In Sarawak?

I have stopped using Walmart and other big box stores. This month marks ten years without spending one penny at Walmart.

I feel that companies like this and their constant expansion into new areas simply because there isn't a Walmart there is outrageous.

They open a new location and operate at a loss sometimes simply to destroy any and all competition to make the populace depend on them for everything.

Everywhere they go they hurt our friends, family and neighbors. They are breaking the back of small business in the states and elsewhere in and for that reason I will never support them. And if everyone else did the same they would disappear from the earth.

That can only be good for everyone (including oppressed Walmart employees) except the Walton family

No longer letting fear hold me back. I am doing quite well on this journey but still need a bit more practice. I am inspired by everyone who is following their dreams and living through their heart. I am proud of myself for doing the same.

Some of the things he chose not to do are just personal, they can't change the world.

Comming and Upvoted you :) !
:
“More people would be depressed, if parents tried to please their children as frequently and as badly as children try to please their parents.” ====> Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Life philosophy... Nice one

i raised my children to be strong willed, trustworthy, faithful, kind hearted, accepting of others regardless of race, sexual orientation or gender. to understand that their views are not the only views and to respect the views of others even if they don't agree with them.
to stand up for what is just and not to concede or compromise their convictions.

I do think that selfimprovement can go a long way in improving our environment.. that said i do think that communitybuilding and participation -even if thats just observing political processes is existencial. Reading the news and observing "state propaganda" is an important part of understanding which global challenges we will have to overcome and where we are standing. And to not go voting? Woah, I am really fed up with that topic. Just for starters, that's one of the main reasons of the rise of right wing parties in germany - saying everything coming from the state is propaganda, calling all media "fake news" - I think there is more real impact coming from changes in environmental and animal protection law and politics than from not eating meat. Thats the difference between an individual change or the change of an ethical standard, which in my opinion is way more sustainable. To make the world a better place I get my lazy ass out on the streets to demonstrations as often as possible and to learn, learn, learn as much as I can about other cultures and my own.

Take time to teach others to love God. When one manages to do it, it is like a chain, who loves God, loves his neighbor and tha achieves many changes of attitudes that were previously negative and are now positive. Somehow if the majority love God the world would be different.

Congratulations @likedeeler!
Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade in the following category:

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Hello @likedeeler, we have so many things to contribute for a better world:

  1. Since I was little I taught my children that garbage is not thrown into the street, but there is no container they put in their bag until they get home.
  2. When I cook something with oil, that waste is not made in the dishwasher, I store it in bottles, since the oil when making contact with water, contaminates the water that we consume.
  3. I leave this link to a publication made aller on a way to change to a world of peace without weapons.
    I wish you a world of happiness !!
    https://steemit.com/sports/@rvag5/if-a-soccer-ball-joins-the-world-let-s-change-the-arms-of-a-ball

wow, very interesting read. personally, i have always strived to live at peace and be a peace maker where possible.

I think the planet is going to send something new to destroy human. It may resort to asteroid but I prefer aliens or maybe aliens is already within us.

Very nice the dealer of likes..sight ly worrying start but i knew ud pull through! Welcome back!

Thanks!
No worries mate. 😄

I would say learning communication skills. Such as; handling criticism, being assertive, reflective listening, learn how to say no when someone is manipulating you, and decrease negative thinking.
This help me in my 20s and im starting to see the world differently.

That would be...understanding earlier that karma is not some bloody boomerang that goes around and comes around. The brutal reality is..."What you do to others...stays with you.". If my ass lives in a glass house and so do you...then I can't break your windows to get to you...without violating the integrity of the house I live in. Took me awhile to understand what the Chinese meant when they said..."When you go for revenge...dig two graves." Now I do.

grave-2036220_960_720.jpg

I must be perfectly blunt...if only for myself...that too often, what I do is not for the right reason. Much of it is simply because I just do not want to pay the price...because of wrongdoing ...for the things that will stay with me. Whenever try to ignore this hard learned lesson...it comes to me quickly that already the price is too high to bear and I back down.
There are others...but this jumps first to mind. Peace and blessings to you and yours.

cheers-1992276_960_720.jpg

Ahimsa - a pretty good rule of thumb for sure 💞💞💞

We all should know where our food comes from... yay for the teacher who took his students to the slaughterhouse!!!

I have definitely not even eaten goose. I'm morally opposed to Maccas... and explain why when my students want to go there on the way home from an excursion. Try explaining to a busload of teenagers why u are the only teacher who won't allow it. 😉

This is a very interesting story and at one point i laughed at the humour, at some point i felt the way people felt knowing after knowing that to eat meat is to take away animal life and at some point i paused and reflected. I really like the German proverb, Good medicine is bitter and i think its important people understood the impacts of all their actions. I wish people can develop a kind of systems thinking that looks way beyond their immediate actions and its a whole lot you are doing to make the world a better place. Stopping to eat meat is really a huge sacrifice for the planet and besides not eating meat, you have a long lists of ecofriendly don'ts. Thumbs up sir, for your sacrifice to make the world a better place

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