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alatar · 08-26-2007, 08:59 PM

Until lmp's and Raynor's discussion, I thought that I had all of the answers that I needed:

Unless you're someone really really special, prayer - petitioning the Valar - is useless. Divine help is not coming. Have an escape plan ready, and store extra food, water and candles.
Use the last Age's manure to grow your garden. Manure is just a part of the way things work, and you might as well hold your nose and make the best of it.
Be a good steward. Remove the rocks that you find so that your descendants will have better soil.

As to the discussion, though I found it interesting, not exactly sure what it all means. Pessimist/skeptic/cynic that I am, I don't think that the world is getting worse, morally. Same percentages; larger number of participants. Back during the Kin-strife, we had good and bad people slain for no good reason, though the numbers were limited. Today, we can play the same old game but increase the damage - human and otherwise - exponentially. Also, sans a palantir one didn't hear news unless one actively sought out a loquacious Dwarf or made the journey to the borders or even Bree (from a Shire folk's point of view). Today all of us have second generation palantirs in our homes, and so can know news in real time from anywhere on this globe. So anyway, we may be not better or worse than when we started, and so that makes me feel that the 'despair' noted above is unwarranted.

Today's heroes don't get immortalized in songs like they once did, and maybe their deeds aren't as valiant. Hurin may not be found again - our species doesn't have a Durin - but even today there are some little and big stands taken against the darkness, and that too gives me hope.

There's also a little corner in me - probably due to the kids - that thinks that as a species we might make it. Doesn't the foretelling say that we humans, carrying the blood of the three races, will always spring back up? And in the end we leave. Isn't that the true gift that Eru gave us? The chance to leave this all behind - all of it, maybe even Him, as if this is the best he can do, giving us Arda Marred... - and go elsewhere? Maybe one day we will live elsewhere, and leave Melkor's taint here.

Thanks for posting.

08-26-2007, 08:59 PM	#36
alatar Doubting Dwimmerlaik Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Heaven's basement Posts: 2,466	Until lmp's and Raynor's discussion, I thought that I had all of the answers that I needed: Unless you're someone really really special, prayer - petitioning the Valar - is useless. Divine help is not coming. Have an escape plan ready, and store extra food, water and candles. Use the last Age's manure to grow your garden. Manure is just a part of the way things work, and you might as well hold your nose and make the best of it. Be a good steward. Remove the rocks that you find so that your descendants will have better soil. As to the discussion, though I found it interesting, not exactly sure what it all means. Pessimist/skeptic/cynic that I am, I don't think that the world is getting worse, morally. Same percentages; larger number of participants. Back during the Kin-strife, we had good and bad people slain for no good reason, though the numbers were limited. Today, we can play the same old game but increase the damage - human and otherwise - exponentially. Also, sans a palantir one didn't hear news unless one actively sought out a loquacious Dwarf or made the journey to the borders or even Bree (from a Shire folk's point of view). Today all of us have second generation palantirs in our homes, and so can know news in real time from anywhere on this globe. So anyway, we may be not better or worse than when we started, and so that makes me feel that the 'despair' noted above is unwarranted. Today's heroes don't get immortalized in songs like they once did, and maybe their deeds aren't as valiant. Hurin may not be found again - our species doesn't have a Durin - but even today there are some little and big stands taken against the darkness, and that too gives me hope. There's also a little corner in me - probably due to the kids - that thinks that as a species we might make it. Doesn't the foretelling say that we humans, carrying the blood of the three races, will always spring back up? And in the end we leave. Isn't that the true gift that Eru gave us? The chance to leave this all behind - all of it, maybe even Him, as if this is the best he can do, giving us Arda Marred... - and go elsewhere? Maybe one day we will live elsewhere, and leave Melkor's taint here. Thanks for posting. __________________ There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.