daffy_nation Dafremen When the world is the way I envision it, good folx will finish in the top two, right behind the best folx. A person's word will mean something and a handshake will be more than another sales gimmick to close the deal. Folx will say what they mean, not what they think folx want to hear, and they'll take the time to say it the way they'd want it to be said to them. Folx won't go around having sex without thinking about the kids they might have, and they won't go around having kids just to leave them at home alone or with the babysitter, simply because they hadn't thought about it before they started having sex. Artists and producers will realize that free expression comes at a cost that is responsibility and their audiences will realize the same; tuning out when appropriate, with as much enthusiasm as they tune in. Water will NOT cost more than 50 cents a bottle if you can afford to pay for it, free if you can't. Men will lift the seat...women will put it back down. Top story on the nightly news will be the weather report. Murder and crime will appear in the obituaries and the police beat section of the local newspaper where they belong. Safety will be secondary to freedom and we won't give away freedoms that belong to our grandkids just to save our own skins. They will be born as free as we were..more free if we can manage it. You will know that I love you all as I love myself..in fact it will be common knowledge and it will be common practice to treat each other as family, when the world is the way that I envision it. 020625 ... cube Daffy fer president! Where do we sign on? Methinks you might just want to reconsider the toilet seat issue in the interests of keeping the female voters though... ³ 020625 ... Dafremen Hey, they need it odwn...we need it up. Tell ya what...about half the time we'll even leave it down in the name of chivalry (and conservation of energy after a healthy dump.) 020626 ... <1 _ Your plan sound suprisingly similar to that of Lucifer's... Where were you around the time of the planning the construction for earth? 020626 ... cube Lucifer's plan was to bring all of God's children back at the expense of our individual freedom to choose. For this little trick he expected God's power in return. While we have to concede to our candidate a touch of megalomania, just where in his platform do you extract that he is similar to Lucifer? Daffy is just advocating a little common sense and until he says something truly stupid, will remain our nominee for the party's leadership role. Next question please... ³ 020627 ... Toxic_Kisses The toilet seat things not an issue (hi cube) I automatically do that anyways when ever I'm in a guys place bc I fig when he's @ my place he'll remember my kindness and put it back down 020627 ... Dafremen As I envision it means just that. This is how people would ACT in my ideal world. It is NOT how people would be forced to act, but how they would CHOOSE to act, having discovered, after years of practicing common sense sociability, that these things WORK. That society flourishes and becomes better, more pleasant when we stop staring at the inside of our own eylids and desires and start thinking outside of the boxes that are our own skulls. I'm living in a society now, where (to some extent) these common sense rules are applied by most of the populace on a daily basis. They say Good Morning, Good Evening, Good Afternoon...as monotonous as it may seem, as confining as it may appear to an outsider. It is the mark of a truly free society that we freely choose to restrain our own desires in order to best accomodate as many of ALL of our desires as we can, indefinitely. If I give up one or two things that I desire to do, in the name of common respect and decency, if we have a common set of mutually agreed upon courtesies and respects that we extend to each other, then we can all have MOST of what we want, without the petty bickering, feuding and fighting. To be sure, this society is that principle taken only part of the way, not all the way. Human desire, greed and self interest are hard things for the individual to suppress. But it was the world as I envisioned it, not necessarily a perfect world...but a perfectly acceptable one. Oh and triple cube..I said grok on another blather. Does that disqualify me, or is that not stupid enough? 020627 ... reitoei dreamers, dreamers. the world sucks and people are all about the ego. whats best for me? the hell with everyone else. and there are a few good reasons: 1. we live under capitalism. capitalism is about comptetition and the individual, not about making everyone else's life better. 2. christianity. sure everyone is a "brother", according to doctrine, but more importantly YOU are in gods image. YOU! which leads to the inflation of the ego and belief that you are the center of the universe. 3. american society in general. everything around us syas that the individual is the most important thing. the army's "army of ONE" campaign. everyone tells you to be successful and ambituous, etc. in japan and the east in general, the society is the most important thing. and the japanese are very polite people. this doesnt come from strict parenting on strong foundations, daf, but from the society itself. until we go away from christianity and capitalism the world will never be this way. 020627 ... cube I meant no disrespect oh Great Leader. I have said many truly stupid things in my time. The comment was meant only in jest. As to 'grok', i knew not what it meant when i first ran across it. I even looked for it in the dictionary - to no avail, of course. But, it has occurred to me that since 'grok' has no definite meaning and the party as yet has no name, that we might call it the Grok_Party. GROK could be an acronym for something yet to be determined... ³ 020628 ... jane it's funny how our minds as human beings need definitions for things...that the word "grok", without definite meaning, surpasses most words, even the ones that seem to hold the most power, like love or hate.. i think the unknown surpasses the defined. 020628 ... Dafremen I always thought flomasexual was a fairly benign term. 020701 ... Dafremen I missed something that reitoei blathered back there. No reitoei, it's not necessarily capitalism that's the root of all evil, nor is it Christianity. Christianity and capitalism are simply externalized, insititutionalized manifestations of internal human desire. It could well have been Socialism and Hindusim You'll find that human desire has shaped just about EVERY type of society, every type of religion. Hindus want to suppress desire in order to escape the cycle of birth and rebirth and it's consequent "suffering". No desire there right? Wrong. What about the desire to be free of the cycle of "suffering"? Communism wants to give everything equally to everyone. Everyone to work equally as hard dependent upon his ability. No desire there right? What about the desire to redistribute the wealth? (Is it only a coincidence that all Communist revolutions were backed by poverty stricken masses?) No reitoei, it isn't about the system. It's not about THEM changing, it's about US changing..you and me. It's not what's out THERE that's stopping the world from becoming a better place. (Tapping head.) It's what's in here... (Pointing at heart) and here. 020815 ... Aimee Hey daffy, Can I be the national therapist? 020815 ... Dafremen The job's yours. Daffy Nation is YOUR nation folks...I'm just trying to get it off the ground...that's all. (Hey, like I said, our group has been together for 3 years now. It could work and there IS no ruler or president or anything. How co0l is THAT sh*t?) Like I said, Daffy_Nation isn't about ME..it's about us all. 021015 ... Dafremen In a Daffy_Nation political double-talk and issue side-stepping will not be tolerated. We do not want to hear why your opponent is an incompetent crook, nor do we want to hear the most attractive of your past accomplishments. No, a Daffy_Nation will demand of you that you tell us what you plan to DO with the power that you ask us for. Don't think for a moment that we'll allow you to deceive us after you've taken office either. No, Mr. Politician, the "sheep" in a Daffy_Nation won't be such easy pickin's for you wolves. The record had better show that you, at every opportunity, at least ATTEMPTED to do just what you told us you would. Cross us and find yourself completing a term of equal length in the office of sewage or sanitation worker, forever banned from tossing your hat in the political ring. Don't get your hopes up though for taking the reins of a Daffy_Nation. We will resist your bloated institutions for as long as our system allows. We will remain in our small communities, united and in-touch with one another, avoiding the temptation to surrender our civic responsibilities and our power to ambitious strangers. For here in a Daffy_Nation, we rather enjoy the feel of holding our destinies in our own hands. 021030 ... Dafremen A man struggles up the three-story ramp that leads to a pedestrian bridge which crosses the Tijuana River. He stops, exhausted, as people file past him one by one and in groups, trying not to look his way. They, like us, are on their way to work. I see the man, see the look on his face and feel his pain and frustration. I'm thankful, so very thankful that I do not bear his burden every moment of every day the way he does. Thankful enough to bear it for just this two and a half-story jog up the ramp. My wife pulls me away as we approach, sensing what I am about to do and embarrassed that I am about to do it, not wanting me to draw attention to us. Before she can stop me, I ask the man.."Would you mind if I helped you?" The man nods his head without looking at me and so I begin to push his wheelchair to the top of the ramp, the missus two steps behind us. At the top, I wish him "Good luck." and, taking the missus' arm, am on my way. Day dawns on another citizen of a Daffy_nation. A man struggles up the three steps, holding a large stroller in his hands. His child appears to be about 4 or so, and the man pulls out the fare for one adult. "How old is the kid?", the bus driver asks. "She's only 4", he responds, "She rides for free doesn't she?" "I'm afraid not", the driver says,"3 and under." The man seems genuinely embarrassed and dismayed. Reaching in his pockets, he pulls out all of his change and comes up 50 cents short. "Anybody got 50 cents?", the man asks, looking around the bus for a good Samaritan to come to his rescue. At first, there appear to be none, only a lot of rubbernecking spectators, and a few embarrassed heads that quickly turn to stare out the windows as if to say, "What? Someone needed help? Oh! Well I must not have been paying attention." I reach into my pockets and pull out a quarter; not enough. I grab a dollar, but by then two more hands have already done what every hand should have done; pulled two quarters out and handed them to the man. "Thanks", he says, paying the driver and taking his seat. Another crime of indifference averted by two honorary citizens of a Daffy_nation. The bricks are few, but they are strong and upon them we will build a future worthy of the human race. That's how you build the foundations of a Daffy_nation, one brick and one act of compassion at a time. 021101 ... Dafremen TAKING_IT_TO_THE_STREETS NOW. Wish me luck. 021101 ... Aimee daffy... before i accept my position.... what else is there for me to do... i don't want to take a position I'm not qualified for, much less a job i do not like, so like, whatever. What doo you think? 021101 ... Dafremen Well, right off the bat, you have to be good to people. That can suck at times, cuz right now they're well conditioned to be indifferent apathetic @ssholes. You'd have to help when you can and teach common deceny by example. That's hard as f*ck. Specially when you keep running into idiots left and right. Course there are perks. Your life gets easier as folks get to know what you're about. (I had a guy stick up for me the other day. Even though I didn't need it, I appreciated it.) The Tribal T-shirts are pretty cool too. (I thought they were worth copyrighting, so I did, but who cares if they get ripped off, that's more exposure for the cause. 8 ) ) On the back they all say: DAFFY NATION it's time for a change. On the front I have a few different things...lemme see there's: born into society and all i got was this crappy t-shirt and YOU DON'T KNOW ME BUT I'M YOUR BROTHER (also comes in a SISTER version) there's also I'VE GOT TRIBAL IMMUNITY DAFFY NATION it's time for a change there's one that just says TRIBAL then there's one that says it's a free society. (so how come noone) gets out alive? one that says THIS MAY SOUND STRANGE BUT CAN I HELP YOU? The Daffy_Nation logo (at this point) is a capuchin monkey wearing a baseball cap backwards and holding a large claw hammer. He's got his tongue slightly sticking out like he's concentrating on something.(A buddy of mine is working on the logo, I'd welcome any other renditions of it.) so I have a T-Shirt that says MONKEY with a HAMMER and there will be one that just has the picture of the monkey with the hammer. (Here's the idea behind the logo: Everyone's always saying "Things suck, but what can we do about it?" The response being "I don't know either, but doing something is better than doing NOTHING. So let's do something.") Those are the perks.. Then there's just knowing that you're doing something to change the world around you. It feels good and I'm having a blast doing it. Well Aimee, I'm not sure if you'll enjoy that job, but there it is. Let me know how it goes. I'm working on scraping up the cash for a domain name and I'll get a website together when I get a chance. Lot of work to do. Lot of changes coming chicklette. My wife is ready to kick my ass. Oh well, there's a world to change...and I'm tired of sitting on my ass talking about changing it. 021102 ... Dafremen "Small minds are the first to condemn great ideas." As the newscast goes into it's caller hour, the anchorman snickers at the "poor schmucks" who give to "drug addicts and alcoholics." His condescending tone is obvious as he makes light of internet charities whose sole purpose is to put dollars in the pockets of unscrupulous individuals. He laughs, but his smile quickly disappears as he begins to answer the calls from the members of a Daffy_Nation, who were NOT amused: Ken - "When I see the guys with the signs on the side of the road, I always stop to offer them a meal. A guy took me up on it once and we went to McDonald's. He sat there with me and together we ate a burger and some fries. During the meal, he told me that he had been to prison and was having a hard time finding anyone that would hire him. As he talked, I couldn't help but notice the stares of the other people in the restaurant. They were looking at me like I was weird or something, but I didn't care. It felt good to help this guy out, it felt good to be looking across at him and not down on him. It felt good to know that I could make a difference in someone's life, and to tell the truth, the whole experience has made a difference in mine." Ruth - "When you give a gift, it's just that, a gift. It's not for me to decide what happens with that money, that is up to the person receiving the gift. If you don't feel comfortable giving, don't give, but don't judge another person's circumstances or their need either and please don't judge those of us who DO give. I feel like we give too little these days and we put each other under a microscope too much. It's easy for people to become defensive and cold when they're constantly being judged and analyzed. I give because I know in my heart that giving is the thing to do and I can walk away from giving believing that I have done good. I just don't think it makes any sense to put the brakes on human compassion and generosity out of fear and suspicion. We have too much of those things in the world already." James - "My Dad was the kind that wouldn't give money, but he wouldn't leave anyone in need either if he could help it. If he saw someone digging out of the garbage, or asking for food, he'd offer them breakfast or lunch or dinner. If he saw someone asking for work, he'd FIND some odd-job or other for them to do. We always thought it was dangerous for him to be inviting strangers to eat, or to work in the yard, but Dad told me something that I never forgot. He said, '999 times out of a thousand, a man who is willing to work for something is not a thief. Thieves want something without working for it. Most people will not hurt a man who has helped them, so don't be afraid of them, help them!' When Dad passed away, I took up his tradition. After 10 years of giving and caring almost every day, I can honestly say that I should have taken it up while he was still alive." Kim - "Whenever I go into the grocery store and there is someone outside asking for food, I always get a little something for them. Maybe a 2 liter bottle of soda or some crackers or something. It isn't much, but that's just what it is to me...not much. To them, it's usually a lot more than that." The members of a Daffy_Nation are all around us. Some are committed to the cause, some are only as devoted as their comfort will allow. Every step away from the shallowness of a society that would have us turn away from one another is a step in the right direction. Individually we can make a difference. Together we will change the world. "Some people find life an empty dream because they put nothing into it." 021126 ... . one nation under a hypocrite 021126 ... Dafremen Hidden digs? Why hide? Is there anything that you have to say anonymously that is worse than what I have admitted to publicly? What POSSIBLE crime is it for you to have spoken your honest opinion? I'm a hypocrite. Fine. There. It's out. Then again, Daffy Nation has nothing to do with me. It isn't under me, and in fact, it's out of my hands. The point you tried to make here is a moot one. It's like saying that Isaac Newton was a womanizer and therefore the Laws of Gravity are horsepuckey. The truth is the truth and the words stand alone. They don't REQUIRE my "sterling reputation" or even that I be a particularly good person. The truth doesn't need my permission. You know that. It doesn't need the support of anyones good name either. So have you succeeded in hurting the cause by engaging in the same politics that are destroying society? No, you have only chosen to side with that outdated way of thinking and you have chosen to do so in anonymity. That is probably more telling than anything I have said here could ever be. Whoever you are, be good to the people around you, even the ones you don't like, or the Dafremen disease grows with you, not in spite of you and regardless of your intentions. Oh, and there is no crime in speaking your mind. So sayeth the hypocrite! : ) 021127 ... . blah blah blah how sincere how insightful 021127 ... Dafremen see also: DAFREMENISM (Maybe that's a better term for the Dafremen disease.) 021127 ... ??????? Shut up, you oversensitive little girl. 021127 ... ??????? Your ideas suck. Trite, goes-without-saying, shopworn idealism. Congratulations on discovering the Golden Rule. Extra congratulations for pretending that a boring restatement of that principle is something new and insightful, and that you can lead people toward the realization of that ideal. You have a special talent for making altruism seem unappealing. 021127 ... Dafremen And here we see the future of society. Anything beautiful must be trampled and stomped on. Anything we don't believe in must be lashed out at. It's just tragic...that's all. 021128 ... Dafremen Fortunately...we can change all of that. : ) 021128 ... . there's nothing beautiful about anything you have to say. it's all tainted. 021128 ... ??????? Beautiful? You're delusional. Nothing so trite or boring as your writing could be beautiful. And I'm only "stomping" on your self-aggrandizing rhetoric, not the nice yet already-stated-a-million-times-over idealism you tout. 021129 ... ??????? And all of your doomsaying about social decay is pure horseshit, and cynical in a way that you pretend to despise. As if we're somehow headed toward a dystopian hellscape of a future because people make fun of you online. 021129 ... Dafremen Or because two boys are willing to walk into a high school and blow away 19 of their classmates? Because an 11 year old girl feels that she needs to engage in sex to fill the void in her life? It isn't cynical to see the decay that is right before your eyes. It's realism. Your decision to stomp on me, and not mention the words and the "idealism" that I "tout" is as telling as you wish that it weren't. Like the evening news, you choose to propagate the negative, focus on the twisted and turn the focus away from the good. You, like so many of us are programmed_for_pessimism. And THAT is a terrible thing. Another mind, another powerful force for good, for change...become little more than a portable speaker that spreads negativity. It makes me even MORE ashamed for what I have done here on blather. 021130 ... *nat* that was really good! made me think. applause for Dafreman 021130 ... ??????? Funny that a Doomsayer should accuse anyone of pessimism. You forgot to mention all those kidnappings that were recently on the news (or maybe even the shark attacks a few summers back). Along with the Columbine shootings, that probably spells the "right-before-our-eyes" demise of our society, right? But still, your inability to distinguish between reality and words on a website is not astounding, but it is stupid. Words on a website are different than killing people. (Unless what you're trying to say is that when people make fun of yo0 online, it pushes you ever closer to your murderous breaking point... but I doubt it). Either way, it's quite a stretch to extrapolate cultural Ragnarok from online rudeness. Am I pessimistic? How would you know? From my words? That violates your pecious intentional fallacy. What anyone writes on this website may or may not have anything to do with the way he/she lives his/her life. Rhetoric is different than action. And didn't I already elucidate your not-so-special idealism? It's the Golden Rule expressed in folksy, made-for-Reader's-Digest aphorisms. From what I see, your Blather-mission is the same as always: self promotion--sometimes through stilted attempts at humor, sometimes through overblown histrionics. 021130 ... ??????? And another thing about the supposed decay of society. We used to kill Indians. We enslaved blacks. We oppressed women. Yeah, those are trite examples, I know... Anyway, this was under the auspices of a more Puritanical society. Thus, people may have been generally more polite back then, and perhaps as a consequence they'd be less willing to "stomp on" your stupid ideas. But there was more persecution and less personal freedom than we enjoy today. And guess what? There was STILL violence and all other forms of human social irresponsibility. I'd say that we've made progress since then. And what of your asserions that cynicism and negativity are increasing? How the flying fuck would you ever quantify such abstract concepts? You'd have to, of course, in order to justify saying that they are increasing. Nevertheless, you can't. All you can do is make observations about the prevalence of cynicism and negativity in the media and in your personal everyday life. And neither of these sources is necessarily an accurate representative sample of the whole. (Personally, it's my hinch that people have always been negative and cynical). And furthermore, I'm not so sure that cynicism and negativity are bad things. (You assume this, of course, because it facilitates your doomsaying). So stop pretending that the decay of society is "right before our eyes". It's right on your TV, but that medium has the potential to warp one's perspective. Who's the pessimist? I say it's you, Daffyman, because there is no clear evidence of pervasive social decay, and your perspective depends on what you want to say. If you want to focus on the negative (like you) then of course you'll espouse an image of modern America as a place of evil and decadence and social irresponsibility. YOUR philosophy is the one most fundamentally pessimistic, I think. Oh, right, I forgot, you've got a messianic "I/you can change it all folx" message tacked on to your pessimism. You could be the savior of mankind. Come on, Daffyman--the world doesn't need your help, so down a stiff shot of getoveryourself and shut the fuck up. 021130 ... Dafremen I think you said it all right there. You are now playing the part of Daffyman. Isn't it ironic? You are now the antagonist and the preacher. You, through the same words that convinced you to engage me, are now percieved as what your words appear to be, much as I was. You are quickly becoming a victim of your own negativity, much as I did. Soon it will become habitual, no matter WHAT your intentions are here. The sadness of pessimism put into practice is here for all to see. Again, I am truly ashamed for my part in this. I should be and am very ashamed. Oh, and thanks nat, it's the open minds and the open eyes out there that will slowly turn this thing around. Hurray for you. 021130 ... ??????? Nope, you got it precisely wrong. I'm not sure about social decay or cynicism. You are. I certainly wouldn't be so arrogant to suggest that I could lead humanity to a new Golden Age of kindness and altruism. It's the arrogance and self-assuredness that annoys me. So no, I haven't become you. 021130 ... ashmanzhou what is is negligable as being not we are therefore we live we see therefore we are and you preach and they listen what you are is not your words they are twisted they are broken what you say and we believe is are different what we see therefore is your extended soul and it is not ours to decieve our own souls but it is yours to steal your own thoughts to break your internal self to share your wisdom and to die wondering while we only see our bleak life as we are i speak for my soul and out of my being i spit on you you spin your words and feel fulfilled you weave your ideas into your soul until it suffocates be realistic but not enlightened as i cannot be for enlightenment will kill your words and one last thing my karma ran over your dogma 030702 ... Dafremen You realize that there's no guarantee that you'll be able to get all of the dogma out of the waffle treads on those Dog_boot_company Monster_Clopper ST's. (Try a wire brush..) 030705 ... ashmanzhou suggestion is as suggestion be well thought my karma be fine for thy metaphorical dog doesn't stain the stain does lie however metaphorical and as thou didst in fact suggest any stain of dogma that doth survive must in all and any semblance be eradicated thou teaching doth rend upon my soul and thou soul doth enternal discover ash where only fields of though shouldst ever have lain doth thou wonder child of the aether that with i do so righteously enjoy to converse why the faith doth exist where nothing can faith however true cannot just as death or life or any mortal coiling reality for in this irreality there is only emotion and emotion doth thou playst this emotion may consequence what cannot be but it itself is not aether cannot support the stain of these semibeings more than canst the world for insuffereably they are false and deception they are deception not be real in reality therefore it is but this emotion without true consequence faith without resolution to be and therefore it is a dead thing 030705 what's it to you? who go blather from