Welcome to Gaia! ::

Knowledge without application is entertainment.

So.. here is my question to you.

How can this knowledge be applied to your life to improve its quality?

What exactly do you feel it will do for you.. or anyone else?

This diverts a bit.

Ok. Now you agreed to what I expressed in my questioning.

But before doing so you say that it drives you to seek knowledge beyond what is taught in school... which I guess is your way of saying "finding the real story" or "finding the truth."

Going back to my first post. What is this truth going to do for you?

Not to knock you... but black people in America have this unhealthy obsession with conspiracy theories. They eat the s**t up so easily. I mean.. if it's the truth, it's the truth. Alright. 2 + 2 = 4 .. I got it.

But no one can explain what this new found "truth" allows them to do to better their lives.

On this..

Okay.. the thing about God I understand. My search of knowledge about God has led me to realize that... I really don't give a s**t one way or the other if he exists or not.

On the other hand.. whatever works to make you a better person is what you should stick with.

------ But let's stay off of religion/spirituality. Just sharing how I relate.

And this "no personal identity of culture."

The history of slavery and our struggle in America IS our culture. That's US. We aren't Africans anymore. We have as much in common with a white/asian/hispanic/whatever next door neighbor as we do a black person from Africa now n' days.

I've wondered. But I fail to see how knowing the "truth" of the matter will improve my life even indirectly. Is this about pride? I take pride in who I are from today if that's what acquiring that knowledge is about.

The problem as I see it.. is that black people are too caught up in the "ghost chasing" of some "truth" that isn't going to improve their lives. We are constantly taking our eye off the ball in search of this "truth" all of our "leaders" say we should be after.

Wanna know what improves lives?

Basic knowledge of Math, Reading, Communication, and Economics.

But the thing is without some sort of pride what's going to drive us to get basic knowledge of Math, Reading, Communication. We've been talking about that for decades now with no improvement! What I feel is that if people had some idea of where we come from the accomplishments that black men and women made before slavery that there's no way we'd have let ourselves fall this far.

o.o Slavery is our culture? Slavery had nothing to do with our culture at all. That makes it sound like that's all we are and all we're worth. There isn't a single Black person on this planet that's genetically predestined to be someone else's dog. That's just something we went through in the past.


I mean, all these so called leaders do is talk about what we can do... What I believe is people need the truth, and not the dolled up kind. I mean the ugly gritty nasty truth that shocks the soul and makes them angry enough to actually get out and do something positive with their lives. I'm not talking about any ghosts or conspiracies I'm talking about our History and our heritage proven in science, documents and facts not some phantom.

Let's be real people talk about us bettering ourselves all the time and as soon as you leave that church meeting or whatever it happens to be what do you see? Shamelessness... Fighting, Cursing, selling crack, set trippin, bullying, ignorance... And it's all because no one gives a damn because they don't think they're worth a damn.

Pride starts with the self. All you need comes from within. The only "truth" is inside you.

Here's a "truth" that may need to be distributed. 12 years of highschool isn't necessary. Basic knowledge of those things I just expressed are what's necessary. Because those things solve problems. They solve many immediate problems.

Kids don't not pay attention in school because of lack of pride. They don't pay attention because the information being taught isn't relevant.

Slavery is our culture. Out of slavery came our unique way of doing the things we do. We don't borrow from Africa anymore... Africa borrows from US. It has nothing to do with inferiority or whatever.

Out of the history of our people being slaves comes african-american culture.

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Like I said.. you are born alone.. and you die alone.

You are ultimately responsible for you and yours.

You say we need some "gritty hard truth" .. we've received plenty of lethal doses of it. We've had lots of "truth" hit us in America. So this truth you're talking about finding or that we need to fill us.. the way you talk about it as though it is some hope.. like some religious messiah type stuff.

Again I say... you are born alone and you are going to die alone. When you look in the mirror your reflection is of YOU and no one else.

Truth is personal responsibility.

That's where I disagree, if Pride comes from self we'd be a lot better off. Pride comes from community which a lot of us don't have. And I lack of Pride in school because of personal experience. This is just me guessing but I going out on a limb and guessing that the high school you went to is similar to mine in these areas public, predominately black and teachers that don't care. I've sat next to people in class who somehow got to the twelfth grade and couldn't read or write or do basic math like you said. And they didn't seem to care about being illiterate at all. Relevance doesn't seem to be the issue as much as self respect which the community helps with.


And come on they don't show people the gritty side of the truth. Yes they talk about slavery in school. What they don't talk about is black women being brutally gang banged until exaughstion with their husband forced to watch. Stomping babies out to control populations etc... I mean roots didn't scratch the surface of the horrors and it goes beyond slavery. But the bad stuff isn't just what we need to know but the positive.

You're going to have to go more in depth about what you mean by slavery being our culture because I'm not understanding it. I don't believe in truth as something religious I mean in general intelligence.


If it's all irrelevant then why are we even here, you make it sound as if there is no purpose to life whatsoever. That's a little pessimistic but I'll respect your views. The universe does show us that just because things are what they are doesn't mean we can't change them into something else. In fact the Universe is more so a constant event of changes more than just things being what they are.

Yes it's all readily available but they don't teach that to us in schools. And outside of schools so many of us are so caught up in things that don't matter that we never think to look into them. And you searching for truth in yourself is no different than what I'm doing brotha you're just looking in a different place for it. Like you said you have clear vision of what you want out of life most of us don't and it's like a gaping hole that's filled with drugs, guns and everything else that tears us to pieces in the end.

Like you said you're only worried about you. Maybe I do have a habit of taking other people's problems onto myself, but someone has to give a damn right? I'm not trying to say I'm a saint but someone has to generally care about us right? Because it seems like no one else does not even our own.