Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse

[Thorn]

While they do not state Zombies specifically we all know that's what it is about ;)

Amazingly true and mysterious story.

Source: http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_guidestones

[AcesandEights]

Hey Thorn.

I think that article is currently down. I kept getting page errors all the way back at each extension till I got to just wired.com, which loaded without problem. After searching for it using the term 'monumental' I found a listing for it, but that link wouldn't load either.

[DawnGirl27]

Link must be up and working again as I was able to read the article. Very intriguing - all the precise work that went into the planning so that everything was aligned just perfectly like that...
Excellent find, Thorn! I found the zombie reference near the end, and of course, like you said, we all know that has to be the kind of apocolypse the stones are referring to.... ;)

[AcesandEights]

Link must be up and working again as I was able to read the article.

Yup, worked me for this time. Reading now in my spare time at the office...

[EvilNed]

Excellent article! I loved it. Very mysterious story... Doesn't bode well, but hey. I'm not the kinda guy who believes in such things. It's just somewhat of a creepy story.

[Wyldwraith]

Know what bothers me?

Every time ANYONE does ANYTHING that garners significant public interest unrelated to the tenets of the faith and its denominations, there's always some extremist element of so-called Christians who react with a cookie-cutter form of ignorant intolerance whose sole accomplishment is to make Christianity as a whole look like a haven for zealots and nutjobs.

That really makes me angry. As someone who believes/has faith in God and Jesus, and maintains a spiritual relationship with both, I'm always deeply disgusted and disappointed by that kind of behavior. Actions like the ones taken by the Guidestone vandals and those raising an outcry against them paint EVERYONE of faith with the same tar brush that should be reserved for these whackos.

It's ironic really. When the forces of Evil do decide to move on to the overtly violent and oppressive part of their plans and go after Christianity, it's going to be SO EASY to turn the vast majority of people against anyone associated with the faith. Decent, honorable and INNOCENT people will pay a horrible price for the moronic actions and sound-bytes of these zealots.

Leave the monument be. What's on it is GOOD ADVICE. As for the whole five hundred million population cap. Notice it says to MAINTAIN that level. NOT REDUCE TO that level. The individual(s) who came up with the text to be inscribed on the rock were obviously expecting a time to come to pass when there would be far less than that many surviving humans on Earth. All they're saying is to learn from and avoid the problems that massive overpopulation has caused.

What's so wrong with that?

[Thorn]

Really good observations guys.

So much effort had to go into the planning of it, so many intelligent minds it is astounding to me. The fact that in today's day and age it still remains a mystery also boggles the mind.

For those who did not catch it (myself included on my first read through) here is the original article with a lot more information, and a ton more pictures. The mission statement of the group is much easier to follow.

http://www.wired.com/images/multimedia/magazine/1705/Wired_May_2009_Georgia_Guidestones.pdf

[Skold]

Holy crap! i live in Athens (which is mentioned in the article and very close) and have never heard about this. i'm going down there this weekend or next now.

[sgrosse]

I grew in Atlanta Ga and I have known about this for some time. I think the first time I ever went there was back in 97-98?. Great place. Elberton is a small little town and there isnt much there or at least there wasnt back when I last went there. Over all the trip up there is great and the site its self is awsome.

There is one thing about these stones. One of the laws was to keep the population at 500,000,000. Thats one heck of an apocalypse in order for that to happen. And even if the population gets down to that level, in order to keep it there you either have to force birth control methods(forced abortions or steralization) or they will have to off people just to keep the amount at that level. If that is the case it pretty much negates the rest of the tenants on the stones and it wouldnt be a place I would like to live in. Of course if something were to happen that would reduce the worlds population that low, I dont think I nor any of us would be here to worry about it. Zombiehood here I come.

[Wyldwraith]

Well,
Something that's been a social ill on almost every continent is the complete lack of societal discipline when it comes to treating procreation with the deadly seriousness it's due. I'm NOT however talking about some pro-life or pro-choice methodology.

Every so-called "civilized" society on Earth condemns murder, theft, torture, child abuse and a host of other antisocial acts. So how can we blithely ignore the fact that when a child slips through the cracks of their society that they either end up dead or as predators themselves? Many of society's ills can at their roots be traced to the simple breakdown in rationality that occurs when two people create a new life they're unable to provide for, and then take no responsibility for getting that new life into the hands of people who could provide for it.

What do we have instead? The undeveloped nations breed at an incredible rate to create more sources of unpaid labor, or more fodder for "revolutionary armies", and the developed nations pass the buck to undermanned, underfunded and overwhelmed forms of Social Services/Children's Protective Service to deal with the hordes of children generated by people living at subsistence-level and well below the poverty line.

However, anytime someone tries to assertively point out facts like these and say we should do something to stop it, they're accused of everything from being simple elitists to extremist zealot supporters of eugenics. In our politically correct world that backlash invariably prevents any action from being taken.

I'll come out and say it: I do NOT believe that individuals have the right to create new individuals they have no capacity to care for, and no plan to find such a child a support network capable of providing that care, other than to have child after child taken from them and placed in foster homes, that are at the VERY BEST a tremendous drain on the nation's revenues.

IMO, if you have conclusively proven an unwillingness to take responsibility for your reproductive capacity to such an extent that the children you create become a burden for society to provide for, then yes, active measures should be taken to prevent those individual(s) from doing so again. However, people do change, so extreme and permanent revocation of reproductive capability is unjust as well.

So split the difference. If a woman has had one or more children seized because she was deemed to be unfit then mandatory contraceptive implants should be court ordered. If a guy is a proven deadbeat dad, yes, force a vasectomy on him (can be reversed these days). That way if the individual changes their circumstances they can regain the privilege they forfeited by making their irresponsibility society's burden and problem.

Overpopulation is a major evil. The Guidestones are simply taking a very basic Improve-the-Foundation sort of view in their tenets.