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Is this a joke?

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K-Mac

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I think I'm just gonna kid myself and pretend this isn't real. :lol:

http://www.30hourfamine.org/

No it's quite real Kelly. My daughter participated for two years in a row through her school, but it was more of a school sanctioned social event and sleep-over than it was anything else.

I'm pretty sure that my daughter knows it too.

My feelings toward the whole thing are rather neutral. These people are not demanding my money, the participants solicit donations, I'm free not to give, they are free to waste their time anyway they see fit.

At the end of the day through work and practical use of my time, I will most likely be the person they will end up cursing from some dreary protest line as I cruise by in my Hummer H3.

I will laugh. B)

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At the end of the day through work and practical use of my time, I will most likely be the person they will end up cursing from some dreary protest line as I cruise by in my Hummer H3.

I will laugh. B)

I love it! :lol:

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I think I'm just gonna kid myself and pretend this isn't real. :lol:

I don't see whay you should. After all, the organizers and participants already pretend enough.

These kinds of things raise symbolic acts to the level of real actions. That's enough of an evasion, don't you think? It's like wearing and AIDS ribbon or a yellow rubber bracelet. What does it accomplish beyond adornment?

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The 30 hour famine is real. It was popular when I was a kid. I don't know if it is now though. The idea is to raise money for starving kids in other countries. It isn't a real famine though. You are allowed the food that sponsors the event, but only that food. At least it was like that in NZ when I was a kid.

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The 30 hour famine is real. It was popular when I was a kid. I don't know if it is now though. The idea is to raise money for starving kids in other countries. It isn't a real famine though. You are allowed the food that sponsors the event, but only that food. At least it was like that in NZ when I was a kid.

Sort of like the "rolling hunger strike" Mama Sheehan and her followers staged a couple of years ago, I imagine. They struck, if that's the right word, in turns of 24 hours or so. That's a fast, not a hunger strike. And they allowed themselves liquids while they fasted. Things like fruit juice and such, not just water.

As I said, they use symbolic acts as substitutes fro real action. Unless they use a symbolic act to sub for a real symbolic act to sub for real action (if any of that makes sense, why the hell does it? :lol: )

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Sort of like the "rolling hunger strike" Mama Sheehan and her followers staged a couple of years ago, I imagine. They struck, if that's the right word, in turns of 24 hours or so. That's a fast, not a hunger strike. And they allowed themselves liquids while they fasted. Things like fruit juice and such, not just water.

As I said, they use symbolic acts as substitutes fro real action. Unless they use a symbolic act to sub for a real symbolic act to sub for real action (if any of that makes sense, why the hell does it? :lol: )

Fruit juice, barley sugar lollies and Weet-Bix were all allowed when my school was trying to get kids to do it. Fruit may also of been allowed.

With the added benefit of exposing young children to the wonderful world of anorexia and other eating disorders.

Well, the way it was done here when I was a kid didn't do that since Weet-Bix and Barley sugars were allowed. However, it did inhtroduce kids to an unbalanced diet for 30 hours, which could be arguably as bad.

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Only 30 hour? WIMPS! Back in MY day as a kid it was the 40-Hour Famine. DM is right - back then, kids weren't allowed ANY food at all, only water and a few bits of simple candy for energy so the kids wouldn't faint. DM is in NZ, and I am not sure about the weetbix allowance in Australia, mind.

It's not just general altruism, it's actually a religious project. Then as today it was really about christian propaganda, both to inculcate the kids in holier-than-thou self-sacrifice and to fund proselytisation projects in starving countries. The "leadership" link even says so (that's as far as I went in checking it out). I never took part, and my parents were dead-set against it for the right reasons, but the fact that it was run by Catholic charities (at least here) did play a part in that.

Now that I think on it, you guys in the US can make a pretty good case that public schools should not be touching this religious thing with a barge pole. Private schools can of course do what they like.

JJM

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It's not just general altruism, it's actually a religious project. Then as today it was really about christian propaganda, both to inculcate the kids in holier-than-thou self-sacrifice and to fund proselytisation projects in starving countries. The "leadership" link even says so (that's as far as I went in checking it out).

Yes, I saw that. Not eating apparently brings you closer to God. I wonder if you could achieve the same result by not shitting?

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Yes, I saw that. Not eating apparently brings you closer to God. I wonder if you could achieve the same result by not shitting?

As a matter of fact...

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Only 30 hour? WIMPS! Back in MY day as a kid it was the 40-Hour Famine. DM is right - back then, kids weren't allowed ANY food at all, only water and a few bits of simple candy for energy so the kids wouldn't faint. DM is in NZ, and I am not sure about the weetbix allowance in Australia, mind.

Oh, yes, it was too 40 hours back then. I forgot. Thanks for reminding me. However, kids in NZ were allowed more than "only water and a few bits of simple candy for energy so the kids wouldn't faint." They were allowed Weet-Bix (it is a brand, so it is capital W and B :devil: ), Just Juice, a particular brand of barley sugars, water, and a few other things.

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Yes, I saw that. Not eating apparently brings you closer to God.

They should try not breathing for 30 hours, that'll bring you REAL close to God.

Sounds like their following in Mother Teresa's footsteps. She also believed that suffering brings you closer to God and for that reason she spent time around the horribly sick and hungry. Of course, also for that reason, she purposely kept them suffering by making their living conditions just enough for them to survive.

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Well, "suffering" causes your body to switch to survival modes, i.e. you are getting "high". Examples are sport, fasting, continous dancing (especially rotating), pain, continous singing ("OM") etc. Most religions have such a drug related ritual / custom, sometimes they even use psychedelic drugs directly.

And if you are "high" people think it is some religious experience bringing them near to "god" (psychosis, halluzinations, voices etc.)

In that context it makes perfect sense. If you worship things that don't exist getting high is the way to go. :D

Edited by Clawg
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My experience of the 40-Hour famine was kids running around the halls of school throwing Gatorade at each other. Fun times. But this also brings to mind the fact that, even then, I thought the whole idea was stupid. What incentive does simulated child starvation offer to potential donors?

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What incentive does simulated child starvation offer to potential donors?

Unearned guilt - at least insofar as the donors are concerned.

It is not the donors and what is done with the funds that the system has as the primary aim - that is conditioning the kids.

JJM

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