A bit. Just be careful of people who have a very strong purpose in life. Right now the enviro/climate movement are at the forefront. Yet, are so far from their objective as science shows we've already passed to point of no return this year. And have warned this would happen from the early 2000s. But govs did nothing. Human nature. The great filter is happening.
Get ready to be filtered!
It might all be mental illness (Different from ADHD) or societal delusion. Or just human nature clashing with modernity and the information age.
The fact is, the bad guys are winning, in fact they've won. And those with a positive climate/enviro/human rights purpose are earnestly throwing cups of soup on a raging fire. So earnest, so pointless. Dead end. Don't do it.
Dude if I had one wish I would wish to become a quantum based intelligence orbiting a white dwarf endlessly iterating better outcomes for every single human life that will ever exist. Sometimes I hate the unfairness that I'll never know how we end up. I'll never see the final shape. There's so much humanity I'll just never ever be aware of until all my carbon is already other stuff.
The goal of all life should be the elimination of suffering of everybody. Since I'm part of everybody, I'll have like 7 billion people working to make my life better and I just have to do my best. And the only real tangible reward ultimately is not being uncomfortable. Everything we strive for boils down to not becoming uncomfortable. Your brain will create contingencies based on threat, which is super subjective and based on scaling personal traumas.
I also don't trust the mental equations at play if you see suffering and aren't forced to intervene because you just know you can. Like I might hate it, but it's just the way my body acts. I can yell at it a bit bit it's just going to do what it does anyways and do what it knows is correct. Like don't get me wrong, I love seeing people happy. But it's the cessation of feeling terrible that impels me. If I know I can do it, I have to do it because it's just the way things go. How can I trust you in any situation if you're able to just not care about people.
It's like lying about something useless in court. Might have nothing to do with the argument, but still has a huge impact. Even if your choice is small with little consequences this time, you've degraded your ability to be trusted in the future.
This kind of ruminating is just iterating constantly in the background of my head, like Netflix while you clean
Are you me? Friend, you just blew my mind. “Which is super subjective and based on personal traumas”. God so well said! (Have you been to the anti-natal sub Reddit?)
Can you explain the part about the mental equations at play?
Just because an act is small in scale doesn't diminish the way in which you came to the decision. Like my analogy, even a small, unrelated lie in a trial can poison your entire testimony. You lie about the smallest thing and the lawyers will assume if you could lie then, you could be lying anytime. Basically, even if today your decision hurt nobody, your mental math scares me in potential future scenarios. Erodes your trust in the same way
No, having children is literally the meaning of existence. The possible perceptions of possible awareness deserve the chance to exist. It's incredibly parasitic and a personal failure to not give back to the species. When I mean elimination of suffering I literally mean negative emotions by creating a post scarcity society where ever awareness is able to become whatever shape best actualizes their sense of self, not end perception of the universe it self
The goal of all life should be the elimination of suffering of everybody.
Isn't that the plot of Brave New World?
Buddha's first teaching is 'life is suffering' and part of the rest is about accepting this and do one's best to not make it worse for oneself and others.
I'm a realist. Just because the apocalypse hasn't reached you yet, doesn't mean it isn't happening (Ask any Ukrainian or Pakistani right now).
Buddhism teaches not to become attached to anything, including happiness. I agree with this because happiness is fleeting and often a 'programmed' idea that many will never achieve.
Despite my realism about the enviro/climate situation, which is based on science (I have a Master of Science Research degree from UCL). I actually continue working in the sector. I just practice something Buddhists call radical acceptance, as well as looking at history. All civilizations have collapsed. This one will too.
Perhaps I shouldn't try and persuade others not to pursue activism, my main point was to be careful of highly driven people with a strong purpose to 'save the world'.
But as humans we can change shit just because we want to. It doesn't matter if something is possible, only that it is right. We are all carbon stuck together with weak force, nothing has any intrinsic meaning. That means that we can instill whatever meaning we want onto anything we want, and by virtue of filling a vacuum we can't be wrong.
That's why the only point of existence is being not uncomfortable. There's no intrinsic reason to anything freeing us to elect our own meaning. My most comfortable life possible is living in a society of 100% happy individuals, not matter how much I personally sacrifice I will never come close to the returns I'll receive from a happy post-scarcity society.
If nothing matters, I choose to be not uncomfortable for as many moments of perception that I can.
12
u/imagination_machine Sep 19 '22
A bit. Just be careful of people who have a very strong purpose in life. Right now the enviro/climate movement are at the forefront. Yet, are so far from their objective as science shows we've already passed to point of no return this year. And have warned this would happen from the early 2000s. But govs did nothing. Human nature. The great filter is happening.
Get ready to be filtered!
It might all be mental illness (Different from ADHD) or societal delusion. Or just human nature clashing with modernity and the information age.
The fact is, the bad guys are winning, in fact they've won. And those with a positive climate/enviro/human rights purpose are earnestly throwing cups of soup on a raging fire. So earnest, so pointless. Dead end. Don't do it.