@Xian the more you learn the better and in order to learn one must have curiosity. Learning is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Xian the more you learn the better and in order to learn one must have curiosity. Learning is a good thing, not a bad thing.Yeah I'm gonna have to say no. The more you learn the more you get your heart broken or your world shattered. I can honestly say that I would have been better off without questioning the things I learned growing up. Would have been easier, rather than now where I don't know what to believe or who is right. Learning is a curse, not a blessing.
“Knowledge is cruel, it will break your heart and test your allegiances. Are you certain you want this curse?”
@Xian You know there was a time, maybe 20 years ago now, that I was struggling with losing my religion and Valerie Tarico, a dear friend of mine who also wrote the book “Trusting Doubt”, hooked me up Marlene Winell. I think Marlene could be of help to you. I was glad to have the curse of religion broken, but dealing with the trauma religion caused me hurt more. That and fear of others who still believed. I had the trauma from my religious experience too and maybe you might not think you had trauma from it, but she could still help you. http://marlenewinell.net/ and https://journeyfree.org/ She helped me and it’s really not as bad as you may think. You can get through this and Marlene doesn’t judge people if they go back to religion or work through their struggles to become non-religious, secular, humanist, non-theist, or whatever. While my story is different from yours and most likely the experience too, I use to be a really angry and depressed over what the Xians in my life did in the name of religion/God, but Marlene was a lot of help and helped me with things other therapists didn’t know how to help with. I still have some anger and it probably won’t entirely go away, but it’s not like it use to be and I’m not stuck like I was. I highly recommend Marlene. Check her out and if you decide you want to reach out to her, her contact info is there somewhere on her site.
Yeah I wish it was as easy as religion. But that’s not what I mean. That’s small potatoes compared to what I am talking about. I got over leaving the church far easier than this. As I have said, the more I learned the more I got my heart broken again and again. One was learning that the US wasn’t as great as I thought it was, the other was looking at how an economic system I thought was good can cause so much suffering and create so much inequality, or how people seem to have forgotten that there is only one planet. Or learning that what I thought to be fundamental and obvious about existence really isn’t so, and that some people labeled “crazy” are possibly people who went against the status quo, or that culture can limit us and our self expression. I can go on.
So no, you don’t get it when I say I was better off not learning or reading anything. My bubble is better than this.
If your heart is broken over how humans treat the planet or upset over government, get active, get involved to help make change. It will be hard work, but when that change is made, it feels great. One doesn’t have to be sad, bummed, depressed about things all the time. When the weather is good, go for a walk on a nature trail. There are ways to not feel as bad about it all and some involve getting out and doing something to make things better or at least getting out in nature. There are a lot of things you can do to not feel as heartbroken. I helped campaign for President Obama- went door to door, made phone calls, etc. It was hard work, even had a couple threats to my well-being, but in the end, it felt so damn good to help make history. I felt as though I wasn’t just telling my sons that they could be anything they wanted, despite being 1/2 black, I was showing them. Now of course it all came crashing down when the dotard took over the Big House, but I still want to believe we can change things for the better, despite the horrid orange creature, who is stupider than anything on this planet. You don’t have to feel as heartbroken about it all all the time. Ignorance is not bliss and personally, I really hate seeing ignorance which is what this country is heading too and that’s horrid thing to me.
@Mriana It’s all BS and most of those alleged ideals are airbrushing and not real. No one can reach the ideal and to even try could kill you. I wouldn’t worry about a young face- you’ll appreciate it more when you’re older.Hell as the years start adding up seems to me the young babes keep increasing, I mean, visit my doctors office and they all look like high school students to me, though I know the docs are in their thirties and forties. The counter help looks like junior high students. Go to the bank or county government building, same thing, most of them look like kids behind the counter, but turns out they are trained educated young adults.
Go figure.
I gotta wonder is it them or is it me.
My bet is that it’s my aging perceptions.
Same as it ever was.
@Xain. True, but teen girls are pure of heart. They don’t have wiles of grown women.You make me laugh. You are a young one, aren't you. Don't kid yourself, girls start grooming their wiles starting at about two or three. They don't become little princesses for nothing.
I would have been far happier in my bubble.Seems to me that helps explain the rise of fundamental religious obsessions and trumpism - it's so cozy in the bubble.
As I have said, the more I learned the more I got my heart broken again and again. One was learning that the US wasn’t as great as I thought it was, the other was looking at how an economic system I thought was good can cause so much suffering and create so much inequality, or how people seem to have forgotten that there is only one planet.That’s really interesting Xain. Thanks for letting us know that about you. It’s something I’ve seen when people shift their politics or beliefs to more extremes. They spend some time learning that the world is a certain way, then they find out they were wrong about it. Atheists see this when someone leaves church and they’re angry about it. I think it’s similar to the phenomenon of what people experience after an earthquake. They literally learn that the earth below their feet is not solid.
I understand the reaction, but I don’t understand how you sustain it. For me, I had questioned authority from as soon as they were teaching their lies about Columbus and how laws are made. It was much later that I saw bad science being used to talk about vaccines and GMOs. I didn’t like it when the people that I agreed with in principle were making bad arguments. Now there are bad arguments everywhere and people are saying you need to hate some people so we can have a more loving planet. So, yeah, my heart is troubled all the time. But bad arguments are not defeated with a philosophy that says to shut off your emotions and be indifferent to the world. Bad arguments are defeated by better arguments that use basic facts about what it is to be human and the nature of the universe.
Lausten, that makes sense to me, from my perspective.
@ Xain. Yeah I wish it was as easy as religion. But that’s not what I mean. That’s small potatoes compared to what I am talking about. I got over leaving the church far easier than this. As I have said, the more I learned the more I got my heart broken again and again. One was learning that the US wasn’t as great as I thought it was, the other was looking at how an economic system I thought was good can cause so much suffering and create so much inequality, or how people seem to have forgotten that there is only one planet. Or learning that what I thought to be fundamental and obvious about existence really isn’t so, and that some people labeled “crazy” are possibly people who went against the status quo, or that culture can limit us and our self expression. I can go on.So no, you don’t get it when I say I was better off not learning or reading anything. My bubble is better than this.
February 14, 2020 at 7:00 am #322064@ Mriana If your heart is broken over how humans treat the planet or upset over government, get active, get involved to help make change. It will be hard work, but when that change is made, it feels great. One doesn’t have to be sad, bummed, depressed about things all the time. When the weather is good, go for a walk on a nature trail. There are ways to not feel as bad about it all and some involve getting out and doing something to make things better or at least getting out in nature. There are a lot of things you can do to not feel as heartbroken. …
You don’t have to feel as heartbroken about it all all the time. Ignorance is not bliss and personally, I really hate seeing ignorance which is what this country is heading too and that’s horrid thing to me.
You know Mriana, the thing about Xain’s chronic crisis, is that it’s a sign of the times, and it’s infection rate will sky rocket as the next couple decades drives home the fact of our wanton destruction of our global life support system.
Young kids don’t have a future anymore - you can’t go out and hitchhike across the country picking up a job here and there, then moving on without a worry. Meeting good people and weird people within a social fabric where you felt relatively safe.
Now everyone is scared and angry and an outsider tramping through is a threat to be despised by most everyone. Worst there are no more new frontiers for the disaffected to escape to and make a new start. So humanity’s eternal escape valve kaput and our children are holding the bag. But we so desperately need of something that we’re spending millions, billion on the delusion of sending pioneers to Mars, a barren f’n rock, while destroying the most fantastical cornucopia we have here on our very own, very unique home planet. People can be such utter idiot assholes. Yeah, without a strong inner counterweight of character, today’s realities will be eating up ever more sensitive thoughtful human spirits.
Now with the resurgence of the politics of hate and marginalizing the despised “other” there’s even less inspirations for optimism let alone cooperation. Where do we go from here.
If your heart is broken over how humans treat the planet or upset over government, get active, get involved to help make change. It will be hard work, but when that change is made, it feels great. One doesn’t have to be sad, bummed, depressed about things all the time. When the weather is good, go for a walk on a nature trail. There are ways to not feel as bad about it all and some involve getting out and doing something to make things better or at least getting out in nature. There are a lot of things you can do to not feel as heartbroken. I helped campaign for President Obama- went door to door, made phone calls, etc. It was hard work, even had a couple threats to my well-being, but in the end, it felt so damn good to help make history. I felt as though I wasn’t just telling my sons that they could be anything they wanted, despite being 1/2 black, I was showing them. Now of course it all came crashing down when the dotard took over the Big House, but I still want to believe we can change things for the better, despite the horrid orange creature, who is stupider than anything on this planet. You don’t have to feel as heartbroken about it all all the time. Ignorance is not bliss and personally, I really hate seeing ignorance which is what this country is heading too and that’s horrid thing to me.Ignorance is bliss because then I wouldn’t have know about all the horrible stuff going on or have my foundational assumptions about truth and reality challenged. I would have continued to live in my bubble, in bliss and unaware of the terrible awful things. Ever sociology class I take is essentially “america sucks” and looking back at American history I’m finding it hard to justify the “greatest country” rhetoric. I look back at the sixties and think something truly great could have happened but everyone focused on all these crazy cults rather than legitimate criticisms of the culture and alternative living methods. A chance for change ruined.
If the Weather Underground didn’t accomplish change by bombing government buildings then what hope is there for us today? War is essentially sanctioned Murder but people don’t bat an eye and have the gall to say people on “the other side” deserve it.
Even when I try to tell my parents and others they just shrug or move on. People DO NOT CARE. The ones that do are made to look crazy for daring to suggest that our great society ain’t that great and the insanity continues. It’s like people forget that the world is connected. That none of this would have existed without the concerted effort of man, and yet people dare to proclaim themselves self made men. There is no such thing for none of this was done by one person.
I can go on but I’ll get too upset and heartbroken. I used to have hope in the decency of humanity and think people couldn’t really be that bad or stupid. But considering the rise in flat earth, anti vax, and life that nonsense I can’t justify it anymore. Humanity doesn’t know what’s good for it anymore, they just want more of the same.
So no, you…don’t…get…it. I would have been better off not knowing or being curious:
I knew you’d offer me an introduction and excuse for sharing this,
enjoy
Ignorance is blissSeems your plenty ignorant still
I’m finding it hard to justify the “greatest country” rhetoric.Because it’s rhetoric, this is pretty well known. You’d could find lots of people to relate to on that one.
If the Weather Underground didn’t accomplish change by bombing government buildings then what hope is there for us today?Okay, that’s just dumb. Especially since you go on to say war is bad.
War is essentially sanctioned Murder but people don’t bat an eyeYou just talked about the 60’s. What did they do? Protest war. There’s lots of eye batting going on. It’s your lack of consistent thinking that is the problem.
People DO NOT CARE.Said the guy who wants to live in a bubble of ignorance!!!!
It’s like people forget that the world is connected.I thought it was meaningless?
I used to have hope in the decency of humanityDo you think you are the only decent person in the world? Then how did you learn decency?
Video unavailable
I learned decency mostly through Buddhism. Parts of it taking about how we don’t really see the full person before us but the stories about them and that blocks us from really seeing them. The rest I came up with on my own when I would think to myself as a kid. Though it was hard to get anyone on board with a lot of it.
And if I’m being honest I don’t want to believe in nihilism but I don’t have an good argument against it. It was hard to grapple with life having no objective meaning and personally making meaning “because I say so” felt cheap. Like everything else I have read I don’t have an argument against it and end up buying into it.
You are weak to ignore your strengths.
You are weak to ignore your strengthsAnything besides a pithy saying or vagueness?
@citizenschallengev3 Well, no and yes. My grandparents still saw my parents and others their age as being kids, even called them kids, as kids, we saw our parents looking like adults and mature. Then we got to be 20-ish and while still not mature, we didn’t see ourselves as kids, but our parents and their age group were old. We grew up our parents still saw us as kids, but we didn’t get it, because were adults, but we didn’t see things through their eyes. We had kids, they grew up and while our parents really aged, our adult children and their friends still looked like kids to us and we became old to them, YET those 20-something kids are the same age our parents were when we saw them as mature adults when we were kids. Twenty-something kids do not look to us like our parents did in their 20s (note, my mother was 21 and my father 20 when I was born, thus when I was 7, their 28 and 27 years didn’t look to me as my 28 and 30 year old sons look to me now). However, my parents high school pictures look more mature than I did or my sons did in high school. Better nutrition? People don’t grow up as fast as they did when our parents were in school? Or do mom and dad look like our mom and dad to us in high school? So that’s where the yes and no comes in. Yes, it’s you in that those younger than you will always be the same age your children and those who are you parents’ age will always look like parental figures, even though when you were little the perception of age was different. No, in that the rate of growth and maturity has changed due to nutrition and how fast we let our kids grow up and go off into the world now days. Use to be, kids left home shortly after graduating high school with jobs that allowed them to support themselves, then eventually, if not sooner, a wife and kids. Now, our kids stay home with us or we support them until at least 21 oe 22 or when they finish college, whichever comes first, then they get jobs and go out on their own. While we are raising them today they (hopefully) get better nutrition than in the 60s and prior (no pablum for Millenials and Gen Z’s), as well as more vaccinations than in the 60s and 70s and many even grow and extra inch after they leave high school and before they are 22 years old.
Not sure if that makes any sense, but with better health care and nutrition, and less expectations to get a job and raise a family right out of high school, kids don’t mature as fast as our parents and grandparents did, but at the same time, our babies will always be our babies no matter how old they and we get- that last never changes with the generations.
@Xian
Ignorance is bliss because then I wouldn’t have know about all the horrible stuff going on or have my foundational assumptions about truth and reality challenged.
You’ve just described Evangelical Fundamentalism, as well as Trumpism. Those who are not one or both of those things, do care. They care about the environment, Climate Change, other animals, humans, etc. The further one gets from religion, especially religious extremism, it seems to me the more people care.