Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded • Hacker News Board

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#21

Post by burke » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:05 PM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #17

sjclemmy wrote: post #16

It's odd, the world is the safest and most stable that it has ever been. There has never been a better time to be a human being, and yet, the media and certain politicians would have you believe that there is disaster after disaster, terrorist plots afoot around every corner, feeding your fear day after day. If ever there was an example of the devil at work, then that's it(and I'm not even religious). Uncertainty abo…

If you are rich and already in the top class, then maybe. But it's not terribly good for the middle class.

It may not be as good as it was 50 years ago, but there's a case to be made that it's nearly as good as it ever was prior to 1900.

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#22

Post by sjclemmy » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:05 PM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #17

sjclemmy wrote: post #16

It's odd, the world is the safest and most stable that it has ever been. There has never been a better time to be a human being, and yet, the media and certain politicians would have you believe that there is disaster after disaster, terrorist plots afoot around every corner, feeding your fear day after day. If ever there was an example of the devil at work, then that's it(and I'm not even religious). Uncertainty abo…

If you are rich and already in the top class, then maybe. But it's not terribly good for the middle class.

Yet you have enough food, shelter, health. My comparison is about the whole of human history.

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#23

Post by brightball » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:08 PM UTC

Kenji wrote: post #13

And although all the world’s major faiths teach love That's not what I see when I look into the holy books. Let's be frank here, faith and religion are still the tools to turn ordinary people into genocidal maniacs.

sigh

Which "holy books"?

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#24

Post by sbov » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:09 PM UTC

burke wrote: post #21

shp0ngle wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are rich and already in the top class, then maybe. But it's not terribly good for the middle class.

It may not be as good as it was 50 years ago, but there's a case to be made that it's nearly as good as it ever was prior to 1900.

> It may not be as good as it was 50 years ago

If you're a white male.

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#25

Post by hosh » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:09 PM UTC

dschiptsov wrote: post #20

That's gross oversimplification for western amateur audiences. His Holiness is trying to speak the language of common western consumer. Behind our anxiety is ignorance. Period. Ignorance is described as a veil that obscures the view of what is from so-called primordial awareness or Atman, if you wish - the aspect of the whole (Brahman) in us. (The Buddha explicitly rejected the notion of Atman, but numerous later Ind…

I agree. Hard not to when practicing insight leads to those same conclusions.

Having said that, I think this perspective is worth examining. I usually find an example of the emotional energy and start probing it to see if it holds up -- that is to say, do I really sense a fear whose encoded story is 'to not be needed'? How does that flow? Maybe it is there and maybe it isn't.

This is a different perspective, also interesting and worth examining: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-on...

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#26

Post by lifeisstillgood » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:10 PM UTC

shp0ngle wrote: post #17

sjclemmy wrote: post #16

It's odd, the world is the safest and most stable that it has ever been. There has never been a better time to be a human being, and yet, the media and certain politicians would have you believe that there is disaster after disaster, terrorist plots afoot around every corner, feeding your fear day after day. If ever there was an example of the devil at work, then that's it(and I'm not even religious). Uncertainty abo…

If you are rich and already in the top class, then maybe. But it's not terribly good for the middle class.

But it is terribly, terribly good for the middle class.

Penicillin, socialised medicine, low violent crime rates (#), no need to hunt our food, no need to build our own shelters or rub sticks together to make fire.

The finest actors of this and past generations wait for me in my living room while I pee, something that past kings could not even achieve, I travel vast continents in the time it takes for a long sleep, I was the first of my father's line to go to University as a youth. As a consequence I can read and write (almost coherent sentences). The energy I consume per day would be equal to 40 slaves but I enslave no-one (directly) [##]

Maybe we can make an argument that for the current white western male middle class, it is not as good as it was 50 years ago, but perhaps Frank Sinatra would like an iPhone, or modern throat surgery? I do know Sammy Davis Jr would prefer the Civil Rights he would enjoy in Vegas today than in the 50s.

Compared to only a hundred and fifty years ago we are amazingly better off in every measurable way, compared to a thousand its almost shameful. If that does not make us happy, that's a different issue. After all we were only promised the pursuit of happiness.

[#] See Steven Pinkers "Better Angels of our nature"

[##] See Prof. David Mackay - http://www.inference.eng.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/book/tex/sewt...

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#27

Post by J_eastburn » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:12 PM UTC

sjclemmy wrote: post #16

It's odd, the world is the safest and most stable that it has ever been. There has never been a better time to be a human being, and yet, the media and certain politicians would have you believe that there is disaster after disaster, terrorist plots afoot around every corner, feeding your fear day after day. If ever there was an example of the devil at work, then that's it(and I'm not even religious). Uncertainty abo…

Likely a result of their need to be needed. In a world in which fewer bad things happen and people are bored by the mundane goodness of daily life, why wouldn't a news organization seek those stories 24 hours a day?

I think we blame "the media" as if the people doing it are bad, ignoring the real structural challenges to being positive.

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#28

Post by narrator » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:13 PM UTC

sjclemmy wrote: post #16

It's odd, the world is the safest and most stable that it has ever been. There has never been a better time to be a human being, and yet, the media and certain politicians would have you believe that there is disaster after disaster, terrorist plots afoot around every corner, feeding your fear day after day. If ever there was an example of the devil at work, then that's it(and I'm not even religious). Uncertainty abo…

I was in Paris a little while ago and people were saying that Americans were canceling because of fear of terrorism because of the recent attacks. That just shows that Americans can't do math, because they have far higher odds of getting in a fatal car accident on vacation then being victims of terrorism. The probability of being a victim of terrorism in France is truly negligible.

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#29

Post by sjclemmy » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:13 PM UTC

burke wrote: post #21

shp0ngle wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are rich and already in the top class, then maybe. But it's not terribly good for the middle class.

It may not be as good as it was 50 years ago, but there's a case to be made that it's nearly as good as it ever was prior to 1900.

It's better in every way. Racism, sexism, apartheid, LGBT, corporal punishment...

Re: Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded

#30

Post by kamac » Fri, Nov 04, 2016, 6:13 PM UTC

sjclemmy wrote: post #16

It's odd, the world is the safest and most stable that it has ever been. There has never been a better time to be a human being, and yet, the media and certain politicians would have you believe that there is disaster after disaster, terrorist plots afoot around every corner, feeding your fear day after day. If ever there was an example of the devil at work, then that's it(and I'm not even religious). Uncertainty abo…

> There has never been a better time to be a human being, and yet, the media and certain politicians would have you believe that there is disaster after disaster, terrorist plots afoot around every corner, feeding your fear day after day

Could you point me to a quote from the article that tries to make us believe that there is a disaster after disaster?

As far as I know, the article seems to have an objective opinion. It mentions that it's bad, but it's much better than it used to be. Which is basically your point.

Or was your opinion unrelated to the article?