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

nytimes.com

31–40 of 278 posts

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

#31
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Yes, and despite the best efforts of the Dali Lama, who favors "traditional roles" for women, and is opposed to same-sex marriage.

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

#32
I have asked almost everyone I know if they have a subscription to:

nytimes.com wsj.com forbes.com

Guess what? I don't even have any minor acquaintances with subscriptions to these sites.

So how come every single aggregator that I visit has articles from these sites commonly among the top and featured positions?

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

#33

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.

If you are rich and already in the middle class, then maybe. But it's not terribly good for the poor class. ... Don't let wealth create unneeded divides. When you enter the mindset of "us vs. them" you will always be unhappy. Edit: I grew up in a very poor community and our family yearly income was well under the poverty line (20,209 in Canada). The middle class has always been the richest people in the world for me.…

While I agree you should try to be content with what you have, there's nothing wrong with aspiring to more. The middle class is being eroded away leaving us with a much larger group of have nots, and an increasingly hard to enter group of haves.

I wouldn't have a problem with this except a lot of the haves are in that group via genetic lottery, nothing that they actually did or earned.

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

#34
For as prolific as he is, the Dalai Lama doesn't pop up on my radar much. But here he is in the NY Times opinion pages sharing monism.

This speaks to a broader human truth: We all need to be needed.

There's an old but relevant perspective on life. We value ourselves by how much we can contribute to the lives of others.

Still though, I'm left wondering, what combination of forces summed up to this particular writing crossing my path?

Leaders need to recognize that a compassionate society must create a wealth of opportunities for meaningful work

Oh, there it is. A message about the importance interpersonal relationships to self worth is co-opted and reduced to nothing more than calling on the government to make sure everyone is feeding their 40 hours into the system.

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

#35

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're referring to safety from physical harm you're correct. But I'd argue that the erosion of many social safety nets has left a lot of people less economically secure.

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

#36
post #21

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.

With few exceptions, human life is better in 2016 than in 1966.

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

#37

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're referring to safety from physical harm you're correct. But I'd argue that the erosion of many social safety nets has left a lot of people less economically secure.

But "economic security" as relative to their peers at this time is very different from the worst case for all their ancestors. Perhaps even the worst off are much better off now.

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

#38

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're referring to safety from physical harm you're correct. But I'd argue that the erosion of many social safety nets has left a lot of people less economically secure.

In a comment thread on a forum I am offering a non-nuanced binary view.

How economically secure does a hunter gatherer or subsistence farmer feel, with no medicine, lots of superstitious practices and complete dependence on the crops/weather... etc.

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

#39

For as prolific as he is, the Dalai Lama doesn't pop up on my radar much. But here he is in the NY Times opinion pages sharing monism. This speaks to a broader human truth: We all need to be needed. There's an old but relevant perspective on life. We value ourselves by how much we can contribute to the lives of others. Still though, I'm left wondering, what combination of forces summed up to this particular writing c…

"Feeding their 40 hours into the system" is the opposite of "meaningful work".

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

#40

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.

I agree with your sentiment but this is hardly limited to Americans - I've read and heard many Europeans discuss avoiding American all together due to the perceived risk of gang shootings, mass shootings, terrorism, and run in's with the TSA. I suspect that a small percentage of travellers modify their plans due to poor risk assessment skills but there are many reasons tourism may be down in some areas.
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