Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 278 posts

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

#101

Post by rokhayakebe »

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

Very myopic, first world, privileged view of the world.

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

#102

Post by Arnt »

smacktoward wrote: post #53
paulddraper wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many middle-class people had instant access to 90% of the human knowledge and entertainment 30 years ago? How many have instant access right this second? Life is far easier and more convenient than it used to be. Most of the middle-class live as better than kings of past centuries.

> How many middle-class people had instant access to 90% of the human knowledge and entertainment 30 years ago? But at the same time as they got that, they lost access to things their parents took for granted like job security and reliable health care and thriving, stable communities. Getting access to Wikipedia is great, but it does not automatically balance that scale.

Let me guess: your parents were WASPs.

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

#103

Post by lkozma »

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 mostly agree with your view, but I wonder how you can reconcile it with the unfolding environmental disaster and loss of biodiversity across the globe.

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

#104

Post by mistermann »

patcon wrote: post #79
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…

Perhaps because the "want of something more" is becoming less and less effective a political motivator, compared to the expedience of action tied to the "fear of something worse"? (I recognize we have an incredible capacity to crave more, but maybe there are diminishing returns of a sort in our psychology.)

As they say in finance, the only emotion more powerful than greed is fear.

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

#105

Post by _coldfire »

lkozma wrote: post #103
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 mostly agree with your view, but I wonder how you can reconcile it with the unfolding environmental disaster and loss of biodiversity across the globe.

It's never been a better time to be a human. It's never been a worse time to be any other species on earth.

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

#107

Post by ZenoArrow »

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…

> "Uncertainty about the future has always been the same.

Don't listen to those devils."

You can call me a devil if you wish, but to me this is a classic example of a half truth. If you are already inclined to believe it, then you'll see it as the truth. If you're not inclined to believe it, then you won't see it as the truth.

To give some examples of people who are less likely to see it as the truth, go and tell Yemenis and Iraqis and Syrians that life has never been better. I'd imagine you'd be seen as a little bit kooky.

Would you do that, would you tell people who are facing famine that life has never been better? I'd suggest you wouldn't, because deep down you know what you're saying is only half true.

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

#108

Post by lkozma »

_coldfire wrote: post #105
lkozma wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree with your view, but I wonder how you can reconcile it with the unfolding environmental disaster and loss of biodiversity across the globe.

It's never been a better time to be a human. It's never been a worse time to be any other species on earth.

But even for humans the quality of air/water/etc. has been going down for some time in many places.

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

#109

Post by Inception »

greendragon wrote: post #91
FussyZeus wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If genetics determines all, then we should sort people to tasks best suited for their genetics. Ashkenazi Jew? Work on advancing gene therapy and retroviruses so humans now and in the future can be freed from genetic determinism. European? Build civilization. African? Physical labor/sports. East Asian? Also build civilization. To each is given the minimum necessary to do their genetically determined purpose, ignoring…

I think the OP was referring to people being born into wealth. ie. trust-fund babies.

Also, WTF did I just read

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

#110

Post by kr7 »

sbov wrote: post #24
burke wrote: 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 may not be as good as it was 50 years ago If you're a white male.

Women's self-reported happiness has dropped over the last 50 years [1], so possibly add "women" too.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/opinion/26douthat.html

Post reply on HN