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

nytimes.com

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

#171

Post by varjag »

imaginology wrote: post #145
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…

> It's odd, the world is the safest and most stable that it has ever been. Tell that to Mother Earth, who is about to show us all who is boss. Climate change is much worse than most people realise. You may also be unaware of what is going on in Syria, and the fact that NATO has ordered the deployment of thousands of troops to Eastern Europe to put pressure on Russia, a nuclear-armed country.

NATO put the troops in NATO member countries, at request of those NATO countries. I'm sure that's all was just to irritate Russia for no possible reason at all. After all, it's not like Russia, a nuclear armed country has been undergoing moral and intellectual meltdown last couple of years?

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

#172

Post by scythe »

jacobolus wrote: post #163
ThrustVectoring wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What's worrisome about the immigration trends? Places like the US and Denmark are incredibly non-corrupt, while places like Russia, Brazil, and Nigeria are highly corrupt. Why some places are corrupt and others aren't is poorly understood magic of some sort. One fairly decent guess is something like "cultural factors" - Danish bureaucrats aren't corrupt because they expect that other non-corrupt Danes would punish t…

These “cultural factors” have to do with strong social and economic institutions like public schools and libraries, reasonably fair and legitimate court systems, a free press and freedom of association, a somewhat accountable and accessible political system, stable and reasonably clearly defined property rights, highly functioning distribution networks for basic goods and services, a fluid job market with protection…

Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, etc weren't drastically more corrupt than the United States a hundred years ago, were they? Also, "there were not problems" is questionable; this prior flow of migration may have contributed to the infamously low value of labor during the Gilded age.

> immigrants [...] commit less (or at least not more) crime

For the record I'm agnostic on this issue, but it bothers me that a lot of very smart people seem to be very convinced by this particular red herring. Cohesion of the whole can be impaired despite all the parts being of good quality, if they do not fit together very well.

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

#173

Post by tempodox »

NTDF9 wrote: post #111

Anecdotally, I've been thinking about this. "Being needed" is can also be looked at as "having a sense of purpose". Today, the only "Sense of purpose" is wealth accumulation and debt reduction. There is very little we can do with: - Family (marriages, divorces are way too high)..not permanent - Community (everyone lives in distant houses and neighbors change frequently)..not permanent - Kids (nobody can afford one),…

As to your “not permanent” points: The realisation that the only constant in life is inconstancy goes back to at least 17th century. It's part of the human condition.

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

#174

Post by gtirloni »

taurath wrote: post #100
greendragon wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really technology that is always getting better. It has been so successful that it's hard to see the decline in so many other things. Factor out technological advances when answering these questions. Are our universities really better than they were 100 years ago? Even just 50? Are our political systems any better than 100 years ago? 2000 years ago? Are our stories any better? Are our People any better? Is our a…

For someone like say an LGBT person, western society/culture is objectively less harmful now than ever. Many more examples

Compared to the last 100 years or so? It seems some ancient cultures didn't have a problem with it at all (google "homosexuality in ancient times").

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

#175

Post by jacobolus »

scythe wrote: post #172
jacobolus wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These “cultural factors” have to do with strong social and economic institutions like public schools and libraries, reasonably fair and legitimate court systems, a free press and freedom of association, a somewhat accountable and accessible political system, stable and reasonably clearly defined property rights, highly functioning distribution networks for basic goods and services, a fluid job market with protection…

Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, etc weren't drastically more corrupt than the United States a hundred years ago, were they? Also, "there were not problems" is questionable; this prior flow of migration may have contributed to the infamously low value of labor during the Gilded age. > immigrants [...] commit less (or at least not more) crime For the record I'm agnostic on this issue, but it bothers me that a lot of v…

The idea that immigrants “don’t fit together” with existing Americans is rhetoric pitched toward places where there are few immigrants, making the immigrants a convenient scapegoat / bogeyman because they can’t answer back. The places with substantial immigrant populations are mostly getting along just fine.

Jim and Deb Fallows have recently been doing a nice bit of traveling around the US writing about this and similar issues.

http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/10/refugees-immigrants...

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/504341/immigration-in...

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

#176

Post by lloeki »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #101
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.

If you want to be convinced otherwise, just look at some Gates Foundation† reports: non-first world is progressively getting better in basically every possible metric, and the fact that they're not at first-world levels yet is a non-sequitur.

† or whatever else report on the situation should you ever hold some disdain about Gates stuff.

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

#177

Post by hash-set »

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 don't share that optimism. I think there is a normalcy bias at work here. It's going to catch up with us all at once.

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

#178

Post by hash-set »

jree2 wrote: post #159
blfr wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's ignoring risks. It's like being the richest you've ever been in 2007. True but not reassuring. We have nukes, very worrying demographic trends in the west with massive migrations, and a declining hegemon. We're comfortable but fragile. What I want to say is that Taleb seems to have a better handle on things than Pinker.

Taleb is a Trump like clown. Just because both have the capacity to point of hypocrisy in the system, don't let that misguide you into believing they are qualified to talk about solutions. There is no comparison to Pinker.

I don't think Trump would pack those venues so full of people if he wasn't somehow in tune with what a whole lot of people are thinking. He is easy to dismiss. He is not a politician. He is not pre-packaged or polished. He is not particularly well educated. But he's right--the US is not living up to its ideals. We can even run a clean election.

America ended in 2008. We've been living off of a corpse ever since. At some point everyone is going to know it.

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

#179

Post by MattyRad »

This is a refreshing and useful article in light of the upcoming election and political fallout. It's a reminder that the world, despite the media/politics, is getting better and better, and consequently the need for human labor is decreasing. The Dalai Lama doesn't offer any answers, only recognition of the "problem" and hope that we can collectively find a solution.

It's especially important for us as the very people who are actively trying to make human labor obsolete. As a generally libertarian minded person, I find this is a very compelling article for compassion in a relentlessly utilitarian society.

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

#180

Post by kilroy123 »

fernandotakai wrote: post #165
trynumber9 wrote: post #45

"In America today, compared with 50 years ago, three times as many working-age men are completely outside the work" I was taught that work is one of only two uses for a man. That other being a good father. It must be wrong but it is an unshakable thought. I can't imagine how I would hate myself if I couldn't provide. This fear, even though I have no dependents, is far greater than my fear of being unneeded. Maybe it'…

> I can't imagine how I would hate myself if I couldn't provide. This fear, even though I have no dependents, is far greater than my fear of being unneeded. it's one, if not the biggest, fear of my life. my wife is a college student and a housewife (college is different in brazil, it's not fulltime like in the us). not being able to provide would mean we would suffer a bit. i have a recurrent dream where i go look at…

God that sounds horrible.
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