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

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

#221

Post by white-flame » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 9:15 AM UTC

orasis wrote: post #93

This is the big missing piece with basic income: People need meaning in their lives as much as they need money.

Meaning has next to nothing to do with income and sustenance. Problems with those can easily distract you from the very concept of stepping back and looking at meaning to your life. Excess of those can be their own burden as well.

Some sort of basic income really doesn't change much at all, besides helping to remove distractions from the destitute to be freer to pursuing meaning.

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

#222

Post by 18972345 » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 9:22 AM 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…

You are assuming that being the safest and most stable is better for humans. Then you make a claim that humans have never had it better, yet you are not millions of years old, so literally have no idea if that is true or not.

I understand where you are coming from, because people are brainwashed into "progressive" ideology and globalists "the world always gets better because of globalisation", but they don't really make sense. Human genes don't match modern society, so it is impossible for there to be a better time then when our genes were our closest match to society.

This is an idea that will come as a shock to people, but it is true. I don't really care to debate it because it is obvious. Also, if you just want to take less shocking ideas, you can see that developed countries have declined in the last few decades.

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

#223

Post by white-flame » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 9:24 AM UTC

These problems and anxieties stem from a belief that things are unfair. Be it racial biases, economic disparity, or policing offensiveness, many of these complaints boil down to this: In such a "modern" society, shouldn't we be finally past these problems? Why does it look like they're getting worse?*

People contrast the problems they face against the positive strides they see elsewhere, and it foments an us-vs-them mentality, projects a "f- you, got mine" on the positives, and increases outlooks of entitlement.

This is a continually escalating and divisive cultural cancer that's erupting. However, it has little to do with feeling "unneeded" (though obviously in the lost jobs cases that's mixed in), but rather more of people feeling actively antagonized. It's a mess.

(* answer: greater information flow and media that profits from outrage)

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

#224

Post by 18972345 » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 9:32 AM UTC

cossatot wrote: post #134

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.

What's worrisome about the immigration trends? I personally like them, and feel that they're more stabilizing than not: we're less likely to go to war with a nation of whose ethnicities make up some substantial fraction of our populace, and may be treated better in the case of war (look at German-American vs. Japanese-American treatment in WWII). But these are only my views. You can ask Taleb about his views on Middl…

In Australia, immigration is used to increase the population, which is used to increase gdp. The problem is that infrastructure is not improved to meet the growing population, and the increase in gdp is not enough to go around for the new people, so everybody in the middle and lower class gets a smaller part of the gdp. Cities where you could afford a nice house in a quiet area become concrete jungles where people are stacked on top of each other in apartments. House prices (for the same type of house people were used to living in) increase massively due to the increase in demand.

I am assuming something similar happens in America. The increase in population just means a decrease in quality of life for the existing people.

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

#225

Post by 18972345 » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 9:43 AM UTC

sjclemmy wrote: post #29

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

If you genuinely think these are the best markers for improvement in society, you must be an extremely lucky person. Having a job, having a job that doesn't completely suck, having enough money to move out of your parents house at the age of 30. These are things that people are facing today. In Australia, there are lots of people that are still living with their parents into their 30s because they simply can't afford rent or a mortgage.

Racism and sexism and other terms are used more for political purposes these days then they are for anything of worth. Why didn't you mention the discrimination people with autism face, for example? Autism simply isn't a useful political tool because it doesn't get enough votes. Yet people with autism face more discrimination then the types you have listed. It is politics and nothing more.

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

#226

Post by 18972345 » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 9:46 AM UTC

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #26

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.

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…

No need to hunt for food isn't even a good thing. We are designed to hunt. We actually like doing it. Now, people don't get enough exercise or the right type of exercise and so after our 9 hours of work, we have to go to the gym and simulate physical work. Most people also hate their jobs because we were not designed to sit on a computer all day.

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

#227

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 9:51 AM UTC

xherberta wrote: post #112

Yes, the poorest among us are materially well-off, by any historical comparison. Yet the article speaks to how we're doing psychologically and spiritually. It's a little glib to tell people they'd better get happy and appreciate how much better we have it than ye olde folks of yore. Trump has gotten this far by stirring up rust belt fears of human obsolescence. Less-educated white males are seeing their place in soci…

[deleted]

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

#228

Post by akvadrako » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 10:35 AM UTC

lkozma wrote: post #108

_coldfire wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And everywhere is full of people - it's becoming harder to be able to get lost in nature or to have real adventure.

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

#229

Post by makomk » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 10:37 AM UTC

welanes wrote: post #220

legodt wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the cultural norms that make our communities excellent places to live" In case anybody didn't know already, this is what dog whistle racism looks like

As someone who originated from a developing country and now resides in a developed one, there's much truth and not a lot of racism in that sentence. It's not about race, it's about values, i.e. culture. Speak to an immigrant, they'd tell you this. My Aunts say it all the time - "I do miss home but we have such bad leaders....yes the food is terrible but life is so much simpler here.....people here are so trusting and…

It's treading close to the line though. It's assuming that corruption is a result of some kind of internal pro-corruption tendency in the people of those countries, rather than structural issues within the countries that would be left behind when they left. For example, one of the problems with Brazil right now seems to be that allegations of corruption and corruption investigations are themselves untrustworthy, tools used by corrupt individuals to get rid of others who might investigate them.

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

#230

Post by akvadrako » Sat, Nov 05, 2016, 10:44 AM UTC

orasis wrote: post #93

This is the big missing piece with basic income: People need meaning in their lives as much as they need money.

It seems like you're halfway to understanding why basic income is a good solution.

The most common objection to BI is that people won't be incentivised to work. But as you point out, they still want to feel appreciated.

So people will have to work to find meaning and it will be better than now, because it will have to be meaningful work, not just busy work.