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

nytimes.com

271–278 of 278 posts

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

#271
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay I'm going to spell out a major factor then. What this poster was implying that they are against immigrants because they believe immigrants are inherently prone to corruption based on their country of origin. This ignores centuries of confounding factors such as possible imperial rule, internal resources collapse, or failed economic experiments and makes it purely about nationality. Somewhat importantly, op only…

So here's what he/she said: > "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 them for it." How did you make the leap from 'cultural factors' to "immigrants are inherently prone to corruption based on their country of ori…

> We can have that discussion without crying racist.

I hope so, but threads like these are depressing.

It's a good thing to point out that argument is often used as veiled racism, or to explain how the underlying dynamic might be more racist than we might be aware of. But what I'm seeing here is false equivalence: "because racists say , is a racist argument merely by association. or too close for comfort to be able to discuss at all." This shuts down any conversation and the person holding view walks away feeling misjudged and quite likely still holding view because we humans have trouble separating a good argument from any judgment that comes with it.

I would very much like it if we could avoid that here, even if we know for a fact that the person bringing forward argument is an actual racist.

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

#272
post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

For most people, meaning has a lot to do with value creation. Corporations are institutions for value creation. If most people were equipped to create value on their own we'd see a lot more entrepreneurs. Don't get me wrong, I think we'll need BI, but it won't be enough.

"Most people"? For one, there's a huge rate of unhappiness among those who have created vast value, and on the flip side a ton of people giving up on finding meaning in such metrics to better find their own meaning in spiritual, humanitarian, or personal niche pursuits.

I think it has a lot more to do with the act of creating something yourself, not necessarily the "value" of what's being created. I'd say especially so when corporations and such are involved, and especially regarding non-owners.

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

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP said "a lot" of the haves, so I get the impression they think it's actually a lot and justifiable to start imposing corrections to the problem on the lot of haves. My real issue is just the idea that more than a tiny fraction of the "haves" are in that group by genetic determinism, either from the lottery of being born to one's parents (and inheriting their genes, and their money, which they got somehow) or the ot…

Welcome to Gattaca.

We're already living Gattaca. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/27/495668299/...

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

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider the US a proven success on acculturating immigrants. Over 200 years of importing people from broken corrupt and broken regimes, creating a prosperous and relatively uncorrupt society.

But those 200 years have been far from peaceful.

Internally they have been peaceful. The major exception being the civil war which can hardly be blamed on immigration.

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

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider the US a proven success on acculturating immigrants. Over 200 years of importing people from broken corrupt and broken regimes, creating a prosperous and relatively uncorrupt society.

But those 200 years have been far from peaceful.

[deleted]

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

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider the US a proven success on acculturating immigrants. Over 200 years of importing people from broken corrupt and broken regimes, creating a prosperous and relatively uncorrupt society.

But those 200 years have been far from peaceful.

[deleted]

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

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider the US a proven success on acculturating immigrants. Over 200 years of importing people from broken corrupt and broken regimes, creating a prosperous and relatively uncorrupt society.

But those 200 years have been far from peaceful.

[deleted]

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

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider the US a proven success on acculturating immigrants. Over 200 years of importing people from broken corrupt and broken regimes, creating a prosperous and relatively uncorrupt society.

But those 200 years have been far from peaceful.

[deleted]
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