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A Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

nytimes.com

21–30 of 121 posts

Re: A Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like, your opinion, man. Not everyone agrees that our existence even has a purpose.

His opinion, plus 4 billion years of evolution.

The process of evolution doesn't have a "purpose" or "intent".

Re: A Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

#22
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of ways to connect with young people. Youth organizations can get you connected, without the household commitment (they all go home at the end of the game). Scouts, church groups, Big Brother/Sister, you name it. So don't have to go into this whole hog; don't need anybody else involved to make it work; and no unsurmountable reason to delay?

I wonder how many of the young people you connected with that way would come to sit by your side at your deathbed.

I promise, that if you put the same work into being there for someone as you _HAVE_ to do with your own kids, and do it because you want to connect, that someone will be there.

If you half-ass it for the wrong reasons, of course not.

But the same thing is true, but with higher costs (both economical and psychological), if you have your own child with the same attitude.

Re: A Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

#23
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People spend time with people who provide the most value to their lives. Wow, people are brutal when they are given free will! Looks like this "free will" is a brutal, evil thing.

Yes, that's one of the central moral questions which Christian and other thinkers have wrestled with over the centuries.

Thankfully, now we can blame all those evils on "capitalism" instead.

Re: A Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

#24
I think I tend towards the Aubrey de Grey point of view on this- it's not necessarily anything anyone is doing wrong here, it's more that these folks are living in dying bodies that can't do what they want them to do. If they were suddenly young again- they could go out, make new connections, start over.

With that said, I do see the point that this is a western/capitalist phenomenon in the sense that capitalism encourages business relationships at the expense of personal ones. And it's the personal ones that are more lasting and meaningful and which you need once you reach retirement age.

Re: A Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

#25
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of ways to connect with young people. Youth organizations can get you connected, without the household commitment (they all go home at the end of the game). Scouts, church groups, Big Brother/Sister, you name it. So don't have to go into this whole hog; don't need anybody else involved to make it work; and no unsurmountable reason to delay?

It's the literal purpose of our existence. Why would you discourage that?

Our existence is what we make of it.

It might be your purpose, or even most people's purpose, but there are plenty that frankly just aren't that interested.

Re: A Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

#29
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of ways to connect with young people. Youth organizations can get you connected, without the household commitment (they all go home at the end of the game). Scouts, church groups, Big Brother/Sister, you name it. So don't have to go into this whole hog; don't need anybody else involved to make it work; and no unsurmountable reason to delay?

It's the literal purpose of our existence. Why would you discourage that?

This is like arguing with a someone carrying a bucket of water uphill. "Flowing downhill is the literal purpose of its existence!"

Re: A Generation in Japan Is Facing a Lonely Death

#30
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's one of the central moral questions which Christian and other thinkers have wrestled with over the centuries.

Thankfully, now we can blame all those evils on "capitalism" instead.

We blame it for the weather; why not everything else as well?
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