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The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

aeon.co

141–150 of 250 posts

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#141
post #19
post #16

My interpretation of the point the author is trying to make: The 'hypersane' are those among us who have realized, for better or for worse, that the traditional things that most in a society strive for - material wealth, social status, conformity to social structures, etc. - aren't really the keys to happiness and that when you "awaken" (and become hypersane, I suppose) you realize that along with those things come s…

Does innovation come without sacrifice, without yearning, without labor, without constraints? A sincere question. We enjoy innovation, progress, because it seemingly makes our lives more enjoyable. At least I think I do. I think I would take this life over 19th-century farmer. The point is that there appears to be a tradeoff - disparity, constraints, entice us to create solutions. And adopt a certain amount of stress…

It's the opposite, once you realize that going with the flow of society/what's accepted is pointless, you can work, innovate, experiment with much less constraint.

Realising and accepting death seems to work. You can then do things that will look insane and impossible to others. Sell everything and be a nomad, spend all your time building something, pursue a degree at 55+, retire to die, go build houses in Africa or something.

None of that is comfortable, stable or normal, so it looks crazy to any "sane" person. But is it really? No, because utlimately you're dead, legacy or not.

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#142
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet we can reject our nature.

I mean I can reject my nature and stop breathing. That is until I pass out and start breathing automatically. I can reject my nature and stop eating and drinking but that has swift death associated with it. We can try and reject our nature but it seems eminently naive to me.

And yet somehow you can resist an urge to kill unknown weak stranger and taking their possession. (that's what our ancestor did, but somehow its not normal anymore).

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question was whether they would be able to operate in a society. We did not discuss nor touch whether they suffer or not.

I would like to think that a hyper-rational would opt out of society in general. Not relying on the conventional ways of sustenance that we are accustomed to. One example of this is the survivalist, that lives in nature. One could start incrementally moving towards minimalism, acquiring the training and skills to farm and hurt animals and finally step outside of organized society. This is something I have been thinki…

The progress is useless unless you get a serious tooth infection or a cancer and then you’ll die in vain alone in the forest.

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#144
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say this article is making the case that sanity is the ability to correctly perceive what society conceives as real, while hypersanity is the ability to correctly perceive things outside of societies norms.

That leads to the idea that society and the sane people within it cannot distinguish between the insane and the hypersane.

As illustrated by a lot of angry comments by those who feel threatened by perceived criticism of their devotion to societal norms.

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The 'hypersane' are those among us who have realized, for better or for worse, that the traditional things that most in a society strive for - material wealth, social status, conformity to social structures, etc. - aren't really the keys to happiness and that when you "awaken" (and become hypersane, I suppose) you realize that along with those things come stress, anxiety, the rat race, and, well, a pretty boring ex…

It’s possible to encounter a concept and not emotionally “get it.” It’s one thing to hear about something on TV and another entirely to change your entire life. If it were “gotten” by the masses via Disney shows, we’d all stop chasing it at all. Social ties and bonds existed before money, achieved via other means. So yeah we don’t all “get it” in the same way. As someone with enough to retire on at 40, money feels pr…

>> As someone with enough to retire on at 40, money feels pretty pointless to me.

Of course it feels pointless to you - you don’t _need_ any more of it.

It feels pointless to me too, but my background wouldn’t allow me to live anywhere but on the street at my current age of 28 (without money, that is).

I hope by 40 I will eventually earn enough to retire and be the same champagne socialist as you currently sound.

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#146
post #113
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, even if you realized all that to it's full extent, the fact is we don't get to choose how we live if we plan to live in our current world for very long. Imagine we lived in a violent brutal world where it was kill or be killed. Even if you realize that killing only brings you stress and unhappiness, you won't last very long if you stop doing it. As soon as you lay down your arms someone will come and bash your he…

Go visit back-to-landers hippies from the early 70s, they lived quasi of-grid for almost 50 years now, all play music everyday, some of them (the youngest) can still ride their horses everyday, and they eat whatever they grow. Poorest people in the US, poorest than some homeless, but they still live really well, and better than most i shall say. They chose how to live their dreams, did it for ~50 years and still ende…

Did those hippies take advantage of the medical insurance they didn’t have when they got cancer in those 50 years?

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#147
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, even if you realized all that to it's full extent, the fact is we don't get to choose how we live if we plan to live in our current world for very long. Imagine we lived in a violent brutal world where it was kill or be killed. Even if you realize that killing only brings you stress and unhappiness, you won't last very long if you stop doing it. As soon as you lay down your arms someone will come and bash your he…

I have friends who are doing this. They live on land rent-free which is owned by someone who wishes property ownership wasn't a thing. They grow their own food. They dumpster dive for perfectly good food. They process and eat roadkill deer. These people live fulfilling lives and work to contribute to each others' well-being and the well-being of others. I'm working on finding a similar living situation for my partner…

What happens to the deer population when everyone in the US starts road-killing them for food?

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#148
post #52

Seems like myth dressed up as pop science. But we basically live in an insane world, and navigate it only by denialism, tunnel vision, ignorance, or distraction. If we were to actualize knowledge of the massive destruction of the natural world and the insanity of the path of capitalism, it would make someone crazy by the definition of the masses. Imagine someone screaming at the top of their lungs about the forthcomi…

We cannot destroy natural world. We can only change it. Just like cyanobacteria did. Was that event any less natural? I take an extreme(?) view that humans are a product and a part of nature, so whatever we do is still natural. It may affect other parts of the nature by a different degree, it may make out living more or less comfortable, but it is still natural.

Haha, I'm delighted to see this argument as I often provocatively bring this up in lunchtime conversation. It seems to be a rare point of view but one with which I'm sure alien Earth scientists would undeniably concur.

Re: The hypersane are among us, if only we are prepared to look

#149
post #107

This concept seems unhelpfully reductive and transparently targeted at people who feel a need for self-congratulation on account of being alienated by the "normal" people, although alienation is paradoxically also portrayed as one of the markers of being painfully ordinary. "Many ‘normal’ people suffer from not being hypersane: they have a restricted worldview, confused priorities, and are wracked by stress, anxiety…

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing but I feel like you should read some of the books mentioned above and ponder a little more because I feel like you missed something.
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