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R U OK?

ruok.org.au

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Re: R U OK?

#101

Post by swyx »

ericmcer wrote: post #96

Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment. The constant flood of bad news com…

there's a lot of bad in the world, but also keep in mind the Steven Pinker argument that we have progressed a lot compared to human history as well.

as for dealing with it - personally i embrace the idea of "keep your circle of concern as small as possible to your circle of influence". practically, it works out to "stop giving a crap" which i know is not responsible en masse. i guess the only thing to do if you feel like you must do something in your lifetime is to run for office.

Re: R U OK?

#102

Post by jacobedawson »

swyx wrote: post #101
ericmcer wrote: post #96

Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment. The constant flood of bad news com…

there's a lot of bad in the world, but also keep in mind the Steven Pinker argument that we have progressed a lot compared to human history as well. as for dealing with it - personally i embrace the idea of "keep your circle of concern as small as possible to your circle of influence". practically, it works out to "stop giving a crap" which i know is not responsible en masse. i guess the only thing to do if you feel…

Even though it might be true that we have progressed a lot, our impact has increased exponentially, to the point where 20 million completely irresponsible humans don't have anywhere near the potentially catastrophic effect of 7 billion relatively enlightened humans (with nukes & fossil fuels).

I do feel we might 'just make it' if we can organize culturally as well as technologically, but it looks like it's going to be a nailbiter.

Re: R U OK?

#103

Post by Ma8ee »

swyx wrote: post #101
ericmcer wrote: post #96

Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment. The constant flood of bad news com…

there's a lot of bad in the world, but also keep in mind the Steven Pinker argument that we have progressed a lot compared to human history as well. as for dealing with it - personally i embrace the idea of "keep your circle of concern as small as possible to your circle of influence". practically, it works out to "stop giving a crap" which i know is not responsible en masse. i guess the only thing to do if you feel…

I certainly don't interpret "keep your circle of concern as small as possible to your circle of influence" as "stop giving a crap". I actually means that you for example should decrease the amount of meat you eat and try to find other means of transportation than car if possible.

Each and everyone of us influence the environment in many ways. And even if your influence is small, the total is the sum of all our contributions. If everyone of us just think "it doesn't matter what I do", then we are truly screwed. If most of us instead think "I'm at least doing my part", then we have come a long way already.

Re: R U OK?

#104

Post by CalRobert »

qnsi wrote: post #80
CalRobert wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's any consolation, I'm from Northern California and moved to Europe. After a few years my wife and I thought "let's go back to California" so I could try a startup. After a year we went back to the EU because ultimately we realized there was no way we wanted to have a family in America. In the EU, even people who don't work in tech can have real vacations (most people in the US can't, really) and access healthc…

>During recent elections, I didn't go to bed fearing that the country wouldn't be a democracy in the morning (helps we're not in Poland or Hungary) As a Pole, man that comment hurt me

I'm really sorry. It's painful to see what's happening to Poland and Hungary with regards to democracy. My old boss was from Poland and he talked about it a lot. Though he did end up returning since he wanted to be near family, and Polish housing costs are far lower. I'd still love to visit.

Re: R U OK?

#105

Post by glenda »

swyx wrote: post #101
ericmcer wrote: post #96

Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment. The constant flood of bad news com…

there's a lot of bad in the world, but also keep in mind the Steven Pinker argument that we have progressed a lot compared to human history as well. as for dealing with it - personally i embrace the idea of "keep your circle of concern as small as possible to your circle of influence". practically, it works out to "stop giving a crap" which i know is not responsible en masse. i guess the only thing to do if you feel…

It sounds like you’re making excuses for the world as it is. The OP is right though.

These aren’t things we have to live with just because Steven Pinker said the world is better off now than before... We are in control of our environment to a certain extent and have the capability of transforming it into something other than an isle of cheap meats under florescent lighting. We are capable of ending systemic violence and homelessness, since they are things we collectively allow to exist each day. We can get rid of cars and build more beautiful cities!

Re: R U OK?

#106

Post by dsubburam »

josuepeq wrote: post #54

The U.S. needs this day, especially this year. With the unmitigated disaster of 2020, I’m “probably not ok,” but I am not in any danger to myself or others. Quite the opposite - I’m optimistic that things are moving in the right direction. I mean, it can’t get worse: - Shutdown my consulting Business in February because I didn’t feel comfortable with being around new people constantly with a t-cell deficient immune s…

Sending you kind wishes!

Re: R U OK?

#107

Post by 082349872349872 »

082349872349872 wrote: post #53
est wrote: post #23

on a side note, "R U OK" is a meme in China, originally taken from a clip of Xiaomi's president LeiJun public English speach. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRU-fwS6aAU

The top comment (2020年在看的) jibes with my Grand Unified Theory of youtube comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24406562 but no one seems to have been complaining that the kids listen to noise these days in the few pages of comments I translated, so that part may need revision. Edit: thanks est! this meme gives me a valid roman search term for youku. Edit2: compare and contrast CN: https://v.youku.com/v_show/i…

Having also learned in passing about various historical soaps and that phone mounted ring lighting is a thing, so far the funniest "areyouok" to me has been the one chock full of inscrutable foreigners wearing their culture's traditional outfits to perform folkloric rituals that ethnographers say date back to the Warring Ranchers period:

https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzE4NTMyNjkyNA==.html

(I hope those CBP arena ads are PSAs, not paid placement.)

Seemingly all but syntactically unrelated: https://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzcxNjAwNDgyNA==.html

Re: R U OK?

#108

Post by bradenb »

ericmcer wrote: post #96

Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment. The constant flood of bad news com…

Of course we deserve to be OK. Every species* deserves to be OK and every species fights to be OK. We have a lot of work to do to make sure we don't ruin our "host," but the fact that we are aware of the problem already--to me--says a lot about our desire to give up some comforts for a greater good. I think as a species we're always just doing the best we think we (collectively) can do at any given time. Some individuals will do better than others, but I think on average we are improving.

* except mosquitoes

Re: R U OK?

#109

Post by Diederich »

glenda wrote: post #105
swyx wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's a lot of bad in the world, but also keep in mind the Steven Pinker argument that we have progressed a lot compared to human history as well. as for dealing with it - personally i embrace the idea of "keep your circle of concern as small as possible to your circle of influence". practically, it works out to "stop giving a crap" which i know is not responsible en masse. i guess the only thing to do if you feel…

It sounds like you’re making excuses for the world as it is. The OP is right though. These aren’t things we have to live with just because Steven Pinker said the world is better off now than before... We are in control of our environment to a certain extent and have the capability of transforming it into something other than an isle of cheap meats under florescent lighting. We are capable of ending systemic violence…

The higher one climbs on a mountain, the further one can see.

I think we're capable of seeing how much better we can make things today primarily because of how high we've climbed so far.

Re: R U OK?

#110

Post by LocalH »

ericmcer wrote: post #96

Something I am struggling with recently is less am I ok, but more do we as humans deserve to be ok? When I look at the freeways full of cars, streets lined with overflowing garbage cans, homeless encampments, grocery stores with row after row of cheap meat under fluorescent light. Am I supposed to feel ok? It many times feels as though we are a virus decimating our host environment. The constant flood of bad news com…

The duality of mankind in play. We’re capable of immense good, but the flip side of that is that we’re capable of immense evil. Good and evil as we understand it are human concepts, nature largely doesn’t give a crap about good and evil.

I choose to try to make the in-the-moment experience of those around me more pleasant. When you think about it, that’s all that really exists at any given moment, everything else is stored in our mind or hasn’t happened yet. At least from the human perspective, anyway. The now is the most important moment of our entire existence.

I find this extremely fulfilling as a human.

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