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How to Exist

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Re: How to Exist

#171

Post by luxuryballs »

BugsJustFindMe wrote: post #25

> It’s oddly difficult to do nothing, and while you’re doing nothing, it’s oddly difficult to feel at ease. I don't have difficulty with this. Doing nothing, thinking about nothing, and simultaneously feeling perfectly at ease just comes naturally. I know that my experience is not universal and that many people do struggle with this. If you struggle with this and you were wondering, serenity really is very nice, and…

I can only do it with instant satisfaction and ease on certain drugs or combinations of drugs, I assume it's a mechanical thing for me rather than spiritual, the brain functions, so could be both environmental and genetic, the body being like the ship for the spirit, though a spirit not at ease can disrupt an otherwise well oiled machine.

Re: How to Exist

#172

Post by luxuryballs »

C-x_C-f wrote: post #54

I might just be too autistic for this but I don't get why the article uses the word "existing" to refer to a conflation of contentedness/meditation/stasis/passivity/what have you. Am I not existing when I'm worrying about finances or fidgeting with my hair? I don't really see why "existing" should be conceived in such a subtractive fashion. I'm not dismissing the value of contentedness/meditation/stasis/passivity whe…

I think by pointing out the existing which is always happening they're implying a "merely existing", because otherwise yeah we always exist, but do we always only exist and nothing else?

Re: How to Exist

#173

Post by wbadart »

Schiendelman wrote: post #162
egocodedinsol wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hired hands, serfs, migrant workers had all of that and more for most of human history.

I recently read that serfs weren't expected to work more than a few hours a day until industrial automation really took hold. I wish I had the link, but it made sense - and then labor laws were a reaction to those expectations, not solving a long running problem.

My favorite recent read on the topic was from Brett Devereaux: https://acoup.blog/2025/08/22/collections-life-work-death-an...

TL;DR: whether farming takes all your waking hours depends on the size of your lands and household

Re: How to Exist

#174

Post by cyanregiment »

DrewADesign wrote: post #158
cyanregiment wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, somewhere between the Crusades/Inquisitions (plural, cross-regional) and the Atlantic Slave Trade was the moral peak of humanity - is that the take? Even on a quaint farm in the south of France the punishment for a servant disobeying their master was a lot worse than getting laid off with severance - one might say severance had a different meaning.

> Right, somewhere between the Crusades/Inquisitions (plural, cross-regional) and the Atlantic Slave Trade was the moral peak of humanity - is that the take? … what? No. I’m saying that none of these societal tyrannies has anything to do with being a self-operated farm owner now.

Oh I thought you said for 400+ years (small) farming has been as ethical as it is now.

I understand that you're saying:

> [slavery] is not representative of farming as labor

But I disagree, since it clearly has been. Military, prison, servitude, employment, even the tyranny of "the man of the house" - all these hierarchical authoritarian social structures (whether or not they were ever noble or righteous, or useful) have improved ethically over time in the lives of those subjected to the violence of these systems - the conditions used to be a lot worse, across the board.

Labor is not solved in terms of ethics, but it's a lot better now.

Re: How to Exist

#175

Post by folkrav »

cyanregiment wrote: post #155
cwmoore wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few million people in jail and supervision in the USA, offloading the crudity and performing the work of incentivizing conformity, at slave wages as we speak.

What was imprisonment like in 1920? 1320? What year were the Mayans rolling heads down staircases? I’ll take now

“Things can’t be bad now cause they were bad before”

Re: How to Exist

#177

Post by Avicebron »

2b3a51 wrote: post #103
roncesvalles wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The current pace of technological progress means that you cannot just sit and wait for the crops to grow. You need to constantly be learning a new skill on the side, diversifying your income streams, thinking and researching about how to optimize your costs and yields for the following year, etc. This is because there is no guarantee that you can keep living the same routine till the day you die. Also, humans are bui…

Interesting comment, but I'm thinking of the time scales involved. Farming 6 to 8 thousand years ago, simultaneous development in several areas. Before that millennia of hunter-gatherers (with technologies thrown in like stone shaping and metals?). Before that it is millions of years after chimps/bonobos/us diverged. Something accelerated the restlessness, perhaps language?

>Something accelerated the restlessness, perhaps language?

Look up David Harvey's work, I think it was less language and more certain economic patterns demanding acceleration.

Re: How to Exist

#178

Post by Murfalo »

msaltz wrote: post #167

This version of doing nothing IMO is still “doing something”. It’s clearly not “just existing” to have a standard that you must hold still, not look around the room, not engage in thinking, notice how you’re feeling, etc. It’s clear when you see the picture of the cat in the article that the cat has none of these concerns. I’d consider this to be a form of meditation - still containing ideas of “this, not that”. Some…

Right, I think commonly "doing nothing"/meditation is approached with the goal of "doing something", i.e. "getting the hell out of here" or changing instead of sitting with how you feel in the present moment. And, just as you say, that basically defeats the entire purpose.

Re: How to Exist

#179

Post by cyanregiment »

folkrav wrote: post #175
cyanregiment wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was imprisonment like in 1920? 1320? What year were the Mayans rolling heads down staircases? I’ll take now

“Things can’t be bad now cause they were bad before”

"Things can't be good now cause they were good before"
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