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

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

#241

Post by welanes »

legodt wrote: post #237
welanes wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see it. I think you may be projecting your own interpretation on to the parent comment.

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 origin."?

There is nothing about inherent inclinations. The point - one I have firsthand experience with - is that the institutions the West have ("they expect that other non-corrupt Danes would punish them for it") are lacking in many parts of the world.The reason for this are complex - something the OP alludes to - but culture definitely plays a part.

Why my taxi driver gets hustled for bribes at gunpoint when in Nigeria but not in Laos, or why a lost wallet was handed in at a Kyoto train station but not in my hometown is more a matter of culture than of chance.

We can have that discussion without crying racist.

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

#242

Post by Amezarak »

shorttime wrote: post #191
Amezarak wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does "better" mean? If we mean that to be afforded more technological luxury is to live better, then sure, no people has ever lived better. Are we happier and more fulfilled than ever before? I don't know, but I doubt it. Also, while the royalty and robber barons didn't have the internet or chemotherapy, they had servants to do all the menial chores most of is still have to do today, so in that respect we haven'…

This is a relatively new problem, finding "happiness". It only becomes a problem after basic needs are met, food, roof over your head, steady income, low debt, healthy. People in the past had very little time to prioritize "happiness" against basic survival. Just to have the problem to begin with is a blessing in disguise, you're not struggling. I see it as a hierarchy of needs, similar to Maslow's.

> This is a relatively new problem, finding "happiness". It only becomes a problem after basic needs are met, food, roof over your head, steady income, low debt, healthy. People in the past had very little time to prioritize "happiness" against basic survival

I don't think this is really true except in times of turmoil or famine. Reading history you find plenty of people who are unconcerned about meeting their basic needs and who had a lot of free time.

This goes for lots of agricultural societies, for many hunter-gatherer societies, and even some more 'advanced' societies, though you do generally start getting class issues there.

People imagine the past as some kind of eternal, miserable struggle for existence - it wasn't like that. There were definitely bad times, bad times we can hardly even imagine today - but it wasn't the norm. Most people got along fine most of the time and often even had more free time than we do. When people are trapped in a perpetual, miserable struggle for existence - that's when you end up with revolutions and war.

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

#243

Post by slimypickle »

The comments in here remind me of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsXFwy6gG_4

Eric Schmidt takes the side a lot of people here take, which is "everything is getting better", and Peter Thiel takes the other side, that things aren't getting better.

I don't think things are getting better at all. You can easily just use your own metrics and then come to the conclusion that everything is getting better. The problem is, your metrics are bullshit so you are coming to the wrong conclusion.

I have seen all kinds of metrics used in here like "don't have to hunt", "live longer", "safer", "can watch netflix". I don't think any of these things have to do with whether or not people's lives are getting better.

You can just take one of those metrics - "live longer", and see that in itself, it can't measure "getting better", because you can live for 80 years and have a terrible life, or have 60 years of an excellent life.

I think people in silicon valley are just completely clueless and are making the wrong bet, which is why they never see things like Trump coming. Things aren't getting better and people know it.

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

#244

Post by humanrebar »

komali2 wrote: post #57
Kenji wrote: post #13

And although all the world’s major faiths teach love That's not what I see when I look into the holy books. Let's be frank here, faith and religion are still the tools to turn ordinary people into genocidal maniacs.

I know what you mean (turning someone into a pillar of salt, killing infidels, etc), but there's a stark difference between the "tenants" of a religion and the single books that drive them. Hence why there's a million different flavors of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc - they all take their given "book" and interpret it differently. If you generalize Jesus' teachings, they're hard to argue as immoral - be good to…

> If you generalize Jesus' teachings, they're hard to argue as immoral - be good to your fellow man, abandon your earthly possessions, wash the feet of another because he is your fellow, stuff like that.

Well, Jesus generalized his own teachings like this, quoting the scriptures of his time, in the gospel of Matthew:

> “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

If God doesn't exist or isn't a good God, then it's not hard to argue that following Him could be immoral and teaching people to follow Him is surely immoral. And that's speaking as a Christian.

Paul even wrote, "...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.... If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied."

> Anyway my point is, a tool is just a tool to be used as you will.

This point is well taken, though I would rephrase it. People take all sorts of things and then change them to suit their purposes. Jesus himself railed against this sort of thing, calling religious hypocrites "vipers" and "whitewashed tombs".

> No religion is immune to this.

Well, certain religions are certainly against this sort of thing. I'd argue that someone who has taken Jainism, say, and added violence, they've invented a new religion and stolen (and corrupted) the word "Jainism". This sort of thing has happened to Christianity for 2000 years. There's no copyright on the word. Just like a hacker can do whatever, say he's from Anonymous, and everyone takes that assertion on face value.

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

#245

Post by pmyjavec »

wolfgke wrote: post #231
pmyjavec wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the truth, we've come a long way from a technological and materialistic standpoint, but we've also heavily, heavily stolen from the future, we've stolen from others. People are losing their homes and livelihoods to deforestation, islands are being inundated with rising sea levels, fracking is polluting water tables and mass animal extinctions are a thing. At some point the debt needs to be paid off, or we're…

> Looking for a purpose? Give back to the natural world and I'm sure some happiness will come out of it! The problem is the population growth makes it hard to implement that.

Sad but true, there are just too many people. 11 billion?

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

#246

Post by humanrebar »

legodt wrote: post #232
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you even read what you write. I see comments like this all over the internet and it amazes me how the irony of your statement completely eludes you. You basic argument is that immigrant culture has no effect on violence but the culture of another group(the white people) does. Ok, so in that case, nations completely ruled by the culture the immigrants comes from, must inherently be free of major violence. Hmmm does…

I was replying to specifically the last 200 years in America. As you right as you are it has nothing to do with what the comment was about. Also how is pointing out that the ruling class/race is responsible for violence "singling" them out? White people aren't some specific out-group here. Who fought to keep slaves? White people. Who only wanted to free the slaves to put moral pressure on other countries during they…

> how is pointing out that the ruling class/race is responsible for violence "singling" them out

It's not just because it stereotypes individuals, groups them, and judges them based on involuntary criteria (skin color). There is a rich history of American white culture absolutely opposed to racism. For example, white Quakers fought slavery since the 17th century, often at personal cost [1]. Countless white people died in the Civil War over the issue of slavery.

So I reject the entire idea of a 'ruling race'. I guess 'ruling class' is technically more fluid, but people often have notions of class foisted on them, including here, so it's not necessarily any better.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers_in_the_Abolition_Movem...

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

#247

Post by humanrebar »

pmyjavec wrote: post #203
sekou wrote: post #114

A question that comes to mind: What is the future of "meaningful work" If technology is poised to render sustenance-based work obsolete? The utopian idea is societies where education, arts and entertainment are what we consider to be "work." It's something that's been talked about since the industrial revolution, but assuming it's a multi-generational shift how do we set course to ensure a sense of well being in the…

This is such a good point! I have a feeling industrial based societies will automate themselves out of relevance. Because those who are bored will just find things for themselves to do anyway. Crafts, cooking, gardening etc, stuff people did before the industrial revolution. In some ways it's the end of the treadmill and we'll be back at square one.

> In some ways it's the end of the treadmill and we'll be back at square one.

Well, there's something to be said about a peaceful, physically healthier, longer lived, and better nourished humanity. Even if it all boils back down to cooking, cleaning, maintaining the homestead, and taking care of the family in the end.

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

#248

Post by humanrebar »

akvadrako wrote: post #230
orasis wrote: post #93

This is the big missing piece with basic income: People need meaning in their lives as much as they need money.

It seems like you're halfway to understanding why basic income is a good solution. The most common objection to BI is that people won't be incentivised to work. But as you point out, they still want to feel appreciated. So people will have to work to find meaning and it will be better than now, because it will have to be meaningful work, not just busy work.

> ...and it will be better than now...

Will it? What if someone's "meaningful work" is destructive, hateful, or even violent? Will giving abusive people more freedom to pursue their inner desires make for a better world?

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

#249

Post by ChefDenominator »

sctb wrote: post #147
ChefDenominator wrote: post #130

I have asked almost everyone I know if they have a subscription to: nytimes.com wsj.com forbes.com Guess what? I don't even have any minor acquaintances with subscriptions to these sites. So how come every single aggregator that I visit has articles from these sites commonly among the top and featured positions?

Please stop reposting this. See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989 .

Didn't think so.

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

#250

Post by wolfgke »

pmyjavec wrote: post #245
wolfgke wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Looking for a purpose? Give back to the natural world and I'm sure some happiness will come out of it! The problem is the population growth makes it hard to implement that.

Sad but true, there are just too many people. 11 billion?

According to

> https://www.census.gov/popclock/

the world population is currently at 7.35 billion people.

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