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It's death

jesseduffield.com

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Re: It's death

#61

Post by xg15 »

_factor wrote: post #49
freetime2 wrote: post #14

This story has a strong "life sucks then you die" vibe going for it. And the afterlife also sucks apparently (although I don't personally believe in an afterlife). Hopelessness and injustice seem to be the current zeitgeist - at least for anyone who spends a lot of time online. And I get it, there's plenty to be unhappy about. But my counter-argument is that it's possible to do things in life that you're proud of. An…

It’s not the lifestyle that makes some people unhappy, it’s the knowledge that there is suffering around the world they can do near nothing to stop. Not everyone frames their happiness solely on conditions within their own sphere. Knowledge comes with responsibility.

Yeah, a bit of this. Speaking from Europe, there is the latent feeling of war, and the fear that an even larger one may come. It's also becoming increasingly clear what kind of visions the powerful people are trying to realize, and don't have much to do with the kind of optimistic visions for the future that I grew up with. Lastly there is a feeling of helplessness in the face of all this.

There is still a lot of counterculture in spite of all this - and honestly, it even feels more enticing than it used to. But it also feels more hedonistic and escapist than like a genuine alternative way of living.

Things feel less like the 1980s and more like the 1920s...

Re: It's death

#62

Post by freetime2 »

_factor wrote: post #49
freetime2 wrote: post #14

This story has a strong "life sucks then you die" vibe going for it. And the afterlife also sucks apparently (although I don't personally believe in an afterlife). Hopelessness and injustice seem to be the current zeitgeist - at least for anyone who spends a lot of time online. And I get it, there's plenty to be unhappy about. But my counter-argument is that it's possible to do things in life that you're proud of. An…

It’s not the lifestyle that makes some people unhappy, it’s the knowledge that there is suffering around the world they can do near nothing to stop. Not everyone frames their happiness solely on conditions within their own sphere. Knowledge comes with responsibility.

> God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Sorry for the cliche quote, but I feel it's relevant. As an atheist, I wouldn't appeal to God, but rather would look within for these things.

Re: It's death

#63

Post by piva00 »

smnplk wrote: post #57
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to say it will be similar to the experience prior to birth / conception, ie. we were nothing, and to nothing we shall return. It's a scary feeling if you can grasp it. Grasping non-existence from within existence is difficult, I've consciously tried to do it and succeeded a couple of times, but it's fleeting and both times it affected my breathing and heart rate in a similar way to fear or panic or pain.

So you will experience something then, if you say that you experienced this nothingness before you were born :D ;) What I was aluding to is that people have profound consciouss experience when they are dying. Even clinicaly dead people with zero brain activity. But even if EEGs can't detect extremely low brain activity, it's still weird to have such rich experiences. I would have never found metaphysics in my life, i…

> What I was aluding to is that people have profound consciouss experience when they are dying. Even clinicaly dead people with zero brain activity. But even if EEGs can't detect extremely low brain activity, it's still weird to have such rich experiences.

This is an extraordinary claim, any sources for it? Specially the point about "profound conscious experiences" in "clinically dead people with zero brain activity".

Re: It's death

#64

Post by brador »

5 people, 4 seats in the cars. 7 hours deciding what to order on the delivery app. In the end we just walked the 4 miles and it was great.

Re: It's death

#65

Post by hyperman1 »

_factor wrote: post #49
freetime2 wrote: post #14

This story has a strong "life sucks then you die" vibe going for it. And the afterlife also sucks apparently (although I don't personally believe in an afterlife). Hopelessness and injustice seem to be the current zeitgeist - at least for anyone who spends a lot of time online. And I get it, there's plenty to be unhappy about. But my counter-argument is that it's possible to do things in life that you're proud of. An…

It’s not the lifestyle that makes some people unhappy, it’s the knowledge that there is suffering around the world they can do near nothing to stop. Not everyone frames their happiness solely on conditions within their own sphere. Knowledge comes with responsibility.

There is this feeling where it's futile to do anything, the world is big and miserable and you're small and insignificant.

I'm slowly getting convinced that some political players are spreading this view on purpose. It is an easy way to block people who try to stop the erosion of society.

It also isn't true. You can easily improve the world on a small scale by doing anything positive. On world scale, trying to change things is like buying into a lottery. Most attempts will fail, but the more stakes you have, the bigger the chance of winning.

In my corner of the world, over my life, I saw flemish people, woman, LGBTQ, vegetarians all stand up and demand the rest of the world treat them as equals. They all started tiny and were laughed at for the futility of their dreams. But I speak dutch, woman go to universities, gays are holding hands publicly and getting married, and vegetarian options are normal in restaurants. These causes won, because lots of little nameless people fought for it, even if there are still haters pushing back each of them.

Re: It's death

#66

Post by [deleted] »

vineyardmike wrote: post #56
GlickWick wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree to the extent that you can impact things around you, but is the general chaos and suffering in the world outside of that sphere really a responsibility? At some point you have to accept you can really only impact the sphere unless you end up being a major historical figure.

I think one of life's big questions is defining the size of your sphere of responsibility. Some people decide that sphere is really big, and they go on to be those historical figures. Others define it really big, and wallow in angst, aware and powerless to the suffering. Others still define it too small, and by the end of their life, find regret that they didn't try to help those within reach.

[deleted]

Re: It's death

#67

Post by kimos »

anon-3988 wrote: post #20

This style of writing feels like the Minecraft Parkour Civilization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pFwQiwRbcg There's a perfect balance of absurdity and casualness that makes almost perfect sense that you can follow the show, and yet bizarre enough that you stick to know more.

Wow! Two hours!

Re: It's death

#68

Post by jadar »

weregiraffe wrote: post #47
jadar wrote: post #33

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Which God? Yahweh, Jesus, Allah? Brahma, Amaterasu, Ahura Mazda?

The Hebrew word used is Elohim. While the book ever explicitly uses the word, it stands to reason the author is speaking of YHWH, historically rendered as Jehovah or Yahweh. And as Jesus is the Son, the second person of the Trinity, it refers to him as well. The book is written by Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel, and hence it comes smack dab in the middle of the covenant history of Israel. Solomon describes Elohim with attributes of Jehovah throughout the book. He is the creator, sustainer, law-giver, etc. Not to mention the many times in the rest of the Scriptures that use Elohim to refer to Jehovah. Finally, the closing verses invoke the covenantal language of Israel being bound to Jehovah’s law, “Fear God and keep his commandments” would remind the original readers of Deuteronomy 6:2 or 10:12, which clearly do invoke Jehovah.

Re: It's death

#69

Post by weregiraffe »

jadar wrote: post #68
weregiraffe wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which God? Yahweh, Jesus, Allah? Brahma, Amaterasu, Ahura Mazda?

The Hebrew word used is Elohim. While the book ever explicitly uses the word, it stands to reason the author is speaking of YHWH, historically rendered as Jehovah or Yahweh. And as Jesus is the Son, the second person of the Trinity, it refers to him as well. The book is written by Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel, and hence it comes smack dab in the middle of the covenant history of Israel. Solomon descr…

Did you know that Elohim and Yahweh originally come from different polytheistic pantheons?

Re: It's death

#70

Post by weregiraffe »

TonyStr wrote: post #60
weregiraffe wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which God? Yahweh, Jesus, Allah? Brahma, Amaterasu, Ahura Mazda?

The first three are the same, and the latter three are in no way related to the passage.

They are all related by the fact that they are all fictional characters.
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