[Image] it's okay if your life feels like a great tragedy. It's okay to live without happiness or fulfillment, it only means your human and far from alone.LEJ5512 t1_j64zosf wrote
Reply to comment by cosmiccoffee9 in [Image] it's okay if your life feels like a great tragedy. It's okay to live without happiness or fulfillment, it only means your human and far from alone. by AngelicDevilz
That's what it is -- that's the key. When you reduce your longings — when you can stop stressing about a future that hasn't even arrived yet — you can begin to better appreciate the present.
AngelicDevilz OP t1_j65p987 wrote
I feel like longing for more is part of the human condition. If we were all content and happy then we would stagnate and the world would never improve.
And yet if that was the case there would be no need for improvement as we would all be happy and content and what could be a better improvement over that?
LEJ5512 t1_j65rwhg wrote
Heard a story in a podcast last night (pardon me if I paraphrase):
A fisherman went about his daily routine — go out on his little boat in the morning, catch a small amount of fish, bring it back, sell some and keep some, and then go home to relax for the rest of the afternoon.
A tourist met him and learned what he was doing and how little his one-man fishing operation was.
"You know," the tourist said, "what you can do is, if you go out again in the afternoon, you can bring back twice as much fish to sell in the market. Then after a while, you can make enough money to buy a bigger boat, and then you can catch more fish. Work hard and you can get together a small fleet of boats, and then you can make more money and sell more fish. Then you keep doing this for a while longer until you make lots of money and become the boss of a large company. And then, finally, you'd have enough money and free time to relax in the afternoons."
The fisherman leaned back in his chair and smiled quietly.
HomoVulgaris t1_j66beqj wrote
Similar stories abound, but stories like this didn't land a man on the moon.
A bunny is happy if it is dry and fed. A human also. But a human who denies all aspects of himself except those which he shares with the bunny will live, by definition, as a happy animal: a degenerate.
We are given desperately little time on Earth. Should we not use this time to, even in some small way, ease the path of those that will come after us? Is there any other moral option?
The man who leans back in his chair and smiles quietly believes he is enjoying the fruits of his labor, but is it not closer to the truth to say that he is living off the collective efforts of the civilization around him as much as by his own labor? Standing on the shoulders of giants, he decides he would rather sit.
notyurmamma t1_j66jbku wrote
Honest questions: What has landing on the moon really done for society? How does it add to the greater good of anything? I get that being able to launch satellites into orbit has created an entirely different technological infrastructure, but I don’t know that the moon landing really contributed anything more.
The man who sits back in his chair really IS enjoying the fruits of his labor. He likes his life the way it is. He could work harder, but the end goal in the story after building his fishing empire is enjoying his afternoon off. He has that now. He isn’t denying himself anything.
HomoVulgaris t1_j673dnv wrote
Honest answer: The truth is that nobody could have predicted the impact of satellite technology. So the researchers of the 1950s couldn't get to satellite technology directly: they had no idea it existed. The only way to discover it was to shoot for the moon. They strove towards a goal which, in retrospect, was foolhardy: the exploration of an interstellar hunk of rock with nothing particularly noteworthy on its surface. However, it was this goal, as well as the equally foolhardy and impossible goal of "stop communism" that provided the impetus for the discovery of much of the technology of the information age.
You'll recall that the explorers of North America had similar foolhardy goals about spice islands and cities of gold. The medieval alchemists who invented modern chemistry did so with the stated goal of discovering the elixir of life, the cure-all, and the philosopher's stone. On the one hand, what childish vanities these ancients tried to obtain! On the other hand, what wonders they discovered in the process!
The man in the chair definitely isn't denying himself anything! We agree. He is denying, however, something that he owes to humanity: leaving this planet Earth better than you found it.
notyurmamma t1_j678qf5 wrote
I believe that the overriding consensus is that we are not leaving earth better than we found it. Pollution from plastics and micro-plastics, carbon emissions, chemical irritants, all man-made substances, invading our air, soil, and water…depleting our ecosystems. This impetus, this “progression,” at times foolhardy..this deterioration…driven by ego and greed and childish vanity…are we that much better off? Are we closer to a sustainable planet? A sustainable economy? A sustainable life? Not really. I think that is the point of this entire conversation. People sought out spices and decimated native cultures. People sought out other territories and eventually fought for control. Would war even be an issue if not for greed? If not for control and leverage and “furthering” one’s position? There is a tipping point. At which point do you trade happiness in the sake of “progression?” I don’t particularly know, but I feel like on the whole, we have surpassed it.
AngelicDevilz OP t1_j6836tx wrote
Humans work more of their lives today in 2022 than we did at any point in the past. Progression has led to more work, less freedom, less freedom and more laws and more prison time than in the past. The old man isn't making things better but he isn't making things worse, the young lad who wants a fishing empire contributes to making the World worse for 99% of people whilst improving it only for those so rich they have never had to worry about not being able to afford both rent And food.
I'd choose happiness for most humans over cars and smartphones any day.
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