Humanity's biggest issue is consciousness
#1
It's being so conscious that allows us to feel desired, undesired, hurt, vulnerable, upset, worried, anxious, excited, optimistic, and pessimistic. Our awareness is the issue and the motivator to seek security for no real greater reason. Ask yourself, what greater reason is there? How long will you live? What happens after that? Well we know that we decompose into nothingness. The survival of your memory isn't even absolute or guaranteed. 

Your dog doesn't worry about what he's going to do tomorrow. He or she lives in the present, adapting to the surrounding environment. This is why humans can so easily condemn animals to suffering, right? This is how we end up being able to house animals in slaughter houses and kill them at will. It's because they lack the ability to reason with us. 

Do you think if cows could talk and reason, that they'd be living like they are, as tools for our own self-serving desires?

Serial killers almost always have no conscience. They can kill because they don't have emotion. In a sense humanity's biggest flaw straddles the ability to feel good and bad, and in serial killers you face the terrible absence of both. If they can't feel good, they can't feel bad, so the only expression left to pursue is that of power. Ted Bundy said that murder is not about revenge or anger, but possession.

To feel good, we must feel bad, because feelings are merely contrasts. They aren't subject to strict definitions that are capable of meaning on their own. One gives meaning to the other. And if you can't experience either, you can't live among us without killing everyone, because you no longer have inhibitions. It's okay to kill someone because you don't feel fear, or even excitement; you are incapable of feeling. And when you're incapable of feeling, you do what your animalistic instinct tells you to do; kill other people. Animals mindlessly kill each other in the wild only to reproduce a copy of themselves and this goes on for years and years. It doesn't go anywhere. There is no finality. What is the merit in hunting, tearing and eating other animals just to pass on the same meaningless life to their offspring? It's idiotic at its core. We are animals with a moral compass that we use to create some kind of social order, which is a byproduct of our heightened awareness. In a sense, awareness is a necessary evil but it negates blissful ignorance; that of a child, or an animal. 

Of course the key to happiness is distraction; through money, academics, travelling, food, women, men, drugs, drinking, but there is no end goal. There is nothing that once reached, guarantees happiness but it may guarantee indulgence in activities that conduce happiness. The momentary laughter represents detachment from a mind that reflects too much, and a sense of power in being able to manipulate its inherent flaws. 

If you spend too much time thinking of this, you will either feel empowered or depressed. The indelible conclusion is that life is pointless and everything is designed to distract you from that realization. Don't forget that you need to pay to bury yourself.
"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."  - Abraham Maslow
Reply
#2
Brutal reality.
Reply
#3
It doesn't make me depressed because I'm nothing special. I'm not rich, powerful or bowed down to. I have nothing I'm afraid of losing in death.
Reply
#4
(03-25-2017, 04:29 AM)AtlasShrugged Wrote: It doesn't make me depressed because I'm nothing special. I'm not rich, powerful or bowed down to. I have nothing I'm afraid of losing in death.


Fair point.

Society continually stresses the importance of individuality, but the harsh reality is that we're all condemned to live strikingly similar lives without much variation between us.

This is why traffic peaks at the same time, why most people are only free on weekends, and why you'll be scolded if you choose to deviate from the status quo. It seems that creativity is encouraged but when it's finally practised, it's condemned and met with derision. 

You can be as creative as you like, as long as you're not better than the person you're preaching your creativity to. As long as you're poorer and inferior to the person in front of you, your creativity is accepted and you will be pushed to implement your ideas.
"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."  - Abraham Maslow
Reply
#5
(03-25-2017, 04:48 AM)Vitriol Wrote: Fair point.

Society continually stresses the importance of individuality, but the harsh reality is that we're all condemned to live strikingly similar lives without much variation between us.

This is why traffic peaks at the same time, why most people are only free on weekends, and why you'll be scolded if you choose to deviate from the status quo. It seems that creativity is encouraged but when it's finally practised, it's condemned and met with derision. 

You can be as creative as you like, as long as you're not better than the person you're preaching your creativity to. As long as you're poorer and inferior to the person in front of you, your creativity is accepted and you will be pushed to implement your ideas.

I hate that you're right. This world needs a meteorite.  :hi:
Reply
#6
haha
"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."  - Abraham Maslow
Reply
#7
draconian thread

Rock Clap
Reply
#8
(03-25-2017, 04:48 AM)Vitriol Wrote: Fair point.

Society continually stresses the importance of individuality, but the harsh reality is that we're all condemned to live strikingly similar lives without much variation between us.

This is why traffic peaks at the same time, why most people are only free on weekends, and why you'll be scolded if you choose to deviate from the status quo. It seems that creativity is encouraged but when it's finally practised, it's condemned and met with derision. 

You can be as creative as you like, as long as you're not better than the person you're preaching your creativity to. As long as you're poorer and inferior to the person in front of you, your creativity is accepted and you will be pushed to implement your ideas.


highly legit
Reply
#9
Amen. You should run for president.
Reply
#10
I'm not paying a dime. Animals can eat my corpse. I don't give a shit
Reply