You're not wrong. The men of my family has had a tradition for several generations of going on a "walz" in the sense of the german tradesman from the 17th century. It's because in order to start our lives, we have to go where the opportunities are, and perhaps with luck we'll get to come back home once we've build something of our lives. If there was enough opportunity right here we wouldn't have to go on a walz.
I just finished reading "Notes from the underground". The last thing he does in the book does align with the first things he said in his book, that he's a terrible person and that he would destroy paradise just to have something interesting happen. Sort of a sad ending. I guess though that it wouldn't be russian literature if it had a happy ending.
It's sad, but I feel like I can see a postmodern man in the underground man. Filled with a paradoxical self-loathing and self-aggrandizement, and filled with post-hoc rationalizations for bad behavior. I know people like him, and I think it's some disconnect from our human nature that would result in such a toxicity. Although our current world isn't perfect, one can easily live better than kings of old, and worry about nothing but the propagation of the species and eating cakes, but it isn't what makes men happy. On the other hand, just like the underground man, once a vindication might approach, such postmodern men will talk themselves out of it.
I feel like maybe there's something of a theme I've written about before elsewhere, the difference between natural gifts and earned accomplishments. The Underground man is highly intelligent, very well read, but lacks wisdom. That's why he must be miserable, because ultimately without wisdom intelligence is pure potential. Just like uncontrolled energy it can do things that are beneficial but equally it can do things that are harmful.
In the same way, postmodern man is the most intelligent in the history of the world. The best fed, the best raised, the most well-read (though not through books but through the omnipresent media in front of us such as television or the Internet), and their mothers took care of them in the womb the best knowing what will and will not harm them. But that unbridled potential can be used to justify anything, good or evil. Without wisdom to guide them...
Postmodernism can be a useful philosophy, but not by itself. By itself, it looks at wisdom and claims it can't be real because nothing is real, particularly if it's something our minds. You can look at the lessons of the past and just say "no, those ancestors of ours weren't so wise, they didn't even have postmodernism!" I think that poses a key difference between the underground man and postmodern man. The former lacks wisdom, but the latter can actively reject it as a core tenet of his philosophy. The former may someday find wisdom, the latter will go out of their way to avoid it.
It's sad, but I feel like I can see a postmodern man in the underground man. Filled with a paradoxical self-loathing and self-aggrandizement, and filled with post-hoc rationalizations for bad behavior. I know people like him, and I think it's some disconnect from our human nature that would result in such a toxicity. Although our current world isn't perfect, one can easily live better than kings of old, and worry about nothing but the propagation of the species and eating cakes, but it isn't what makes men happy. On the other hand, just like the underground man, once a vindication might approach, such postmodern men will talk themselves out of it.
I feel like maybe there's something of a theme I've written about before elsewhere, the difference between natural gifts and earned accomplishments. The Underground man is highly intelligent, very well read, but lacks wisdom. That's why he must be miserable, because ultimately without wisdom intelligence is pure potential. Just like uncontrolled energy it can do things that are beneficial but equally it can do things that are harmful.
In the same way, postmodern man is the most intelligent in the history of the world. The best fed, the best raised, the most well-read (though not through books but through the omnipresent media in front of us such as television or the Internet), and their mothers took care of them in the womb the best knowing what will and will not harm them. But that unbridled potential can be used to justify anything, good or evil. Without wisdom to guide them...
Postmodernism can be a useful philosophy, but not by itself. By itself, it looks at wisdom and claims it can't be real because nothing is real, particularly if it's something our minds. You can look at the lessons of the past and just say "no, those ancestors of ours weren't so wise, they didn't even have postmodernism!" I think that poses a key difference between the underground man and postmodern man. The former lacks wisdom, but the latter can actively reject it as a core tenet of his philosophy. The former may someday find wisdom, the latter will go out of their way to avoid it.
I'm sure there is (I think disney had a series for every property back in the 90s), but no I mean the animated movie.
It seems like anti-natalism is a post-hoc justification for people who are forced by circumstance not to have kids, either because they cant find a good mate or because they live in expensive and crowded cities where the cant justify the time or money expense or dont have the space, or because they have biological reasons they shouldn't or can't.
That being said, today I was reflecting on Richard Dawkins' concept of memetics. People have taken the concept in a vacuum to mean only ideas that can survive do so, but I think that the concept can be expanded to the survival and replication of the beings who have those ideas. Imagine a hypothetical belief that one should immediately kill themselves. Anyone who believes such an idea and puts it into practice will not be around, and their ideas will end with them. Let's take another hypothetical belief that you must do everything you can to survive, reproduce fruitfully, and pass that belief onto your offspring. Of course, such an idea would be more widespread because it was being passed on, but it would also be more widespread because the people with that belief would survive and thrive too.
Although certain ideologies appear to be thriving, they are destined to die out as the people who hold them die out. On long enough time frames, ideas that protect the people who hold them will outcompete ideas that end the bloodlines of anyone who hold them.
That being said, today I was reflecting on Richard Dawkins' concept of memetics. People have taken the concept in a vacuum to mean only ideas that can survive do so, but I think that the concept can be expanded to the survival and replication of the beings who have those ideas. Imagine a hypothetical belief that one should immediately kill themselves. Anyone who believes such an idea and puts it into practice will not be around, and their ideas will end with them. Let's take another hypothetical belief that you must do everything you can to survive, reproduce fruitfully, and pass that belief onto your offspring. Of course, such an idea would be more widespread because it was being passed on, but it would also be more widespread because the people with that belief would survive and thrive too.
Although certain ideologies appear to be thriving, they are destined to die out as the people who hold them die out. On long enough time frames, ideas that protect the people who hold them will outcompete ideas that end the bloodlines of anyone who hold them.
"Hoh, you're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me?"
"I can't fuck the shit out of you without getting closer."
"I can't fuck the shit out of you without getting closer."
I don't actually want my goods and services taking a side politically.
But I'd buy the shit out of this beer...
But I'd buy the shit out of this beer...
Isn't it great that we can once again tear children away from their mothers because nobody can afford to survive without two incomes?
Yaaay thank you omnipresent state! The shecovery is such a wonderful shebomination
Yaaay thank you omnipresent state! The shecovery is such a wonderful shebomination
Lowkey President Kamala would be hilarious. Imagine her using infantile language to describe every single thing that happens.
"A budget is when a bunch of people decide what to spend money on and what not to spend money on" thanks but how are you going to deal with the impending government shutdowns?
"A budget is when a bunch of people decide what to spend money on and what not to spend money on" thanks but how are you going to deal with the impending government shutdowns?
Imagine being such a control freak that you'd shut down an entire protocol from talking to you.
Man, I'd hate running my sites if I had to micromanage like that!
Man, I'd hate running my sites if I had to micromanage like that!
The proof in the pudding is in the eating.
Neither covid nor the covid vaccine were the harbingers of death warned about. Both made a bunch of people sick, but the worst part about the latter is it didn't really help prevent the former.
Even WHO data puts four years of covid deaths at orders of magnitude less deaths than two years of the 1918 Spanish flu, despite there being 4 times more people on earth than there was back then.
Four years of Canadian covid deaths about match two years of Spanish flu deaths, despite the population of Canada at the time being nearly one quarter of what it is today.
Some people claim there's a form of covid AIDS going around, but there's been 4 years for that to manifest and what we see is people moving on with their lives, not millions of people dying of covid AIDS in the 4 years and now uncountable cases that have occurred.
When it comes to "long covid" or chronic effects of a pathogen, I think both tuberculosis and polio were massively larger threats, both with imminent, obvious, chronic danger posed to those who get it most of the time. Compared to a small percentage having some chronic effects, I don't think there's a comparison. Give me covid 10 times before I'd want polio once.
Prior to antibiotics, tuberculosis could either be active or it could lay latent for a period of time, so you might be carrying it despite being symptom free, after that you could start spreading it. It was a major problem in Canada's history, spreading like wildfire through cities and native reserves and taking many lives in the process and permanently harming many others. Estimates vary, but tuberculosis was estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people in Canada's early history, and measurably and permanently damaged the lungs of tens of thousands more. It wasn't something you needed a study to know was going on, you just needed to look around you and see the damage. As many as half of people who got TB were permanently harmed by it, and it was clear, you didn't need to get out your micrometer to measure it.
Neither covid nor the covid vaccine were the harbingers of death warned about. Both made a bunch of people sick, but the worst part about the latter is it didn't really help prevent the former.
Even WHO data puts four years of covid deaths at orders of magnitude less deaths than two years of the 1918 Spanish flu, despite there being 4 times more people on earth than there was back then.
Four years of Canadian covid deaths about match two years of Spanish flu deaths, despite the population of Canada at the time being nearly one quarter of what it is today.
Some people claim there's a form of covid AIDS going around, but there's been 4 years for that to manifest and what we see is people moving on with their lives, not millions of people dying of covid AIDS in the 4 years and now uncountable cases that have occurred.
When it comes to "long covid" or chronic effects of a pathogen, I think both tuberculosis and polio were massively larger threats, both with imminent, obvious, chronic danger posed to those who get it most of the time. Compared to a small percentage having some chronic effects, I don't think there's a comparison. Give me covid 10 times before I'd want polio once.
Prior to antibiotics, tuberculosis could either be active or it could lay latent for a period of time, so you might be carrying it despite being symptom free, after that you could start spreading it. It was a major problem in Canada's history, spreading like wildfire through cities and native reserves and taking many lives in the process and permanently harming many others. Estimates vary, but tuberculosis was estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people in Canada's early history, and measurably and permanently damaged the lungs of tens of thousands more. It wasn't something you needed a study to know was going on, you just needed to look around you and see the damage. As many as half of people who got TB were permanently harmed by it, and it was clear, you didn't need to get out your micrometer to measure it.
We need to increase the only 100% effective measure, MAAID.
Everyone who thinks we need to exercise perpetual authoritarian control over millions of people so they don't get sick should immediately participate. It's the ONLY treatment 100% effective against both getting and spreading COVID. Nobody who successfully received the treatment later suffered from long covid!
In fact, not only does it provide 100% protection against COVID, it also provides 100% protection against terrorism, so everyone who thinks we need to exercise perpetual authoritarian control over millions of people so we don't get caught in a terrorist attack should immediately participate as well. Of the people who successfully receive the treatment, there have been 0 killed in terrorist attacks of any kind!
Everyone who thinks we need to exercise perpetual authoritarian control over millions of people so they don't get sick should immediately participate. It's the ONLY treatment 100% effective against both getting and spreading COVID. Nobody who successfully received the treatment later suffered from long covid!
In fact, not only does it provide 100% protection against COVID, it also provides 100% protection against terrorism, so everyone who thinks we need to exercise perpetual authoritarian control over millions of people so we don't get caught in a terrorist attack should immediately participate as well. Of the people who successfully receive the treatment, there have been 0 killed in terrorist attacks of any kind!