A Failure of Democracy

[Gary Childress]

But that wasn't the question. "Why," was not the issue. And I didn't propose to explain why Elon Musk has billions, and some people in the US, (minus government benefits, which are never included in these statistics, for some reason) live on only 14,000 and some a year. And that had nothing to do with the message of the video, either.

The question was whether on not anybody had anything to be grateful for, along with whatever "tiles" are missing in their lives that give them an incentive to feel discontentment.

If you live in the US AT ALL, as Gary does, you do unquestionably have some reasons for gratitude. You may not see them, because you're preoccupied with what you don't have. You may not see them because your eye is envious of others who have more. You may not see them because you don't care about the 2/3 of the world who live in much greater poverty than you know anything about. You may not see them because you're an ungrateful boor who has no idea how to be happy. But that you don't see them doesn't mean you don't have them -- and if you'd see them, you'd have a lot more joy in your self-pitying, self-absorbed, ungrateful life.

That's the point. That others around you may have more or less than you is neither here nor there in the question of your ability to recognize that you have some reasons for gratitude.

So do you see now that socialism...

No. It's YOU, Gary. The whole thing is about YOU.

Sheesh.

So the homeless around me don't deserve my compassion? Trump is perfectly fine to start a war with Iran killing other human beings, using our taxes the we as Americans paid to pay for the bloodbath? I'm just supposed to "shake it all off" and be happy and "mind my own affairs" and then I'll never feel the pangs of compassion for the poor or victims of war? There's no need to stand for social justice, for victims, for the marginalized because I'll be so happy, that like you I won't care about those things. Is that correct? Otherwise, you've turned very weird and stupid and I don't know why.

[phyllo]

One can take the personal (Gary) out of the equation and simply discuss what kind of help and support the poor ought to get from the government. (Or some other social issue)

[Immanuel Can]

So do you see now that socialism...

No. It's YOU, Gary. The whole thing is about YOU.

Sheesh.

So the homeless around me don't deserve my compassion?

Determined to change the subject, I see. Determined to talk about everybody else, but not about Gary.

Okay, Gary...I see where you're coming from. You love your own misery. You won't surrender any part of it.

Well, then, I guess all I can do is leave you to it. I can't pry it from your fingers. But the "missing tile" syndrome is still a really important part of why you don't like your life.

[FlashDangerpants]

One can take the personal (Gary) out of the equation and simply discuss what kind of help and support the poor ought to get from the government. (Or some other social issue)

Indeed. Homelessness is a fixable issue in any society that adopts a suitable policy to fix it. The best example I know of is Finland.

https://www.spiegel.de/international/eu ... 68c5b109d9

How Finland Conquered Homelessness
For years, the number of homeless people has been rising in Europe. But not in Finland. The country's Housing First program aims to eliminate the problem by 2027. But how?
By Jan Petter in Helsinki
12.02.2024, 19.26 Uhr

Vehi Hinkka says that he really enjoys showering. But how exactly? Warm or cold? Long or short? Hinkka, a 54-year-old with neatly combed gray hair, a prominent nose and rough skin, thinks for a bit. He rubs his chin with his outstreched right index finger and thumb, apparently really considering it. His gaze wanders across the bare white walls. "So, umm," he says, "I don’t totally understand the question. I just really like showering, all kinds."

Hinkka, it seems, is no longer used to people taking an interest in his life. Nor, apparently, is he accustomed to being able to decide how and for how long he showers.

Hinkka spent much of the last five years living in emergency shelters and on the streets. On good days, acquaintances would let him sleep in their apartments. He has been a steady drinker for the last 23 years, says Hinkka – about as long as the time period since he last had a job. And yet here he is, in a rather bare one-room apartment with an easy chair, a bed and a kitchenette. For the last 10 months and nine days, Vehi Hinkka has had his own apartment. He still remembers the exact date he moved in: February 10, 2023. Now, he can invite friends to come visit him and play host. He can cook, and he can shower whenever he wants. Last summer, he says, he showered 10 times a day, really, no exaggeration. Simply because he felt like it.

Vehi Hinkka is no longer homeless. But he still hasn’t returned to health, either. Addiction has left its mark on his body and it continues to define his life. Yet he was still granted an apartment and trusted to pay his rent every month, which he does. He smiles shyly as he talks about it.

...

The point of having an economy and jobs and currency and taxes isn't to make money, money is imaginary and should not be the point of anything at all. We do all this economy stuff in order to mange the distribution of scarce resources. But if we allow people to fester in homelessness, we have done that job badly. There are plenty of resources available in any modern developed country for the housing, clothing and feeding of those whose situation has become dire.

[Gary Childress]

No. It's YOU, Gary. The whole thing is about YOU.

Sheesh.

So the homeless around me don't deserve my compassion?

Determined to change the subject, I see. Determined to talk about everybody else, but not about Gary.

Okay, Gary...I see where you're coming from. You love your own misery. You won't surrender any part of it.

Well, then, I guess all I can do is leave you to it. I can't pry it from your fingers. But the "missing tile" syndrome is still a really important part of why you don't like your life.

Ok. So clinical depression is caused by "missing tile syndrome.". Good to know.

[Immanuel Can]

So the homeless around me don't deserve my compassion?

Determined to change the subject, I see. Determined to talk about everybody else, but not about Gary.

Okay, Gary...I see where you're coming from. You love your own misery. You won't surrender any part of it.

Well, then, I guess all I can do is leave you to it. I can't pry it from your fingers. But the "missing tile" syndrome is still a really important part of why you don't like your life.

Ok. So clinical depression is caused by "missing tile syndrome.". Good to know.

Clinical depression is your missing ceiling tile. It's the one wrong thing you use to be grateful for nothing else. And that's why you're miserable. You think you've got nothing going for you, because you deny everything you've got going for you.

What offer do you imagine you're making to a woman? Is it, "Come and be as miserable as I am? Come and be grateful for nothing? Come and whine about how other people's prosperity is unfair, and hate your life?" And you wonder why they won't take you up on that offer?

They wouldn't have a nice life. I'm pretty sure you're not having one now. But hey, you seem to want that kind of life, so it's what you get. Just don't be surprised if nobody wants to share it.

[Gary Childress]

Determined to change the subject, I see. Determined to talk about everybody else, but not about Gary.

Okay, Gary...I see where you're coming from. You love your own misery. You won't surrender any part of it.

Well, then, I guess all I can do is leave you to it. I can't pry it from your fingers. But the "missing tile" syndrome is still a really important part of why you don't like your life.

Ok. So clinical depression is caused by "missing tile syndrome.". Good to know.

Come and whine about how other people's prosperity is unfair, and hate your life?"

That's all socialism is about, correct, unhappy people whining about the prosperity of the upper 1% who own society and who are pillaging the world at everyone else's expense. There's nothing at all wrong with that? Fairness is irrelevant if everyone else just accepts the world as it is and focus on our own happiness?

[Immanuel Can]

Ok. So clinical depression is caused by "missing tile syndrome.". Good to know.

Come and whine about how other people's prosperity is unfair, and hate your life?"

That's all socialism is about...

No, Gary...you. You.

You've never figured out that the man you make yourself is the man you have to offer to a woman. And the life you've made for yourself is the one you have to offer her to share.

That nobody's taken you up on that offer should tell you everything you need to know.

[phyllo]

No, Gary...you. You.

You've never figured out that the man you make yourself is the man you have to offer to a woman. And the life you've made for yourself is the one you have to offer her to share.

That nobody's taken you up on that offer should tell you everything you need to know.

FFS. Leave him alone.

[Gary Childress]

Come and whine about how other people's prosperity is unfair, and hate your life?"

That's all socialism is about...

No, Gary...you. You.

You've never figured out that the man you make yourself is the man you have to offer to a woman. And the life you've made for yourself is the one you have to offer her to share.

That nobody's taken you up on that offer should tell you everything you need to know.

So in order to get a woman, one of the things I would have to do is to "stop whining about other people's prosperity" is that correct?

[Immanuel Can]

That's all socialism is about...

No, Gary...you. You.

You've never figured out that the man you make yourself is the man you have to offer to a woman. And the life you've made for yourself is the one you have to offer her to share.

That nobody's taken you up on that offer should tell you everything you need to know.

So in order to get a woman, one of the things I would have to do is to "stop whining about other people's prosperity" is that correct?

I'm not being mean, Gary. And I'm not talking politics. I'm telling you something that could change your life, if you only understood it.

What you make of yourself is what you have to offer. The life that you have is the measure of the life you have to offer to share. That logic is so simple that nobody can miss it.

What whole "ceiling tiles" do you have? See that, and you'll see what you have to offer. If you don't think you have any, you've got nothing to offer.

In fact, I can tell you the guaranteed route to get any girl you want. Guaranteed.

You want to know what it is?

Become the kind of man that kind of girl would want. Dead simple.

[Gary Childress]

No, Gary...you. You.

You've never figured out that the man you make yourself is the man you have to offer to a woman. And the life you've made for yourself is the one you have to offer her to share.

That nobody's taken you up on that offer should tell you everything you need to know.

So in order to get a woman, one of the things I would have to do is to "stop whining about other people's prosperity" is that correct?

I'm not being mean, Gary. And I'm not talking politics. I'm telling you something that could change your life, if you only understood it.

What you make of yourself is what you have to offer. The life that you have is the measure of the life you have to offer to share. That logic is so simple that nobody can miss it.

What whole "ceiling tiles" do you have? See that, and you'll see what you have to offer. If you don't think you have any, you've got nothing to offer.

I'm very aware that I have nothing but dysfunction to offer a woman. I've given up on that aspiration. Not sure why you are suddenly worried about my happiness. Don't you think you'd be happier not worrying about the happiness of someone with clinical depression? Isn't that your "missing tile" right now?

[Immanuel Can]

So in order to get a woman, one of the things I would have to do is to "stop whining about other people's prosperity" is that correct?

I'm not being mean, Gary. And I'm not talking politics. I'm telling you something that could change your life, if you only understood it.

What you make of yourself is what you have to offer. The life that you have is the measure of the life you have to offer to share. That logic is so simple that nobody can miss it.

What whole "ceiling tiles" do you have? See that, and you'll see what you have to offer. If you don't think you have any, you've got nothing to offer.

I'm very aware that I have nothing but dysfunction to offer a woman.

Then all you'd ever attract is a dysfunctional woman. So it's better that...

I've given up on that aspiration.

However, you do have some things going for you, some "whole tiles" that you're not aware of, apparently. For one thing, you don't seem stupid. So that's something. You own a computer. So that's something. You're athletic enough to play tennis. So that's something. And if you happened to be a kind person, that would attract a kind person. And if you had some financial means, you could attract somebody who could depend on you. And if you were about some particular value, you could attract somebody who values the same things...

There are ceiling tiles here, Gary. And not all of them are missing. You just have to decide if you're ever going to recognize any of them, or just focus on the black hole.

It doesn't mean the black hole isn't there. It just means it doesn't need to suck every bit of light out of your life.

[FlashDangerpants]

Immanuel Can singing Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is almost enough to give me clinical depression.

Luckily I scrunched up my sphincter just in time to prevent his ingress this time.

[phyllo]

Welcome to the gratitude circle known as Philosophy Now Forum.