The Philosophy Discussion Forum

Sometimes I actually feel happy. But then I think more about it and realize that there is nothing to be happy about except that I am not suffering. And unlike happiness, there is always something to suffer about, if we put our minds to it.

How does one get rid of the "I'm a lab rat stuck in a maze" feeling that one may sometimes get from technology? I feel like technology manipulates me as much as I manipulate it.

if you don't want to be a rat, be the big cheese...

-Imp

Impenitent wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2026 3:33 pm if you don't want to be a rat, be the big cheese...

-Imp

Makes sense. I wonder if the moon was made of envious cheese.

Sometimes it seems like all religions are born in hierarchy. Jesus' answer to hierarchy was to say that the least are the most and the most are the least. As Jesus is reputed to have said: "the greatest among you will be your servant," I suppose that's why Nietzsche called Christianity a "slave" religion. But was Nietzsche mocking Christianity, or was Nietzsche telling the truth?

Did God create humans as hierarchical creatures? Yet another mistake God made in his creation: endless strife.

But the highest insult is to believe that God made 'mistakes'. And that is sacrilege.

With Buddhism, on the other hand, everyone is a deity; everyone is 'sacred'.

Maybe that's why there is Zen Buddhism, mockery from the plebians.

Every 'solution' to hierarchy has its Achilles' heel. There are flaws in everything except God him or herself. The world is a shitfest.

And Noam Chomsky became an 'authority' on Anarchism. What he says goes, the overthrow of Western Civilization.

Anarchy for the sake of anarchy is ultimately the slave's answer.

It's all about who makes the decisions.

But are all decision-makers wrong any more than all decision-makers are right?

We should help one another and save our world from disaster. Only the wrong would mock such a goal.

Unless, of course, the privileged aren't working efficiently toward the goal.