Philosophy Now Forum

Greta wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:45 am Yet there are some sickening types who are beautiful, brilliant, creative, decent, high achieving, athletic and so on, so I am not sure what happened to the swings there

Any examples? I was reading recently about your own 'Thorpedo' who seemed to have everything, but has a major drug problem. People who seem to 'have it all' most often have anything but.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmx--WjeN7o

https://www.godupdates.com/11-yr-old-wi ... mpaign=04/

vegetariantaxidermy wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 8:54 am

Greta wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:45 am Yet there are some sickening types who are beautiful, brilliant, creative, decent, high achieving, athletic and so on, so I am not sure what happened to the swings there

Any examples? I was reading recently about your own 'Thorpedo' who seemed to have everything, but has a major drug problem. People who seem to 'have it all' most often have anything but.

Fair point. It's always harder to manage "in here" than it looks from the outside. It reminds me of work, where other people's jobs always seemed easier than one's own. I can't bring names to mind but I'm often amazed at some people's motivation, focus, talent, determination, creativity and courage.

vegetariantaxidermy wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 8:54 am

Greta wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 7:45 am Yet there are some sickening types who are beautiful, brilliant, creative, decent, high achieving, athletic and so on, so I am not sure what happened to the swings there

Any examples? I was reading recently about your own 'Thorpedo' who seemed to have everything, but has a major drug problem. People who seem to 'have it all' most often have anything but.

Some examples not necessarily AS or ASD, are rock musicians and basically any very young stellar achievers in the arts and humanities.

The early fame creates incredibly high highs.The feeling does not extend, it becomes stale. Even with the constant compliments coming form the public, from the entourage, from the groupies. (Male or female, homo- or hetero.)

So to continue the sharp upswing caused by immense amounts of (immerse here the name of brain chemical that makes you feel pleasure), and to offset the decline of the same chemicals, one turns to drugs like Heroine, Smack, Sprock, SMTP, Sputz, Shrang, Streap, Tutz, Holm, Crack, etc. etc.

Greta wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:28 pm Fair point. It's always harder to manage "in here" than it looks from the outside. It reminds me of work, where other people's jobs always seemed easier than one's own.

What this reminded me of was class pictures, group pictures with a club or with a church, a hiking club, rowing club, sex club, you name it. In it people are not only smiling, but embracing, or showing other gestures of extreme warmth, closeness, caring. Whereas in real life the relationships are distant, volved (opposed to involved), callous. So then I looked at my groups' photos (where I was not present) and saw the same "warm" gestures between "cold" friends.

The strangeness struck me mainly because I suffer (I am not suffering... just an expression) from being on the Autism spectacle, or spectrum, and I can't pretend to show emotions; it's hard enough to show my real emotions, which happens after a real work-out of GETTING in touch with my emotions.

So this "easier on the other side of the grass" reflects many ways, in social settings as well as in Christmas letters, and many, many other manifests.

In fact, after watching the Jason Bourne movies end-to-end for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but fantasize that each guy or gal who gets out of a car, or buys a subway ticket, or reads the newspaper on a park bench is a spy... I mean, there is nary a difference in attitude, appearance and ulterior motives between a regulation human and a spy. Esp. a sci-fi hi-fi psy spy. Say that fast ten times.

-1- wrote: ↑Sun Apr 29, 2018 2:15 pm

Greta wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:28 pmFair point. It's always harder to manage "in here" than it looks from the outside. It reminds me of work, where other people's jobs always seemed easier than one's own.

What this reminded me of was class pictures, group pictures with a club or with a church, a hiking club, rowing club, sex club, you name it. In it people are not only smiling, but embracing, or showing other gestures of extreme warmth, closeness, caring. Whereas in real life the relationships are distant, volved (opposed to involved), callous. So then I looked at my groups' photos (where I was not present) and saw the same "warm" gestures between "cold" friends.

The strangeness struck me mainly because I suffer (I am not suffering... just an expression) from being on the Autism spectacle, or spectrum, and I can't pretend to show emotions; it's hard enough to show my real emotions, which happens after a real work-out of GETTING in touch with my emotions.

I suggest that the staged shots of photos more truly reflect the deeper bonds between people than if they expressed their skirmishes. Even though they don't feel it at the time, at a deeper level, often just in abstract form, is knowledge of the deep bonds between all of humanity, and other life for that matter. People often judge humanity by its worst excesses, but they can also be viewed by the countless instances of selfless attempts to help others, including helping wild animals.

People today take for granted the enormous efforts of our ancestors to save their generation and future ones from the privations and dangers of the wild, hugely improving the quality of their descendants' lives with their industry and creativity. I, for one, do not yearn to live in the wild "naturally" in some "unspoiled paradise" in "harmony with nature" - mainly because that life would be very short, uncomfortable and painful.