For the discussion of all things philosophical.
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More than harsh. We would have lost the sonnets of Shakespeare, Homers Iliad and Odyssey, and much more beside.Thundril wrote:My younger son used to say (just after he'd got over his Goth phase) 'Anyone who's still writing poetry after the age of twenty should have their pencils confiscated.'
A bit harsh, but I think I know what he meant.
It sounds like you are very worried about going the way of your grandmother. Did all your grandparents get alzheimer's? I think you maybe need to talk to a counsellor about these fears. You could also try to address your sleep apnea as lack of rest can cause melancholic thoughts.What's worse is I'll probably forget everything I learn within a few months anyway.
Even by biblical standards you have another thirty-odd years and these ones are in full reason so about the same time you've already had. Do you think your life has been a waste so far? If so then I think you need to start answering the questions, "What do I want?", "What will it do for me?", "Whats stopping me?", "How will I know when I've got it?", "Is what I want compatible with my other wants?".There isn't that much more to go anyway. It seems like a wasted effort, all in vain. ...
Yeah, more education will make me more "marketable". Is that what it's all about? Just doing what it takes to stay alive and prosperous a little longer. How depressing it all seems right now.
Take it from me, a philosophy course will not, in general, make you more marketable. If you are seeking more gainful employment then I'd choose something else.Any chance to punt your pet-theories eh! You are such a knob!Typist wrote:Perhaps you are suffering from the religion of atheism?
You seem to be assuming that death is final and that thus life has no meaning. You seem pretty certain that you know this. If this is your worldview, you are of course entitled to it, and it's not really our business to try to change you.
Speaking more generally about atheism, we can observe it's conclusions are based on nothing. We can observe that this worldview is every bit as much faith as any religion. We can observe that atheism apparently isn't ready to be honest about it's relationship with faith.
We can observe that this worldview has nothing much to offer folks at those moments in their life when they need it the most.
We can observe that many of atheism's most ardent advocates seem filled with negativity and cynicism long before their own personal encounter with mortality.
Is the problem disease and death?
Or is the problem the way we look upon these realities?
As the song goes, I'm tired of living but scared of dying.chaz wyman wrote: Stop moaning then! Why are you living at all?
Obsessing about an inevitability against which we have no power is a fruitless and depressing activity.Gary Childress wrote:As the song goes, I'm tired of living but scared of dying.chaz wyman wrote: Stop moaning then! Why are you living at all?
I want you to take this away with you.
In what way is being scared of dying different from being scared of living?
It seems to me you are actually scared of living.
Go out and do something! Do something different! Take up sculpture in your spare time! Remember you will one day be dead so it does not matter if you are shit at it.
Go and read a book from an author you would never have thought is reading. Find a walk in the country you have never trod. Phone someone you care about and tell them they are great.
Maybe it's a mid life crisis. I don't know. But I don't appreciate being told by certain people that I need to "grow up" or that I'm "pissed" when I'm not. I had hoped that philosophers would be able to relate with each other a little better. I post a lamentation and am soon attacked or belittled for it. I can go to use net and get that sort of treatement. I was hoping that a moderated group would be a little more civilized. I suppose this is another thing that makes me depressed. All the constant bickering and belittlement that people deal out to each other on the Internet is depressing. I don't know why people can't be more understanding of each other.
We all understand your angst. But if you came on here looking for answers - there are none.
Anyway, thank you Bill Wiltrack, RickLewis and Arising_UK for some very humane responses. It's hard for me to be optimistic sometimes. I take medication now for depression but that doesn't always make me happy and cheerful.
Ditch the meds. You are depressed for a reason. Figure it out, and figure yourself out.
After getting cancer 3 years ago, there is not a day goes by when I do not at some point think of the short time we all have, and how it is more likely to be shorter for me than most. But I made a rational decision through the tears, and remembered all the time I had wasted in my life; how lucky I was that I was not born in Ethiopia, and decided that being alive was too precious to mope about and feel sorry for myself. Bill, Rick and AUK, might mean well but all they are doing is enabling you to stay where you are by justifying and validating your depression.
Get off your but, turn off this fucking computer and go walk in the trees.
It's sort of interesting that today we simply take a pill to change our outlook on the world. What a brave new world we live in! I wonder if anti-depressants aren't like laughing gas or something. When a person takes laughing gas they laugh at everything, even things that aren't funny become funny. I wonder if pills for depression don't simply take truly depressing things and make them cheerful in spite of being depressing for a "normal" person.
Like I said above. You are pissed off for a reason.
Another thing is evolution. I wonder if evolution rewards the cheerful and penalizes the melancholy.
Evolution is all about death and breeding. If being happy makes you die before you have healthy progeny then happiness is a negative trait. If being sad makes you die before having healthy progeny then it is sadness that is the negative trait. Being 40+ evolution does not give a rats arse about you, generally speaking.
So perhaps it is cheerfulness that we will most predominately see in the world. Does that mean that impending death and such are truly cheerful things? I don't know the answer to that either. I suppose they are what they are perceived to be by the one perceiving them. So for instance suppose a person thought being tortured with bamboo slivers up the fingernails was just the grandest thing around? If enough people believed it would that make it a wonderful thing? I suppose it would. So perhaps there is a gulf in understanding. I see impending death as something to be fearful of. Someone else sees it as something less fearful. Perhaps that person and I are doomed never to meet in our understandings of the world.
This isn't a moderated group. This is an anything goes group. Just so you know..I was hoping that a moderated group would be a little more civilized.
1) Do you want to understand that? If yes, then you or somebody has to dig in to it. That process usually involves turning over some unpleasant and inconvenient stones, as all the pretty stones are already on display for all to see.All the constant bickering and belittlement that people deal out to each other on the Internet is depressing. I don't know why people can't be more understanding of each other.
Yes, psychology and philosophy will likely eventually be rendered obsolete by chemistry.It's sort of interesting that today we simply take a pill to change our outlook on the world.
Right, that's normal, and explains why everyone is so busy making up stories to wallpaper over the fear of the unknown. Theists do it, atheists do it, everybody does it.I see impending death as something to be fearful of.
It could be a fruitful and inspiring activity if we take it seriously, and see it through.chaz wyman wrote:Obsessing about an inevitability against which we have no power is a fruitless and depressing activity.
I seriously doubt I've done this in any substantial way. I think your 'pull your socks-up', talk a walk-in-the-woods, approach may work for those who've had a pull-yer-socks-up moment, e.g. a cancer diagnosis but it can be a little more difficult for those who haven't. Not that I don't think it honest advice.chaz wyman wrote:... AUK, might mean well but all they are doing is enabling you to stay where you are by justifying and validating your depression.
Get off your but, turn off this fucking computer and go walk in the trees.
This is a moderated group. Anything does not go. We just don't moderate to protect from harsh truths. Just so you know.Typist wrote: This isn't a moderated group. This is an anything goes group. Just so you know..
I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis with cancer. It must be horrible to have such news dropped upon you. I truly hope you make it through OK and live a long and prosperous life.chaz wyman wrote: Obsessing about an inevitability against which we have no power is a fruitless and depressing activity.
You need to get out more.
Well, ok then, here's a harsh truth which we won't protect anybody from.AMod wrote: We just don't moderate to protect from harsh truths. Just so you know.
And to be fair, this is a harsh truth that applies to most forums, not just this one. 
Gary Childress wrote:I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis with cancer. It must be horrible to have such news dropped upon you. I truly hope you make it through OK and live a long and prosperous life.chaz wyman wrote: Obsessing about an inevitability against which we have no power is a fruitless and depressing activity.
You need to get out more.
I'm in remission right now. But thanks.
As I stated twice before I'm not "pissed" at anything right now. There's a difference between being pissed and just feeling down about something. I'm curious why you're trying to accuse me of being pissed? Are you perhaps the one who is pissed? Maybe you're trying to read your own emotions into me???
I did not say you were 'pissed', I said you were "pissed off". It has a more general application in English English.
When someone tells me they are depressed I usually tend to sympthize. I've been there on many occasions and know what it's like. I don't tell them, "Well I have paranoid schizophrenia so you have no right to feel down."
My brother's got Schizophrenia. He spent 20 years of his life shouting at a wall. No amount of sympathy ever did him any good.
Clozipine worked for him, and although he can never had a job, luckily he lives in the UK where they pay his rent and enough benefit to keep him going.
Sorry if you think I am unsympathetic, but I just think your problem is pretty small on the scale of things.
Read some Nietzsche and jettison the self loathing and self pity!
I'm not in a contest to out tragedize anyone else. People feel down about different things at different times. There are plenty of things in life to lament as far as I'm concerned. Lamentation is just as legitimate as any other response to ill fortune. I don't understand why we always need to be happy and perky. I'm happy and perky when I'm happy and perky. But I also have my down moments. All of this is a part of life, the good and the bad.
I imagine you live in the "have a nice day" land, of the USA? When Adorno spent time there he got pissed off at everyone expecting him to be happy all the time - sometimes you just want to be yourself. he also said if you feel happy all the time then you are not paying attention to what is happening in the world.
But as far as I can see, aside from a bit os sleeplessness, you are healthy and currently wasting your life with self loathing.