Basman

I was talking about hunter-gatherer tribes. Not ancient civilizations. Ancient world art are products of technology.

Keep in mind that I'm no psychologist. My knowledge doesn't extend further than a general interest in psychology, philosophy and self-help, so take what I say with a grain of salt. First of all, it seems like your mind is juts very cluttered, with overlaying stressors and internalized feelings of believing you are unworthy of love. Feeling like your inherently unlovable seems to be a recurring theme, between fatherly abandonment, feeling like nobody supports you and generally being lonely. This could explain why you are hung up on your mother scolding you for molesting your younger sibling, even though it would be normal to freak out over that kind of sibling abuse, objectively speaking. It's an old wound. It might be worth going through and explicating what is objectively your fault VS what is theirs for each issue you've had for every major relationship you've had in a kind of list style. A = incident B = what your responsible for in this incident C = what they are responsible for in this incident This way you can make it clear in your mind what is theirs and what is yours in a more objective manner. The truth is that a lot of abuse is not about you anymore than the fact that you where vulnerable at that moment and the abusers very own psychology. You also seem to tend to interpret things in a very negative way. Like with the example of your mom scolding you earlier. It is a fact that she freaked out. It is a subjective interpretation that that means your inherently unworthy of love. I believe it is a symptom of BPD to ruminate and catastrophize. This tendency towards a negative and implicitly self-defeating thinking could be contributing to your feelings of suicidality, which is in my understanding the consequence of prolonged distress and not being able to see a way out. Suicide is a symptom of not being able to imagine a way out of distress. One technique you could try, if you feel so inclined, is softening your language. Softening one's language lets you negotiate with negative thinking. For example, you recently experienced a bunch of set-backs, like losing your job, losing money, drugs not working, etc. The first obvious example is to think of these as set-backs as opposed to failures. Or another example, "the medical system exploited me" to "they don't know what they are doing". Or "life is really hard" to "life is challenging". However you choose to interpret a situation, you'll be right. It's not about gas lighting yourself but dialing how you interpret events. In reality, this events don't actually mean anything. Your mind creates meaning in order to deal with this situations in order to survive, but one's interpretations aren't always constructive and solution-oriented.

Meaning is a projection of the mind. As a tribesman, you have very little individuality and the tribe equips you with all meaning. This is also fundamentally true of modern societies, but you have way more wiggle room as an individual as the scale of society expanded. But there is something to be said about the meaninglessness of modern society. We live in a highly material society which has rejected the religious spirituality of the past, but didn't replace that with anything beyond a vague pursuit of happiness. It is one of the downsides of stage orange and likely an aspect which will exhaust the population of it. People are missing meaning in their life. The other day, I learn of a violent prank called the "Blue Whale" which are a series of challenges which illicit young people to partake in a series of increasingly violent forms of self-harm, culminating in suicide. I can easily imagine young and very lost people being drawn to something like that just because it gives them a purpose. But it is not the case that modernity is exclusively meaningless, you just have too be more proactive about it. There are plenty of examples of people who live meaningful lives today. Arguably humans are adapted for tribal life. So we would naturally "slot in" to that kind of lifestyle and easily find meaning in our lives. But you can't compare modernity to tribal life without acknowledging that being a hunter-gatherer was an extremely hard life with very little room for self-dignity. Modern life is the current peak of humanism in comparison. There is no denying it. It is not possible to find a better time alive to be "useless" and have self-dignity, or the best you can get at least, be it as gay, elderly, sick or as a child. In a tribe, the elderly and children are particularly vulnerable. Child mortality is high and the elderly are often killed or left for dead if they can't up. There's an account of an Acho man who used to sneak up to older aunts and kill them with an axe. And he was proud of it too. Greenland, whose culture is closely rooted to a stone-age culture due to being a nomadic hunter-gatherer society up until colonization only a few hundred years, tend to see children as somewhat disposable, with sexual abuse of children being rampant (about every third child). In part due to the liberal tradition being less rooted in their culture as well as other factors like rampant alcoholism. That is not to say that modern society doesn't have any evils of its own, like pollution (I would be tempted to say war too, but that would actually not be accurate. Relatively, we live in the most peaceful era of human history). There also the factor of depth. The meaning you would find being a tribesman is obvious and immediately enrapturing, but it is also limited by how harsh life is. Most of your thoughts go to "food" and "danger". Compared to modernity, you can create and discover incredible purpose and meaning that can change other people's lives. Just look at any great musician or philosopher. It's like, would you rather have the tastes and hobbies of a dog or a wine connoisseur? The latter is easily pleased, but doesn't enjoy nearly the same depth. Technology is just an extension of natural means through ingenuity and generational knowledge. Humans have always used technology to survive better and to better themselves. Because it improves our survival it contributes significantly to the development of our consciousness overall.

In western societies, we tend to put happiness on a pedestal. We treat happiness as the end goal of life, more or less. So, are you ashamed of being unhappy/stressed? Because if you are, then that would be just added stress.

How much would this cost to attend you think?

I wanted to do this for a while, compile videos of strange and weird games that are dreamlike, trippy, ethereal, etc. The weirder and more obscure the better. Feel free to add your own contributions. --- LSD: Dream Emulator

I thought you where against this kind of stuff.

Technology use is part of what defines us as a species, which goes all the way back. You have to be extremely cynical to even consider technological advancement as a net-zero for humanity. There are downsides, but there are way more upsides. The standard of living is so high right now.

Your writing is very peculiar, but I'm sure your posts will be well met if they are substantive and empirically grounded.

Only if you spell their name right.

Arab societies seemed to be much more advanced in the past in terms of influence, art and learning. They invented math and letters bro. Then they got fucked by Mongols, become religious nut bags, stopped learning and eventually got outpaced.

What topics are you exactly interested in discussing, and from what angle?

I have no knowledge of the topic, But I know that Arab and Europeans clashed during the medieval ages. I know that Muslims used to control Spain at a point in time. There was also the whole Jerusalem thing with the Templars and shit. Fascinating stuff.

I've recently started reading for 5 minutes a day then adding 5 minutes each week till I reach an hour. My goal is to read an hour everyday and this method has been really effective. I'm actually looking forward to reading everyday because it is something that feels both easy to do and productive. I'm gradually getting myself used to it without overwhelm. You don't appreciate how interesting your stack of books actually are because your mind isn't used to reading probably and isn't associating enough good feelings to the activity yet. It takes time to get used to it since it is a focused and a low-dopaminergic activity. I started this about 2.5 months ago and I've already finished two books and I'm well into the next one. It feels good to be finally digging into my back log and exploring all of this topics that I'm not only interested in but know are going to feed into my life. It has made me wordier, at least (or unfortunately, depending on who you ask).

Great read. Lots of good points. I have some thoughts on my own based of what you wrote. My understanding of the main message of academia, which I've learned both from Leo and elsewhere, is that you need to assess whether or not university is relevant to your goals. You ideally want to be making deliberate choices with some kind of plan instead of just following the group think. I understand "college is for idiots" as meaning that you inherently don't need college to learn anything, especially in the age of the internet. It's for "idiots" in the sense that an institution is responsible for your education. That is not to say that college is necesarilly insufficient (depending on your standard of how educational it should be), any education is more education than no education, but there are certain cons that come with a formalized 4-5 year tenure which you avoid through self-education. With that mindset, higher education becomes more about the credentials than anything else. Higher education has become a conveyor belt style ritual for the lowest common denominator. The point about taking survival for granted is very vindicating. I often get the impression that a lot of users on this forum still have a lot of the "basics" to work on, but their head is full solipsism and whatnot while generally having a stand-offish attitude. They'll snobbishly dismiss Tony Robbins as basic while being broke and homeless in India (literally). It is basic, but are you doing it? You wouldn't want to go amiss of air, would you? Just the principle that you can direct your mind can fundamentally change your life and directly feeds into one's spirituality long-term.

Legalization tends to increase demand. Prostitution is a clear example of this, where legalizing the trade increases the flow of human trafficking victims due to the increase of scale. It's quiet the problem in Germany, who legalized the trade. The main concern with incest is the potential for abuse, especially of minors, and inbreeding. I'm not sure what would be the correct approach. If otherwise legally consenting people are blood related and as long as they don't reproduce, then I don't really see what the issue is inherently. It would be quiet arbitrary to penalize such couples legally if they are not hurting anyone.

It's obviously technological limitation, but they are way too big. This concept benefits from being as imperceptible as possible from the outside. Less of an issue if they are googles though. I wonder if this technology has military application, like those visor from the first Halo game. Nice job team.

In my opinion, right-wing politics is largely a front for corruption and self-dealing. Because conservatives tend to be less conscious than progressives, they are somewhat less capable of separating their internal reality from the external world, which is terrifying when you consider that most politicians are elites. They tend to believe what is good for them personally is also what is good for society, hence you get budget cuts to public goods like road work and schools, which a healthy society depend on, but which hurt the pockets of tax payers. Many of the decisions that have a clear demographic that are negatively affected by a certain policy conveniently don't touch the politicians enacting said policy.

We get used to it and get complacency about the wonder of life. I recently had a "gratitude awakening", where I became more conscious of just how magical life is. There is so much beauty and wonder everywhere if you just chose to see it. It is a choice.

Statistically, most people would gain a lot of happiness from having kids, but individually you need to know for yourself what is right for you. I think if you question if you want kids a lot then you don't really want them, at least currently. I'm a similar age (late 20s) and I feel that as I have become more appreciative of vicarious living, enjoying other people's happiness, the prospect of kids become more valuable. The purity, innocence and excitement of children over the simple things make life feel so much more special, because you vicariously enjoy their wonder as their parent. Who as an adult ever gets excited over candy? And I mean so excited that it is a somatic experience. Over something so simple. It's literally wonderful, full of wonder. In my case, I would find it meaningful to contribute to raising a healthy, conscious and wise adult, with all the things I learned. It would be an opportunity to give the kind of love I myself missed as a child.

It's also true that plenty of men want something long-term. There a lot of strategies for weeding out the chaff, including having sex early. In general, you want to take responsibility for your situation, regardless of who's fault it is. That puts the power in your court. If it is external, it is an excuse. Basic self-help. Though I get the impression many women prefer a submissive and passive experience and don't like having to take responsibility for their love life. That is fine, but if you try to have your cake and eat it too you'll just end up dissapointed ultimately.

If men you are attracted to are chronically making themselves unavailable to you then you should ponder why, because your then the common denominator. In that case, some kind of character flaw or logistical issue your not conscious of is holding back your love life.

Sometimes it is best to not bother with an exact explanation for people's behavior. It doesn't really matter. You have a pretty fortunate situation which you can appreciate, which will help center your mind a bit.

For many people, having kids makes you love life more, but it's also true that for many kids are a distraction from what makes them love life. It is all about honoring one's life. Those who don't want kids usually love freedom, a certain kind of lifestyle and their special interests more. That doesn't mean they wouldn't love their kids if they had them, but they would feel like they couldn't fulfill the potential they where built to honor.