Lost in hyperreality. Please change my mind

[Wizardking]

Every day I get more and more jaded from realisation upon realisation that almost everything is fake. The hypercompetitiveness in the world and the growing gap between rich and poor is causing a "the ends justify the means - mentality". Because it is so easy to get away with cheating it must mean that most likely anyone in the top of a certain field has gotten there by cheating. Look at olympic athletes: I guarantee you that every single one of them is on PEDs. It is so easy to get away with it that they do not have an option. Being the best today requires cheating. Just look at athletes: they can take PEDs off season and it will still increase their natural capabilities, a lot of them are busted but then still allowed to compete in the olympics (check this article https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/olympics-whats-swimming-doping-scandal-about-2024-07-26/ ) and also if these athletes were not on PEDs there would be thousands of videos on youtube of people unofficially beating world records (because they are using PEDs) but there aren't many of these videos because even on PEDs it's really hard to beat them. And PEDs do not have little effect by any means, they make a huge difference. This means that top athletes have got to be using. This is only one example. I have a lot more but I won't go in to them in this first post, we can discuss more if there's interest for it. 

The reason I post this is because this is making me a bit crazy. I'm overwhelmed and paranoid. It is impossible for someone to know something unless they experience it directly themselves. Therefore I personally can only have knowledge in a very very very small amount of areas since there is so much data to take into consideration. This leads me to the conclusion that we have to trust what experts say because we ourselves can't be experts in everything. BUT we also can't trust "experts" blindly because it has been shown again and again that they are capable of lying/being ignorant. That trust has been broken. How do we navigate in this world? Just go off of gut feeling? Make an assessment of someones character and hope that our assessment is right? 

[Leo Gura]

That's life. It has always been this way. Those in power dominate, abuse, and exploit those who aren't. Power is antithetical to truth.

Appreciate how serious all this is. This is a battle of life and death. You're in a jungle and everything wants to eat you.

Edited October 14 by Leo Gura

[r0ckyreed]

8 hours ago, Wizardking said:

It is impossible for someone to know something unless they experience it directly themselves

There is no unless. You don’t experience reality directly; therefore, you can never know anything.

This is why we have the scientific method. Scientific method is one of the most reliable ways to know most general knowledge about the world. If you cannot repeat something independently, then it may not be true.

[Buck Edwards]

This is the crocodile in action. 

[zazen]

9 hours ago, Wizardking said:

That trust has been broken. How do we navigate in this world? Just go off of gut feeling? Make an assessment of someone’s character and hope that our assessment is right?

 

 

Be skeptical of every source from a position of curiosity, rather than caution. Because you say you are overwhelmed and paranoid, it’s best to come from a frame of curiosity - gamify life to lighten the burden on yourself. Reframe caution to curiosity - curious about the sources (people or authority positions) biases, incentives etc.

Hone in on your skill to be discerning so you can eventually trust yourself to trust others - it will pay dividends. You’ll still get bit once in a while, but the joy and abundance you gain by trusting others will outweigh having your trust betrayed once in a while.

Edited October 14 by zazen

[Raze]

Try metta meditation and yoga to ground yourself 

[RightHand]

 

[Wizardking]

5 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

That's life. It has always been this way. Those in power dominate, abuse, and exploit those who aren't. Power is antithetical to truth.

Appreciate how serious all this is. This is a battle of life and death. You're in a jungle and everything wants to eat you.

But if we play fair in an attempt to break the cycle, won't we just get run over by those who don't? And if we speak up about this and try to change it, won't we be the nail that gets the hammer? What is the right line of action? 

[RightHand]

23 minutes ago, Wizardking said:

But if we play fair in an attempt to break the cycle, won't we just get run over by those who don't? And if we speak up about this and try to change it, won't we be the nail that gets the hammer? What is the right line of action? 

What are you trying to accomplish in life? You can be successful and live with integrity.

[Wizardking]

1 hour ago, RightHand said:

What are you trying to accomplish in life? You can be successful and live with integrity.

Just the freedom to spend most of my time with my partner and my dog and my future children. I want to work a maximum of 4 hours per day but still be able to live nicely and travel while not having to worry about money. My main value is freedom. So I guess that is possible but it is growing harder over time due to the growing wealth gap. 

[Leo Gura]

3 hours ago, Wizardking said:

But if we play fair in an attempt to break the cycle, won't we just get run over by those who don't? And if we speak up about this and try to change it, won't we be the nail that gets the hammer? What is the right line of action? 

It is still possible to create success for yourself through hard work and enjoy your life. You don't have to compete for power. And if you wanna play the power games, you can do that too.

Edited October 14 by Leo Gura

[zurew]

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Power is antithetical to truth

What does that mean?

[TheEnigma]

17 hours ago, Wizardking said:

Every day I get more and more jaded from realisation upon realisation that almost everything is fake. The hypercompetitiveness in the world and the growing gap between rich and poor is causing a "the ends justify the means - mentality". Because it is so easy to get away with cheating it must mean that most likely anyone in the top of a certain field has gotten there by cheating. Look at olympic athletes: I guarantee you that every single one of them is on PEDs. It is so easy to get away with it that they do not have an option. Being the best today requires cheating. Just look at athletes: they can take PEDs off season and it will still increase their natural capabilities, a lot of them are busted but then still allowed to compete in the olympics (check this article https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/olympics-whats-swimming-doping-scandal-about-2024-07-26/ ) and also if these athletes were not on PEDs there would be thousands of videos on youtube of people unofficially beating world records (because they are using PEDs) but there aren't many of these videos because even on PEDs it's really hard to beat them. And PEDs do not have little effect by any means, they make a huge difference. This means that top athletes have got to be using. This is only one example. I have a lot more but I won't go in to them in this first post, we can discuss more if there's interest for it. 

The reason I post this is because this is making me a bit crazy. I'm overwhelmed and paranoid. It is impossible for someone to know something unless they experience it directly themselves. Therefore I personally can only have knowledge in a very very very small amount of areas since there is so much data to take into consideration. This leads me to the conclusion that we have to trust what experts say because we ourselves can't be experts in everything. BUT we also can't trust "experts" blindly because it has been shown again and again that they are capable of lying/being ignorant. That trust has been broken. How do we navigate in this world? Just go off of gut feeling? Make an assessment of someones character and hope that our assessment is right? 

I feel the same way. I used to have a very rigid mind. But I'm slowly trying to realize that the more I learn the more I actually know that I don't know. You have to be comfortable not knowing. And then try to seek answers from quality people and quality material. And seek different kinds of answers and try to compare them all, and find what works for you at the time, and maybe as you grow older, someday another answer might make sense. It's complicated. But you are not alone. I struggle with the very same thing.

[Leo Gura]

58 minutes ago, zurew said:

What does that mean?

What is unclear about it?

[zurew]

21 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

What is unclear about it?

That statement can be cashed out in so many ways. I don't know what you mean by truth in that statement. Do you mean metaphysical truth or do you mean a more simpler like not lying about a given thing?   Under my semantics power is not incompatible with truth - this is why i am asking what you mean.

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, zurew said:

That statement can be cashed out in so many ways. I don't know what you mean by truth in that statement. Do you mean metaphysical truth or do you mean a more simpler like not lying about a given thing?   Under my semantics power is not incompatible with truth - this is why i am asking what you mean.

Both relative and absolue truth.

Pretty much anyone in a position of power is all of the following: a liar, deeply self-deceived, and corrupt. You don't get or hold power without lying and distorting the truth.

Edited October 14 by Leo Gura

[Wizardking]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Both relative and absolue truth.

Pretty much anyone in a position of power is all of the following: a liar, deeply self-deceived, and corrupt. You don't get or hold power without lying and distorting the truth.

And I suspect that "the ends justify the means" is the mentality that causes this and therefore whatever low level of that mentality we ourselves use will perpetuate that mentality in the world, correct? Meaning we need to try to avoid resonating like that no matter how small the "means" is if we want corruption to end? 

[Ero]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Both relative and absolue truth.

Pretty much anyone in a position of power is all of the following: a liar, deeply self-deceived, and corrupt. You don't get or hold power without lying and distorting the truth.

Power rests on a lie. But when you are powerless, survival is much harder. Certain people have to rise to the occasion. Conscious leadership is possible.

[Wizardking]

@Ero Isn't the issue that those conscious people would have to play unfair to compete with the corrupt? And that this would then make them corrupt? 

[Leo Gura]

29 minutes ago, Wizardking said:

Meaning we need to try to avoid resonating like that no matter how small the "means" is if we want corruption to end? 

Look, don't get so moralistic that you worry about stealing a paperclip.

The world has been corrupt for 10,000 years and it will continue that way.