• henfredemars@infosec.pub
    ·
    edit-2
    7 months ago

    I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. It’s rather absurd that I get to live at all.

    I feel like I understand the Buddha better as years go by. I want to enjoy this strange and mysterious opportunity to be without becoming too attached to all these temporary things, myself included. Indeed, my life today looks nothing like it did 10 years ago. I’m not sure I am the same person. In many ways, it’s like every day we die and become something new.

      • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
        ·
        7 months ago

        even the poorest monk can find moments of joy and happiness that give meaning. I wouldn't be blasé

              • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                7 months ago

                For context I was born a poor Egyptian and lived through the so-called Arab spring and personally saw murder and death. I’m not some coddled imperialist, and I feel like I have a better connection to life than the comfortable yanks

                • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  congrats on dodging the myriad mental illnesses you could've caught from that trauma. do you have an effective clinical treatment for major depression or just survivorship bias?

                  • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    Oh I have all kinds of mental illnesses you obviously don’t follow my posting notoriety do you?

                    • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]
                      ·
                      7 months ago

                      i don't really retain usernames, reddit habit.

                      anyway, the ratio as previously described should not be acceptable to people, and to me it sounds exactly like liberal "know your place" kinda shit to say it is.

                      • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        7 months ago

                        Who said it should be acceptable? You are drawing all kinds of conclusions I never said.

                        For me, life is always worth experiencing regardless of said “ratio”. That’s an entirely separate issue of how we ought to arrange society or what standards we should accept

                        I fundamentally reject such crude utilitarian calculuses of life as Malthusian and not life affirming. This type of utilitarian calculus is what leads to Canada euthanizing all of its mentally ill population

                        Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing hell, and facing it bravely. Should they all commit suicide to escape their “bad ratios”? Should they flee to another country and let the Zionists win since it would improve their own lives? Should they cease to have children when they may face bad ratios?

                        There is more to life than pleasure and pain. Sometimes we need optimism and faith and collective purpose.

                        • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]
                          ·
                          7 months ago

                          suppose it's only fair that you take a turn at drawing conclusions i never said, and it's absolutely wild to romanticize getting genocided.

                          • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
                            ·
                            edit-2
                            7 months ago

                            The Palestinians who die in battle are glorious martyrs. There's no undue "romanticization" they are heroes beyond anything you or I could ever accomplish. Maybe you can't see this in your malthusian calculus, and that's why you would never understand their resilience or be able to do it yourself.

                            It’s obviously horrible that they are experiencing genocide, the mindset they have that allows them to endure it is a revolutionary spirit that your antinatalist Malthusian cynicism could never create. I’m asking you to please think like a Palestinian with optimism. Should they stop having kids cause bad ratios? Doesn’t your defeatism assist the genocide? Should the Palestinians not have revolutionary faith and optimism despite all odds?

                            • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]
                              ·
                              7 months ago

                              that's a rather 19th century view of conflict. the framework that culminated in world war 1. I expect that ideology from the colonizers doing the genocide not from us who condemn them.

                              there's no honor in fighting, only a tragedy that some of us have no other choice.

                              • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
                                ·
                                edit-2
                                7 months ago

                                There’s no honor in fighting against the Zionist entity? You want to come and say those fighting words to my face godless westoid? Maybe consider the lack of bravery, revolutionary faith, optimism and honor as some of the primary problems with the failed western left (along with the social-chauvinism of course).

                                  • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
                                    ·
                                    edit-2
                                    7 months ago

                                    Your namesake had honor and faith and did what was right despite it ending his family. You are a bit of a hypocrite here. The one good American cracker proves my point. John Brown had an intuitive understanding of his place in the world, the equality between all beings that had to be brought about, his role in the spirit of revolution. He did not follow pleasure and pain but a revolutionary faith.

                                    • JohnBrownNote [comrade/them, des/pair]
                                      ·
                                      7 months ago

                                      your point is severely undermined by the fact that people of faith were also on the other side of the conflict, using their mystical beliefs to uphold and defend the institution.

                                      if we're honest, the one good cracker was a stopped clock.

                                      • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
                                        ·
                                        edit-2
                                        7 months ago

                                        There were millions of liberal abolitionist reformists and not one of them had what it took to spark the necessary revolution. Only the one with an irrational faith took that step

        • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
          ·
          7 months ago

          And it isn't what it isn't until it is. Swapping around words and dualities is not wisdom, it's sophistry.

          • henfredemars@infosec.pub
            ·
            7 months ago

            I believe you're missing the forest for the trees. Words are signposts, tools. It doesn't mean literal vacuous truth. The phrase is illustrative, of course.

            In this case, "is what it is" means forgoing judgement because it doesn't change what already is the case. This seems fundamental to Buddhist teaching that was mentioned in the root comment. This attachment and resistance is, to some interpretations, the source of suffering. At least that's how it was taught to me during my short time living at my local temple.

            "Until it isn't" refers to death.

            • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
              ·
              7 months ago

              I'm not missing the forest for the trees, I'm telling you that you are looking at a desert with a scrub brush, insistent it's a forest.

              It is vacancy masquerading as truth. I am perfectly aware of Buddhist dualisms and detachment theory. However, per Wittgenstein, there is no real wisdom or metaphysical truth to be gained in phraseology and word games. Particularly if they are readily interchangable with their contradictions. It can be fun, but not nessecerily wise or meaningful.

              'Isn't what it isn't" means foregoing judgement because it doesn't change what already isn't the case. This attachment and resistance is, to some interpretation, the source of suffering.

              'Until it is' refers to death.

              • zed_proclaimer [he/him]
                ·
                7 months ago

                However, per Wittgenstein, there is no real wisdom or metaphysical truth to be gained in phraseology and word games.

                They aren't playing word games, you are merely interpreting that way. They are conveying a message via the words to you, one you reject without reason

              • HamManBad [he/him]
                ·
                7 months ago

                Ah but have you considered that some of us are into that shit