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Are there people here who have always known this?
Yeah, but I enjoy our pointlessness and still want to try and make other people's pointlessness better rather than worse, despite it being pointless in a biggest picture way, it's the tiny little connections that make the pointlessness better and more enjoyable.
I don't think self awareness drives over consumption or displays of power though. -
Maybe the zen and yoga types?
For many part of the journey is realising thier is no self, only awareness
If you're interested you can look up nondualism and yes there are places you can stay with people living these values and it's very enriching in my experience -
I completely agree with your regarding value of the continuation of humans on this rock,
While my view like yours is that in the scheme of things we are a blip and likely to disappear well before this lump of rock explodes. And so what?
This does not take away from trying to extend the longevity of humans and to aim collectively to keep as many people as possible content and pain free for as long as possible, an approach our health professionals take for individuals (a philosophical take as you suggested)
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It's a sad paradox that self-awareness, which we think of as our unique advantage, is driving us to consume excess resources and extinguish ourselves.
Ever read Escher, Gödel, Bach? Self-awareness isn't either/or, it's a continuum. Self-referential feedback loops are what give rise to intelligence, and the more of them you have, the more intelligence you have. Metacognition is how we avoid being manipulated via our primitive drives.
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egoist, selfish, aggressive men?
Nah, I'm that and I'm well aware we're fucked. I'm also well aware what I can do amounts to fucking nothing based on what else is happening on this planet. I waste my time riding to work, sorting recycling, trying to avoid buying plastics and the whole reduce, reuse, recycle but at the end of the day, some cunt in the USA is probably just gonna lean on a button after some cunt in Korea does the same and we're all dust.
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@nick_h.
May I try a philosophical take? Our species has a powerful sense of self-awareness. This makes many of us search for a meaning to our lives.
But there is none. So we try to find meaning by making our mark with excess consumption and displays of power. It's a sad paradox that self-awareness, which we think of as our unique advantage, is driving us to consume excess resources and extinguish ourselves. We need to accept that our lives are trivial, inconsequential, just a molecule in a planet-sized brownian motion.
I have done this. It's quite calming but it has an unfortunate label, absurdism, which doesn't sell it that well. And to be honest I wouldn't have accepted this willingly. It's been forced on me by having ME for 30 years. I'm 62, with almost no friends and family and no money or self-determination, and I realise my life is never going to add up to anything. Anything at all. This is my enlightenment.
I wish I had come to it willingly when I was 16 and agonising about what to do with my life. Are there people here who have always known this? Maybe the zen and yoga types? Perhaps more likely to be women than the often egoist, selfish, aggressive men?
This is another way of saying that the patriarchy has doomed us. A matriarchy could save us from ourselves, but the patriarchy is in the driving seat and will not share it.