I’ve always aligned with a specific political ideology and political party. This year, I started to find many flaws in the ideology and outright corruption within the party.
There’s a lot of manufactured outrage and demonizing or blaming specific groups. I saw these flaws on the “other” side, but this year I realized the media organizations i favor and the politicians I follow, who seem like people who share my values, are all charlatans.
One negative outcome from this is that I’m maybe too pessimistic about my country’s future in the world. I don’t think what we’re doing now is sustainable, and I’m convinced that alot of us, regardless of our current economic status, are going to be in a world pain as the status quo gradually but then abruptly shifts.
- Politics: The importance of freedom and why politics tries to change the meaning of freedom to make you less free.
- Health: The importance of physical activity (at least walking or a couple of push-ups) to your mind.
- Technology: I realized this year, that AI explosion could be nearer.
- Life: Whatever happens, you must try to do things if you want your current life to change.
- Life: Don't compare yourself with others, we all have different origins and life experiences that make us unique.
- Relations: Don't pay too much attention to what others are saying. Just listen to the right people.
The last one is something I've been carrying for quite some time, but you know, always you learn more.
I learned that's not the case.
Nope. Only we can save us from ourselves. Technology is a non-specific amplifier of the energies and values of humans.
However, I think I finally recognized the places and modalities where that toughness is a benefit. Several times I've said to myself: thank God my father raised me.
The movie (Long hot summer)
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0051878/
Has a sense of what I'm after. The first time I saw it I was repulsed by the father (played by HG Wells). But later I came to appreciate it in a bigger context.
Both my parents had a lot to offer. Life is easier for me the more I see that
I though what a crazy joke and we laughed it off cause cats are, after all, animals and they act accordingly, sometimes killing birds.
Then I thought - what if the population of cats became so large that it indeed became a big problem? What if it causes ripples in the ecosystem that affect other species? And finally: how can I know anything about it to discard it on the spot? Similar to how some people are against vaccines or even masks because "they don't work and can only cause harm" ("I'm no doctor, but I ain't stupid!" (tm)).
It was a small but humbling thought when I realized I fell for the same thinking trap that I accuse others for. Even if this particular information on cats were to turn out totally false and a part of evil leftist agenda I should really keep an open mind and dig deeper, especially when the news sound insane (to my worldview) but come from a large institution or a well established source.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-...
>there is no clear scientific evidence that such mortality is causing bird populations to decline
>of the millions of baby birds hatched each year, most will die before they reach breeding age. This is also quite natural
Our cat is 15 years old, has one eye and had rear paws surgery so I think it's fair game for the birds.
- self-pity is extremely toxic, self-care is extremely necessary, and self-advocacy is the only path away from self-pity towards self-care
- the more productivity you squeeze out of the day, the more extreme the lengths your body and mind will take to make you engage in serious re-prioritization - when you don't take care of yourself, you will find that your subconsciousness and your own nervous system combined become the single most insidious-yet-well-intending nemesis
- it's ok for things to end, and it's not ok to try to make things that once used to be happy but no longer are, go on longer than necessary
- the most visceral and brutal nightmares are proportional in value to their fearsome-ness, and they are more valuable than the most pleasant dreams: 1, because they give the simple act of waking up and simply appreciating life all the more instinctual, and 2, because if you were constantly having dreams that were better than being awake, you would always long to stay asleep
- painful memories are dangerous objects because they are very powerful - they can either drive you to contend with the truth, or to avoid it completely - and with great power comes great responsibility - if you find yourself re-visiting old memories frequently, and you find that you use these old memories to explain away a lot of your present day behavior, that's kind of, how shall we say, a bad "code smell"
- it is entirely possible that you are within 20% of your maximum capacity of pain or maximum capacity for enjoyment at any given moment. life is brief.. focus on enjoying the little things with the ones closest to you. that IPO you're chasing won't matter on your deathbed if you are a stranger to your own children. unless you prefer it to. both are options. but be honest with yourself if you are on the path you want to be on.
- never repeat anything that you believe false, ever. as a consequence, never try to debate someone’s convictions, never accuse someone of masking their true feelings, never waste your own brain cycles on trying to refute something mentioned in conversation hours or months ago. this one is the one I struggle to live by..
- just ensorcel yourself in what you believe to be true, only seek out the truth, and always have enough self empathy to see why it is ok that you used to be wrong about something so that you may more easily allow yourself to adapt to a truer relationship with reality. to dig in your heels is to dig your own grave
- everything that happens is true in the most facetious sense: because if it happened, then it must be the truth - but you probably don’t understand the full context/model of the logic system at work- and sometimes what it is that happened in actuality is unknowable.
In other words, every anecdote is a real data point, but it probably does not map neatly into the ontological categories being used as little chess pieces on a board between two parties trying to determine whether x input causes y output. The territory is always true, the map is always palaver.
Every little thing in a person’s life builds up the statements a person makes. The foulest hatred, the most depraved lies, and the most cursed of vitriol, all them stem from truths, but probably truths that look a lot more like “this person learned that the world will leave you alone from even more suffering if you dish it out back in return no matter if it’s a different person altogether than the root aggressor” or “this person doesn’t have a better way to feel strong other than hurting those they feel are unthreatening” rather than “this person hates for no reason” or “their generation was simply raised like that” - and the quicker we gather greater data from all experience the quicker the world might lead to better realization of shared ideals
- there is always going to be a tension between universalism, idealism, and the linearity of resources, but it’s almost always less of an issue than the human systems by which we determine the claims of each individual to the complexity/growth classes of the kinds of productivity of their life’s work they are permitted/accredited
- meeting deadlines is rarely the best or most information rich heuristic about re-planning what to do with a beleaguered plan, but it is what people fall back to bc they think others must be adjusting plans that way for good enough reasons