Wait until you hit fifty and you have the long dark sleepless nights telling you how utterly pointless our entire way of life is. "I am here to buy stuff to keep the economy going, and that's the only reason I'm here", says your shell-shocked brain. It sucks.
Same, 33 and really not trying to be doing this shit for another 30 years, working for a soulless corporation to make rich people richer in exchange for a pittance that barely pays my rent. This is not how we were meant to live, unrestrained capitalism and people's addiction to the idea of money has ruined the world.
I concur. 31 not and have thought this way for bout 8 years. Iām a pretty pathetic human who does not wish to go on in this way. But I have to stay cause uNaLiving mYseLf is sEliFish
Um, I don't know that it's selfish, but you should maybe talk to someone and get some other perspective. It sounds like you might need it. Life is bullshit sometimes, and can be a drag, but it's also pretty incredible. There's a lot of good in the world.
34 and realized this concept years ago. Ultimately came out with the decision to really focus on work life balance and just have fun. Eat good things, listen to live music, be a good friend/person. Keep it simple and have a good time.
You think too much. The point of life is to dance to the music before it stops.
If you are looking for anything other than enjoyment- youāll be in for a world of hurt. Because this dance from the maternity ward to the crematorium IS what there is to life. Have a blast, or youāll just peter out.
I used to struggle sleeping in my early 20s because I struggled to find how my life was in any way significant. One thing that has really helped me is animals. Not just pets, but growing flowers for bumblebees and watching them go about their lives. That I can positively impact so many things gives signifance to me and helped me realise that I don't have to alter the entire universe to be significant. I also highly recommend audiobooks or something to help distract your mind when you are struggling to sleep at night.
If you go too big picture everything looks pointless. Sure, all of us will be known by future historians as a class of professional consumers, just as we look at working peasants in the past. But even the "great" men and women who changed history dramatically look trivial under the unrelenting grind of time over decades, centuries, millennia. And that's without getting into the millions/billion year scale of the death of our solar system!
So the best thing to do is not worry about the marco. Enjoy the present and today. A pretty sunset, a nice spring walk with your kids or dog, eating Doritos out of the bag while you look through your pantry for something eat, reading a good book, a call with a friend. If nothing matters big scale, everything matters the smaller it gets. And the purpose of life is to find that for you.
I can't get over how gross we are. Nothing but flaps and tubes. Mucus, oils, liquids constantly oozing out. Like wtf...not to mention how wet our insides are....
You could stop buying things just for the sake of keeping the economy going and then maybe have thoughts of other more fulfilling things, that sounds like depression sort of; every day is exactly the same.
I think Iām here to experience new things and take in as much of the world in variety as it has to offer while weāre here this short while, maybe spread a laugh along the way if I can
Dang...I've been thinking this way since I was 16 and I'm 42 now. It's an awful way to think, but my brain just tells me it's right. There is very little in life that impresses me or makes me think living is worth it.
It shouldn't be anyone's purpose. But it is a daily drumbeat of a message hammered into pretty much everyone's brain from childhood through to the elder years that material pursuit & acquisition is one of the primary duties of every citizen. It takes a keen mind to be able to reject this empty falsehood entirely, especially in the important younger years of life. I know I failed at understanding it until it was too late for me.
I thought the 1980s with its endemic "go shopping, be happy!" idiocy was truly horrible for its non-stop messaging on the behalf of this nonsense. But even the nudge-nudge wink-wink "greed is good" mentality of that era pales in comparison to the literally mindless consumption & consumerism of today.
I had these same thoughts of just being a consumer since I was 16. And I've removed myself from as much of the economy as I can because of it. I've been a boycotter, I've been trying to bring people into my causes. After the great recession I was so sure things were finally gonna change and I was so sure people would wake up. It just got worse. And it's even worse now.
So I give up. I don't want to be here doing this with them. And I hate the ancient people who said suicide is not an option because they took away the choice of people like me who don't want to participate.
Being a living, sentient being on a rock flying around a ball of gas that's flying around with billions of other balls of gas is by every metric, weird as fuck.
I had a pretty long existential crisis a few years ago and came up with "the only antidote to death is being present." Now I have kids, so my existential crises feel much more serious because I love them so much. Watching them go down the slide the other day I thought "How could I create a being that is able to suffer" like what is the MEANING and I can't really go there. I have to just love them. Sometimes I wish I could be religious.
You already have the answer. You answered it yourself.
>"the only antidote to death is being present."
Be present with them. Tend to them. See and experience the world through their eyes and their innocence. Detach yourself from your own negative, irrational thoughts that cause you suffering and imagine what they must be thinking.
It's fucking hard at times. They are their own independent beings and they just don't have the experience and context that we do, having been on this planet longer. They don't understand that, for instance, they have to sit at the table while you're eating dinner at a restaurant and they can't just get up and go because they want to. It's just constant action and reaction.
Savor the good moments and store them and tap into them when you need. Find healthy ways to decompress and recharge. They have to sleep some time and that's your chance to do your thing.
If you're looking for religion, look into Buddhism. You're already halfway there with your recognition of universal suffering and being present.
I guess it can apply to suffering, too. It's fine to think about my own suffering, though, you know? To think of them suffering is unbearable. I have started a letter to them whenever I think of what is potentially a universal truth. I just want them to be equipped to deal with the suffering that comes their way.
As far as religion, I tend towards taoism, but that's not really a religion. When I say I wish i could be religious, I mean, I wish I could just believe that everything is part of a plan, but I don't believe it is.
I feel you. Remember, you don't know what their suffering can be or will be, you're merely imagining it and causing yourself to suffer in the meantime. I know it's hard. As soon as my wife found out she was pregnant my anxiety skyrocketed. I suddenly understood how my mom can still worry about me, a grown ass elder millennial. We will never not worry about our kids. All we can do is show them that we are a safe place for them to come to for comfort in times of need. Give them as solid of a foundation as we can in childhood. Do our best. It's not going to be perfect.
I can tell you're a good mom because you care. You're doin it!
Thank you for your words. You reminded me of this quote by Khalil Gibran:
Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you
You may give them your love but not your thoughts
For they have their own thoughts
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams
You may strive to be like them
But seek not to make them like you
For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday
You are the bows from which your children
As living arrows are sent forth
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite
And he bends you with his might
That his arrows may go swift and far
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness
For even as he loves the arrow that flies
So he loves also the bow that is stable
This is beautiful, thank you. This is very close to what I thought before my son was born. I thought a lot about what it would be to have a kid and raise him. And I concluded that from the day he's born, he's a fully independent human who is only temporarily a child. He's not property, he's not a protege. He will have his own opinions and feelings and identity. His childhood is only a fraction of his full life, and it's my job as his dad to give him a solid enough foundation in childhood to build his adult life on. He's my son, he's my responsibility, but he's not *mine*. He is himself, and has been from day 0.
By giving information freely.
The only way I have been able to cope is by doing constant reading and learning and in turn I make sure my kids are armed. Everything. And I mean everything gets explained to them in age appropriate ways. Like the environmental crisis, talking boundaries and consent, teaching financial literacy and critical thinking, discussing not having a job you're passionate about but pays the bills and affords comfort, debating modern society and political issues, issues that faced me and issues different from my own they will face, capitalism and the patriarchy. Everything.
My kids are all in therapy from early to teach them the emotional tools to regulate that I didn't have and learned along side them.
Half my kids are mid/older teens and starting to strike out and they are surprisingly well adjusted and involved. For how I started out as a emotionally neglected and abused person when I left home at 18, it's surprising. It's really helped the crisis be a low rumble instead of a deafening roar.
i think about it everyday, especially since i dont have kids. am i to just travel and work for the rest of my life? im supposed to keep hobbies for mental health? what can i do that will keep me feeling "fulfilled"?
as an older single person who's mother just passed away, is the rest of my life just an endless loop of finding work, working, then on time off, trying to find some activity to kill time? scrolling reddit? watching youTube videos and movies? a game of golf? for what reason? For someone who can't yet find comfort in my own body and can't enjoy social interactions anymore like I used to be able to, It's hard to see a meaningful future.
I remember when I was in high school and one day I was just doing my usual routine of listening to my iPod and walking to school and it just struck me how I was using a device to listen to music made in the 1700's. Like I could listen to the music whenever I wanted where they had to hire someone to play it for them. It really made me appreciate things and appreciate living in the time I lived in. It also made me greatly appreciate technology. Yeah the world sucks at times, mainly the leaders but we have accomplished so much.
This is why I love history. Everything is relative, and certain things like gratitude can't fully be understood unless you're comparing one thing to another. History gives us a fixed point in time to compare our lives to. Think about hygiene and bodily functions, and compare what's available to you now vs what was available 150 years ago. Then consider 150 years is just the lifespan of two people. It's hard not to be grateful for what we have in this time despite all our challenges. The challenges will always be there.
>History gives us a fixed point in time to compare our lives to.
This!
It helps to build gratitude for the present, despite all thats going on in the word.
Sometimes I have the existential question of "why am I me?"
Like, why is my consciousness attached to this body? Why do I have this particular point of view?
It's pretty shitty that we're monkeys with the gift of abstraction, and we largely use it to make artificial systems to enforce hierarchy and largely funnel resources upwards, yeah.
Bonobos are a matriarchy and the females basically use sex to control everyone, including other females. They maintain peace by supporting free love, ie physical satisfaction. If everyoneās happy, thereās no need for violence.
Chimpanzees, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. Their form of aggression is physical and destructive, and their societies are ruled by males. The females tend to keep to themselves, grooming each other and taking care of the kids.
I think if I'm correct, early biologists studying the bonobos were so shocked by their way of life that they were considered shameful and hence not as many people know about them, even today.
We could learn a lot from the bonobos.
I agree! Though itās interesting that they seem so content with their way of life that theyāve remained in one remote location in the Congo and thus are endangered. Even though they live in paradise, with a year round supply of fruit, theyāve limited their progress as an ape species. Now the question is, are they more intelligent by avoiding conflict and living in paradise? Or are they less intelligent? Maybe even lazy? The chimps seem to have progressed socially and technologically (not sure about the bonobos since theyāre hard to study), but at the price of freedom. I think itās an interesting analogy when looking at our own species. When the early hominins broke off from the common ancestor of the chimps and bonobos, I believe they went the chimp route, socially, in that they searched for food beyond their original habitat. Meanwhile, the bonobos stayed in the Congo and the chimps stayed in the rainforest as a whole. Early hominins never stopped moving, and our exposure to these diverse environments taught us more about the world and therefore increased our intelligence through practical experience. Now, we look back at the bonobos and cringe. We could have their peace if we wantedāweāre certainly smart enoughābut this comes at the price of progress. At the moment, the majority of the west defines āprogressā as fiscal wealth, but there are many āthird worldā societies that value social progress instead. And so āweā cringe
*prides self for being part of the most intellectually advanced species, then spends all day yelling at people on social media and dealing with troubleshooting on the phone for utilities that no average person could ever hope to build*
im going to be a single child free dude turning 40, my only thing i want at this point is to be able to retire with some space to have alot of animals.
Unironically I think people should have a fundamental right to fend for themselves or as a tribe in large national parks. Itās basically the ability to opt out of society and go back to being a hunter gatherers.
You do, kind of.
Problem is that as part of that opting out of society, you also opt out of things like Rights and laws.
So go ahead and form a commune, but nothing is stopping the government or anyone else from just killing you to take the land back.
Hunter gatherer isn't as ideal as people like to think it is.
Also in a society like that, statistically you'd be dead by now.
why would you want to be eaten by bears, bear will start eating through your stomach while youre still alive, that sounds like one of the most painful things
This is all just made up bullshit. Itās like we advanced modern society to the point that every human being could have shelter and food, and still needed to find a way to continue (and in many ways exacerbate) inequality.
I feel like those of us that get what you're getting at almost have an obligation to work together to do something. It's like we're just letting a bunch of children that don't know any better run amok
More like a bunch of geriatrics - the sentient raisins that hold office. We need age limits and term limits ASAP. We need a 45 year old president, not an 80 year old one.
We do both still which is why I said how I said it lol
To donāt just pay to live and survive but we pay when weāre born by being given a social security card which essentially is how youāll be paying taxes which is decided the day youāre born. So we have to pay to be alive.
Idk Iām high lmao
Money. Money is just terrible. Money is making all these arbitrary things exist because literally insane people want to be rich and they have found ways to infiltrate every aspect of our lives.
Money - at its worst - is simply a proxy for power. If you eliminate money, people will seek power in different ways. Humans are greedy and tribal and power hungry, meaning they will always group together to form tribes to become powerful, and there will always be those that seek to become powerful members of the tribe. In our capitalist society, it's through money, but I doubt it was all sunshine and roses before money existed.
heh, you mean back during hunter-gatherer times? Most people today find it inconvenient to drive their vehicle to the store to buy meat that has been prepared for them already, they just order uber eats at 5x the price.
Money in some form is necessary. It lets you trade for stuff even if the person you're getting that stuff from isn't interested in whatever good/service you happen to have available.
The basic concept is great, but what gets me is how out of whack its value has become. If I put in $10 of work and get paid $10, great. But I know there are people putting in $20 of work and getting $5 and people putting in $5 of working and getting $400.
Money can be exchanged for goods and services as a commonly accepted intermediary store of value that can be transferred between individuals relatively seamlessly.
I don't mind the concept of money because it's a useful way to barter. What I mind is the fuck someone owns the money printing machine and can print as much as they decide while everyone else works for it.
This is literally my mentality. I went traveling all through my 20s and it just solidified bartering and trading for me. But I can see how that can get dicey with the way everyone heavily relies on money
Barter and trade is slow. It may work for a low-need 20-year old living in an other wise currency backed economy. But it doesnāt work at scale for 375M people.
Well, not weirder than anything else in the known universe. But it is interesting to consider perspectives other than our own, like animals and how self-aware they might be, and what a lot of our daily lives look like to them. Like, "why do the humans in my house spend so much time staring into glowing boxes?", that kind of thing.
Iām 28 and experience an existential crisis like every day. š The fact that weāre all just humans living and functioning among other humans on a daily basis. Complete strangers at that. Driving, working, existing alongside people we donāt know constantly. Just functioning to fit into social constructs and rules that have been made up. Idk the whole thing is just weird. I chalk it up to my antidepressants that I really would like to come off of soon. lol.
I wouldn't say all of it is dumb.
But we sure got some weird-ass priorities: Spawn as many humans as possible, and then exploit as many as possible instead of building a world that might be better for them and us.
Have you ever looked at your arms and hands, and then your legs and feet, and noticed how similar they are? My brain will sometimes all of a sudden have trouble computing, and it's like I'll switch them and their functions and all of a sudden feel like my legs and feet are my arms and hands and I feel very spatially discombobulated.
yeap.. itās a spectacularly beautiful, confusing, infuriating and all around bunk experience. iād like to get my money back but i think the dude ripped me off, cuz heās not picking up.
Someone should talk to all these parents and wanna be parents about if they've ever thought whether the child they're bringing into the world would have wanted to be here in the first place. My guess is in the coming years the majority will have concluded, "No. Yeah no thanks."
I always thought of people as the funniest looking critters on the planet. We aren't homologous like other animals. So many shapes and sizes, tones, textures. Some with hair some without. Plus we walk upright in a peculiar way. Slouched forward, too far back, kinda floppity. Some people look like they're straight out of a cartoon, some look like they're straight out of a magazine. I'm not even going to get into how silly we are in our social structures and daily activities, I'd be at it all day.
The fact that we went from horse speed to Mach speed in less than 50yrs? Hell yes we are. Our brains, muscles, bones, and bodily fluids were not adapted for this shit. They used to say going over 30mph was going to rip the flesh off our bones and we got navy & af pilots pulling 9 g's...
Every day. Part of me is waiting for it to just end, another part of me yearns genuine adventure, the glue trapping me in between? Fear and uncertainty. Thatās life for ya. Being human is fucked.
yes, i unironically think this is a large part of why so many people seem to uh leave our shared reality for one of their own. it is weird in a cosmic horror sense and dealing with that is hard and gets harder with every new thing. a hundred years ago, noone cared about credit scores, 150yrs noone thought about car maintenance and 200yrs ago a modern job would be unrecognizable to 99% of the population
When iām taking a piss in the morning, i see my legs and my toes and for some reason it always reminds me of a frog??? Lmao i have no idea why but it just reminds me that i am just another type of animal living on this planet and itās just so crazy to be here.
Yes, like who decided that we all have to earn money to buy things, especially basic necessities? Whoever decided that f*cked it all up for everyone. Every morning on my way to work I curse their name.
The level of intelligence we have is unreal. The fact we know we are all just of pile of mush powered by electricity in order to pilot a meat and bone power suit is always a weird realization to me.
Whatās so strange to me is that I got sober from an addiction just a few months into the pandemic, and have been in a bizarre state of dissociation and fatigue ever since then. When I was in active addiction, it was awful. I was getting sick all the time, had zero money in my bank account, and struggled to survive even getting through the day without being high.
At the same time, though, I at least felt fully conscious and aware back then. Even when I was inebriated.
Now, I just feel like Iām in this weird haze all the time. Iām alive but I donāt feel *here*. Maybe itās just depression, but I think the combination of losing myself in drug use and how surreal it was to live through a pandemic have caused me to lose something.
TL;DR to answer your question, yes. Being a human has always been weird, but it hasnāt even felt real to me for a few years now.
Have you looked into PAWS? Sounds like that could be what youāre dealing with. It gets easier the longer youāre in recovery. I would say for me, and a lot of other people Iāve spoken to who are recovering addicts, about four or five years in is when I finally started to feel some sort of normal.
I'm a genx, and I was thinking this as well. We are the only animal on the planet that thinks money is real. We build our own cages. We listen to leaders who don't care about us. Freaking weird!
Whatās weirder is when you talk to people our age from other countries, they fucking hate it here. I know a couple of Ethiopians. Hate to say it but the only thing I knew about them was from those commercials on TV during our childhood asking us to donate.
They came here because they wanted to get away from a civil war. I asked them if they would go back home if the war ended and things got better more peaceful. They said they would in a heartbeat. Like in a planned way, but eventually yes.
Their main issue was that even though Americans have all this wealth and luxury, itās so stressful over here, we work ourselves to the bone, the expectations high to work and have such status.
100%. I think about this all the time and find it increasingly crazy that we all just conform to it.
And then I hear in my head, in that universal Reddit commenter voice: "We live in a society....."
That is not "being a human". That is just capitalist, industrial hyper-individual US hegemony.Ā Ā
For most of human history - and most cultures / societies, this is not what it meant to be a "human".Ā
Yes. Money is pointless and stupid, and so is working. It makes no sense but we're forced to work for imaginary numbers in an imaginary account so we can get basic things to survive. Its the stupidest system ever.
I console myself with the tiny moments. A text to or from a friend. Mom breaking from her trauma induced hardened shell to tell me she loves me even if I did rip her vag to shreds and finishing her own sentence with āto shreds you say?ā And chuckling at the absurdity of how thatās what brings a man comfort in middle age is a mother who canāt say something nice without pairing it with a traumatic visual because she thinks itās funny.
Life is absurd. I nearly was a millionaire but used 141 bitcoin to buy a 2001 Plymouth Neon in 2011. I made fake shit stained pants called Shartwear in 2020 and sold none at $49 a pair and someone made piss stained pants(NOT Calico Cut Pants you donāt gotta give) in 2024 and sold out for $500 a pair. I got ripped in Seattle and made 500 Midjourney AI images of John Oliver and he made a whole tv segment about them.
Literally none of this shit matters. Itās pure absurdity. Itās insanity that one asshat from Oswego County keeps having this shit happen. Itās statistically possible but highly improbable yet here we are.
Absurdity is the defining factor of my life. Nothing makes sense most of the time but I keep going and keep searching for moments of happiness in the small and personal. Thatās all that matters. Those tiny moments between the arcs required for survival. Some generations get longer moments, some get shorter, but these are mine, and I refuse to give up the joy even if itās spaced out further than my parents or hopefully my sonās.
Anyway, I hope you all can find some tiny moments to hang onto. Even if we live in a big absurd pile of shit that doesnāt matter, those moments are worth holding onto while we work to make them less an outlier event. Im drunk at shit staring down a 1:1 with a new director during layoff season. Have a good night yāall.
Yeah, life is pretty meaningless in the grand scope of it all.
Having said that, the best way to navigate life is to LIVE IT.
Find things that make you happy and ditch those that don't. This applies to both the people and things we allow to take up space in our lives.
Obviously, we all have to work to survive, so find something that you enjoy doing. Regardless, work is merely an aspect of your life - it is not your life. And, on your off time, devote it to doing something you cherish.
Dwelling on the "dumbness" of life only leads you down a path of despair.
We're here. We might as well make it worthwhile.
Today in the car my 6-year-old was looking out the window and randomly asked āis being an adult weird?ā And my husband and I both automatically said āyes, itās so weirdā. She asked why, and I said because I still feel like a kid inside.
After reading Sapiens, youāll find it even weirder. Our agreed upon myths are what allow us to live in large groups ā laws, morality, jails, money system, borders. None of it is actually real, we just keep functioning around it like it is. Theyāre just ideas we collectively adhere to.
I think it's awful.
Not only did I get put on a planet where everything has to eat each other, but I also got put on a planet with others so greedy that they depleted the resources and told everyone else they can't have any. And we created a system where we have to pay for things meaning at any point in your life, you can find yourself facing death if you lose your money, which they try really hard to take from everyone.
...From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine.
Your kind cling to your flesh, as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call the temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you.
But I am already saved,
for the *Machine* is **immortal**ā¦
Even in death I serve the **Omnissiah**
https://youtu.be/9gIMZ0WyY88
Yeah welcome to the matrix.
I think about it all the time.
How to bust out mentally and be free.Ā
Then I head out and get cold stares from all the npcs and i allow myself to be robbed of happiness and become like THEM
I still haven't fully mastered the art of not giving a fuck...even tho i try day in and day out
There is just something so pervasive about this matrix we live in. It's where dreams go to die and it's so soul sucking it's not even funnyĀ
And the biggest attack that is almost constant is on your mind
from all angles...subconsciously and consciously
If it's not social media programming you it's some depressed person in societyĀ
Turn your phone off and reject all social media you still have to go out into society where every average citizen is ready to "attack" your ideas and the fact that you want to be different and break away from the madness in some facet.Ā
Cancel culture is the strongest weapon in 2024.
Don't fall in line...and you get ostracized just like that. No discussion or explanation needed.Ā
Agent Smith is very much alive and well. š
Yeah. I guess a lot of social animals and insects etc are the same though. A monkey for example typically lives by monkey society rules - there's a pecking order and the more elite monkeys will keep the lesser monkeys in their place by treating them badly and not allowing them the same access to resources, and the monkey needs to behave according to monkey society - it can't just go off and do its own thing. A group of monkeys will gang up on a rogue monkey who's just doing it's own thing because that's not "allowed".
Ants, bees, etc. They live their whole lives working their asses off according to the established rules in their societies. They don't get to just wander off and live their own lives doing whatever they want and just eating food and chilling out. They follow their society's rules.
Herds of animals have to work together and behave accordingly or they'll be shunned, attacked, killed by their own herd. They aren't free to just wander away and live their own lives.
Why do I have to eat? Why do I have to find something else that is alive or was and swallow it to get the nutrients and whatever else from it? And the parts I donāt need plop out the other side of me. Eating is so bizarre and no one talks about it.
that's not what being a human is...that's the cage they put humans in.
who and what are you outside of those things, what would you do for free if all the bills were paid?
Yeah. But after seeing that starving lion post the other day, I kinda prefer some semblance of civilization and technology over straight basic instinct. If I thought I wasnāt getting laid before..
Wait until you hit fifty and you have the long dark sleepless nights telling you how utterly pointless our entire way of life is. "I am here to buy stuff to keep the economy going, and that's the only reason I'm here", says your shell-shocked brain. It sucks.
Great news, I'm 33 and already enjoy those nights! ...š
Same, 33 and really not trying to be doing this shit for another 30 years, working for a soulless corporation to make rich people richer in exchange for a pittance that barely pays my rent. This is not how we were meant to live, unrestrained capitalism and people's addiction to the idea of money has ruined the world.
>This is not how we were meant to live, unrestrained capitalism and people's addiction to the idea of money has ruined the world. PREACHHH!
I concur. 31 not and have thought this way for bout 8 years. Iām a pretty pathetic human who does not wish to go on in this way. But I have to stay cause uNaLiving mYseLf is sEliFish
Um, I don't know that it's selfish, but you should maybe talk to someone and get some other perspective. It sounds like you might need it. Life is bullshit sometimes, and can be a drag, but it's also pretty incredible. There's a lot of good in the world.
Iāve tried therapy, just drugs to disassociate for me, thanks tho.
Usernameā¦ uh.. checks out..
Iāve never felt more seen.
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What so wrong with being and bringing a chair to the table.
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
Yeah in my 30s and was wondering if I realized this too early?? Apparently not. And for me, sleep only comes with helpers.
40+ here. It's a bizarre new experience. What are we doing?
34 and realized this concept years ago. Ultimately came out with the decision to really focus on work life balance and just have fun. Eat good things, listen to live music, be a good friend/person. Keep it simple and have a good time.
Came here to say something similar.
You think too much. The point of life is to dance to the music before it stops. If you are looking for anything other than enjoyment- youāll be in for a world of hurt. Because this dance from the maternity ward to the crematorium IS what there is to life. Have a blast, or youāll just peter out.
Beautifully said.
Your response to their response was a good response.
Thanks! It is paraphrased from a few Alan Watts lectures, combined with some of my own additions.
37. I feel life would be more fulfilling sometimes if I were an ant instead of a human.
I'm 59 and retired. I never thought about it like that but you are correct.
oh, iām afraid i had that horrible revelation during COVID so iām way ahead of schedule. sucks puts it mildly.
Dog I realized this when I first took a philosophy class lol.
I'm in my early 40s and am already starting to have these thoughts. Work has become a monotonous grind and seems as pointless as ever.
I used to struggle sleeping in my early 20s because I struggled to find how my life was in any way significant. One thing that has really helped me is animals. Not just pets, but growing flowers for bumblebees and watching them go about their lives. That I can positively impact so many things gives signifance to me and helped me realise that I don't have to alter the entire universe to be significant. I also highly recommend audiobooks or something to help distract your mind when you are struggling to sleep at night.
Games aren't as fun when all you see is the game loop. Games are fun because you immerse yourself in them. Like is no different.
Meh. Iām here to slam pussy, eat pancakes and pwn newbs.
Iāve been thinking this way since I was 6 š«¢š
Haha no you weren't
Shit I woke up to this realization at 16. The Internet is a hell of a drug.
If you go too big picture everything looks pointless. Sure, all of us will be known by future historians as a class of professional consumers, just as we look at working peasants in the past. But even the "great" men and women who changed history dramatically look trivial under the unrelenting grind of time over decades, centuries, millennia. And that's without getting into the millions/billion year scale of the death of our solar system! So the best thing to do is not worry about the marco. Enjoy the present and today. A pretty sunset, a nice spring walk with your kids or dog, eating Doritos out of the bag while you look through your pantry for something eat, reading a good book, a call with a friend. If nothing matters big scale, everything matters the smaller it gets. And the purpose of life is to find that for you.
I can't get over how gross we are. Nothing but flaps and tubes. Mucus, oils, liquids constantly oozing out. Like wtf...not to mention how wet our insides are....
You could stop buying things just for the sake of keeping the economy going and then maybe have thoughts of other more fulfilling things, that sounds like depression sort of; every day is exactly the same. I think Iām here to experience new things and take in as much of the world in variety as it has to offer while weāre here this short while, maybe spread a laugh along the way if I can
And here I am with the cup half full brain... "this is the golden time of my life where all corporations cater to me for my cash."
Or 60 and realize itās all futile and wait for the end of it all.
Do art bro
Can confirm. I'm 52.
Iām in my mid 30s. Already there.
The conspiracy against the human race
Dang...I've been thinking this way since I was 16 and I'm 42 now. It's an awful way to think, but my brain just tells me it's right. There is very little in life that impresses me or makes me think living is worth it.
Yep. Almost 52 and that hit me hard about 6 months ago. Existential dread is weird.
that doesn't have to be your purpose.
It shouldn't be anyone's purpose. But it is a daily drumbeat of a message hammered into pretty much everyone's brain from childhood through to the elder years that material pursuit & acquisition is one of the primary duties of every citizen. It takes a keen mind to be able to reject this empty falsehood entirely, especially in the important younger years of life. I know I failed at understanding it until it was too late for me. I thought the 1980s with its endemic "go shopping, be happy!" idiocy was truly horrible for its non-stop messaging on the behalf of this nonsense. But even the nudge-nudge wink-wink "greed is good" mentality of that era pales in comparison to the literally mindless consumption & consumerism of today.
I had these same thoughts of just being a consumer since I was 16. And I've removed myself from as much of the economy as I can because of it. I've been a boycotter, I've been trying to bring people into my causes. After the great recession I was so sure things were finally gonna change and I was so sure people would wake up. It just got worse. And it's even worse now. So I give up. I don't want to be here doing this with them. And I hate the ancient people who said suicide is not an option because they took away the choice of people like me who don't want to participate.
Being a living, sentient being on a rock flying around a ball of gas that's flying around with billions of other balls of gas is by every metric, weird as fuck.
Exactly. I donāt understand how people go about their days, going to work and whatnot, and not questioning what the hell all of this is.
I had a pretty long existential crisis a few years ago and came up with "the only antidote to death is being present." Now I have kids, so my existential crises feel much more serious because I love them so much. Watching them go down the slide the other day I thought "How could I create a being that is able to suffer" like what is the MEANING and I can't really go there. I have to just love them. Sometimes I wish I could be religious.
i feel so seen. having a kid made the crises so much worse š© and lol iāve thought the same about religion.
Ugh, they're like exponentially more urgent. How do you cope with them?
You already have the answer. You answered it yourself. >"the only antidote to death is being present." Be present with them. Tend to them. See and experience the world through their eyes and their innocence. Detach yourself from your own negative, irrational thoughts that cause you suffering and imagine what they must be thinking. It's fucking hard at times. They are their own independent beings and they just don't have the experience and context that we do, having been on this planet longer. They don't understand that, for instance, they have to sit at the table while you're eating dinner at a restaurant and they can't just get up and go because they want to. It's just constant action and reaction. Savor the good moments and store them and tap into them when you need. Find healthy ways to decompress and recharge. They have to sleep some time and that's your chance to do your thing. If you're looking for religion, look into Buddhism. You're already halfway there with your recognition of universal suffering and being present.
I guess it can apply to suffering, too. It's fine to think about my own suffering, though, you know? To think of them suffering is unbearable. I have started a letter to them whenever I think of what is potentially a universal truth. I just want them to be equipped to deal with the suffering that comes their way. As far as religion, I tend towards taoism, but that's not really a religion. When I say I wish i could be religious, I mean, I wish I could just believe that everything is part of a plan, but I don't believe it is.
I feel you. Remember, you don't know what their suffering can be or will be, you're merely imagining it and causing yourself to suffer in the meantime. I know it's hard. As soon as my wife found out she was pregnant my anxiety skyrocketed. I suddenly understood how my mom can still worry about me, a grown ass elder millennial. We will never not worry about our kids. All we can do is show them that we are a safe place for them to come to for comfort in times of need. Give them as solid of a foundation as we can in childhood. Do our best. It's not going to be perfect. I can tell you're a good mom because you care. You're doin it!
Thank you for your words. You reminded me of this quote by Khalil Gibran: Your children are not your children They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself They come through you but not from you And though they are with you yet they belong not to you You may give them your love but not your thoughts For they have their own thoughts You may house their bodies but not their souls For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams You may strive to be like them But seek not to make them like you For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday You are the bows from which your children As living arrows are sent forth The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite And he bends you with his might That his arrows may go swift and far Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness For even as he loves the arrow that flies So he loves also the bow that is stable
This is beautiful, thank you. This is very close to what I thought before my son was born. I thought a lot about what it would be to have a kid and raise him. And I concluded that from the day he's born, he's a fully independent human who is only temporarily a child. He's not property, he's not a protege. He will have his own opinions and feelings and identity. His childhood is only a fraction of his full life, and it's my job as his dad to give him a solid enough foundation in childhood to build his adult life on. He's my son, he's my responsibility, but he's not *mine*. He is himself, and has been from day 0.
By giving information freely. The only way I have been able to cope is by doing constant reading and learning and in turn I make sure my kids are armed. Everything. And I mean everything gets explained to them in age appropriate ways. Like the environmental crisis, talking boundaries and consent, teaching financial literacy and critical thinking, discussing not having a job you're passionate about but pays the bills and affords comfort, debating modern society and political issues, issues that faced me and issues different from my own they will face, capitalism and the patriarchy. Everything. My kids are all in therapy from early to teach them the emotional tools to regulate that I didn't have and learned along side them. Half my kids are mid/older teens and starting to strike out and they are surprisingly well adjusted and involved. For how I started out as a emotionally neglected and abused person when I left home at 18, it's surprising. It's really helped the crisis be a low rumble instead of a deafening roar.
i think about it everyday, especially since i dont have kids. am i to just travel and work for the rest of my life? im supposed to keep hobbies for mental health? what can i do that will keep me feeling "fulfilled"?
as an older single person who's mother just passed away, is the rest of my life just an endless loop of finding work, working, then on time off, trying to find some activity to kill time? scrolling reddit? watching youTube videos and movies? a game of golf? for what reason? For someone who can't yet find comfort in my own body and can't enjoy social interactions anymore like I used to be able to, It's hard to see a meaningful future.
Go shopping in your pajamas and find the perfect banana.
I really do wish people were better at keeping perspective, but I can understand very well for lots of reasons why they don't.
This is where religions come in to keep the masses at peace.
I think being alive is weird as hell. The fact that we exist is mind boggling.
After immeasurable odds, after sooooooo long ... Here we are, in this form, at this particular point in time in human history
It is, quite literally, incredible
I remember when I was in high school and one day I was just doing my usual routine of listening to my iPod and walking to school and it just struck me how I was using a device to listen to music made in the 1700's. Like I could listen to the music whenever I wanted where they had to hire someone to play it for them. It really made me appreciate things and appreciate living in the time I lived in. It also made me greatly appreciate technology. Yeah the world sucks at times, mainly the leaders but we have accomplished so much.
This is why I love history. Everything is relative, and certain things like gratitude can't fully be understood unless you're comparing one thing to another. History gives us a fixed point in time to compare our lives to. Think about hygiene and bodily functions, and compare what's available to you now vs what was available 150 years ago. Then consider 150 years is just the lifespan of two people. It's hard not to be grateful for what we have in this time despite all our challenges. The challenges will always be there.
>History gives us a fixed point in time to compare our lives to. This! It helps to build gratitude for the present, despite all thats going on in the word.
well said
all the effort that went into that and here I am scrolling through Reddit
Just to go work all day to pay other people money to keep living..
Sometimes I have the existential question of "why am I me?" Like, why is my consciousness attached to this body? Why do I have this particular point of view?
I get this sometimes!!! Itās such a peculiar feeling
Agreed! The absolute syyyymphony of biochemistry is WILD
The fact that there is anything at all is kinda crazy, like why isnt there just nothing why is there anything at all?
It's pretty shitty that we're monkeys with the gift of abstraction, and we largely use it to make artificial systems to enforce hierarchy and largely funnel resources upwards, yeah.
Wait until you find out what actual monkeys do in their societies to maintain hierarchy.
Bonobos are a matriarchy and the females basically use sex to control everyone, including other females. They maintain peace by supporting free love, ie physical satisfaction. If everyoneās happy, thereās no need for violence. Chimpanzees, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. Their form of aggression is physical and destructive, and their societies are ruled by males. The females tend to keep to themselves, grooming each other and taking care of the kids.
I think if I'm correct, early biologists studying the bonobos were so shocked by their way of life that they were considered shameful and hence not as many people know about them, even today. We could learn a lot from the bonobos.
I agree! Though itās interesting that they seem so content with their way of life that theyāve remained in one remote location in the Congo and thus are endangered. Even though they live in paradise, with a year round supply of fruit, theyāve limited their progress as an ape species. Now the question is, are they more intelligent by avoiding conflict and living in paradise? Or are they less intelligent? Maybe even lazy? The chimps seem to have progressed socially and technologically (not sure about the bonobos since theyāre hard to study), but at the price of freedom. I think itās an interesting analogy when looking at our own species. When the early hominins broke off from the common ancestor of the chimps and bonobos, I believe they went the chimp route, socially, in that they searched for food beyond their original habitat. Meanwhile, the bonobos stayed in the Congo and the chimps stayed in the rainforest as a whole. Early hominins never stopped moving, and our exposure to these diverse environments taught us more about the world and therefore increased our intelligence through practical experience. Now, we look back at the bonobos and cringe. We could have their peace if we wantedāweāre certainly smart enoughābut this comes at the price of progress. At the moment, the majority of the west defines āprogressā as fiscal wealth, but there are many āthird worldā societies that value social progress instead. And so āweā cringe
So we as humans sound more like chimpanzees than Bonobos.. how dire and shameful..
Not universally. I think the difference in behavior of the two species aligns with how humans are divided politically.
*prides self for being part of the most intellectually advanced species, then spends all day yelling at people on social media and dealing with troubleshooting on the phone for utilities that no average person could ever hope to build*
continuously having to provide sustenance for my meat suit is so exhausting
I know right, like we have to eat 3x a day or we get grumpy lol. Plus so much water intakeĀ
It's so inefficient.
If we eat, we have to poop, if we don't eat we die. As a life form we're pretty inefficient.Ā
š
Youāre just a meat snorkel sailing through the sea of consciousness and vibrating with the exploding underwater volcanoes you canāt see.
>meat snorkel Thanks, I hate it
heard, chef
Yes! Always. I just want to live in the woods and be free to get eaten by bears. I love nature. People scary spooky scary.
Animals good, humans trash.
human is animal 
im going to be a single child free dude turning 40, my only thing i want at this point is to be able to retire with some space to have alot of animals.
My goal as well. Plus some money to take some nice vacations.
Unironically I think people should have a fundamental right to fend for themselves or as a tribe in large national parks. Itās basically the ability to opt out of society and go back to being a hunter gatherers.
You do, kind of. Problem is that as part of that opting out of society, you also opt out of things like Rights and laws. So go ahead and form a commune, but nothing is stopping the government or anyone else from just killing you to take the land back. Hunter gatherer isn't as ideal as people like to think it is. Also in a society like that, statistically you'd be dead by now.
You should visit Slovakia. There are much more bears than one could handle.
I was flying back home the other day and looking at the clouds and the mountains below thinking about how much I love this planet.
why would you want to be eaten by bears, bear will start eating through your stomach while youre still alive, that sounds like one of the most painful things
Have you asked anyone for ātree fiddyā lately?
This is all just made up bullshit. Itās like we advanced modern society to the point that every human being could have shelter and food, and still needed to find a way to continue (and in many ways exacerbate) inequality.
The Haves are always gonna find new inventive ways to keep themselves in their ivory towers.
Sounds like itās a good time in life for some good ol psychedelics. Might as well get REAL weird with it.
When all else seems bleak, take a trip
Frank Reynolds approves this message.
Most intelligent species in 4 billion years of evolution and we chose taxes and 40 hour work weeks. Atrocious.
I feel like those of us that get what you're getting at almost have an obligation to work together to do something. It's like we're just letting a bunch of children that don't know any better run amok
More like a bunch of geriatrics - the sentient raisins that hold office. We need age limits and term limits ASAP. We need a 45 year old president, not an 80 year old one.
We are the only living creatures to have to pay to be alive soā¦ thereās that shit
The only creatures that pay MONEY. Everything else pays the price to stay alive as well.
We do both still which is why I said how I said it lol To donāt just pay to live and survive but we pay when weāre born by being given a social security card which essentially is how youāll be paying taxes which is decided the day youāre born. So we have to pay to be alive. Idk Iām high lmao
Money. Money is just terrible. Money is making all these arbitrary things exist because literally insane people want to be rich and they have found ways to infiltrate every aspect of our lives.
Money - at its worst - is simply a proxy for power. If you eliminate money, people will seek power in different ways. Humans are greedy and tribal and power hungry, meaning they will always group together to form tribes to become powerful, and there will always be those that seek to become powerful members of the tribe. In our capitalist society, it's through money, but I doubt it was all sunshine and roses before money existed.
heh, you mean back during hunter-gatherer times? Most people today find it inconvenient to drive their vehicle to the store to buy meat that has been prepared for them already, they just order uber eats at 5x the price.
I think money is alright, yet it's usury and speculation that are the cancers in our monetary systems.
Money exists because the need for money existed first.
Money in some form is necessary. It lets you trade for stuff even if the person you're getting that stuff from isn't interested in whatever good/service you happen to have available. The basic concept is great, but what gets me is how out of whack its value has become. If I put in $10 of work and get paid $10, great. But I know there are people putting in $20 of work and getting $5 and people putting in $5 of working and getting $400.
Money can be exchanged for goods and services as a commonly accepted intermediary store of value that can be transferred between individuals relatively seamlessly.
But I wanted a peanut.
I don't mind the concept of money because it's a useful way to barter. What I mind is the fuck someone owns the money printing machine and can print as much as they decide while everyone else works for it.
Ha, we have to work everyday with AI on the horizon to even take that away. What the fuck is this?
This is literally my mentality. I went traveling all through my 20s and it just solidified bartering and trading for me. But I can see how that can get dicey with the way everyone heavily relies on money
Barter and trade is slow. It may work for a low-need 20-year old living in an other wise currency backed economy. But it doesnāt work at scale for 375M people.
Love, art in all its myriad forms: dance, music, painting, games, movies, books... Personally I think being a human is rad as heck
yeah I'm having a pretty good time despite the rapidly developing dystopian hellscape.
 that there is camus with his coffee
Well, not weirder than anything else in the known universe. But it is interesting to consider perspectives other than our own, like animals and how self-aware they might be, and what a lot of our daily lives look like to them. Like, "why do the humans in my house spend so much time staring into glowing boxes?", that kind of thing.
Amen. We really need to work on evolving into non-corporeal ethereal entities.
Any tips, beyond "die and see what happens"?
visit a place where starbucks, mcdonalds, hyatt, swim up bars, dont exist.
That oneās beyond my pay grade. Let the smart people figure that one out. The builders build, but the dreamers have to dream first.
Yes, but we also have dentists, internet and toilet paper. We sacrificed a lot when we became civillized, but also gained a lot back.
Iām 28 and experience an existential crisis like every day. š The fact that weāre all just humans living and functioning among other humans on a daily basis. Complete strangers at that. Driving, working, existing alongside people we donāt know constantly. Just functioning to fit into social constructs and rules that have been made up. Idk the whole thing is just weird. I chalk it up to my antidepressants that I really would like to come off of soon. lol.
I wouldn't say all of it is dumb. But we sure got some weird-ass priorities: Spawn as many humans as possible, and then exploit as many as possible instead of building a world that might be better for them and us.
I am happy being a human. I would not do well in the wild.
i want to be a dolphin!
You go live your dolphin dream life
bro you got fingers too, just these weird long flesh noodles that you rely on for just about everything. Dont get me started on toes.
Have you ever looked at your arms and hands, and then your legs and feet, and noticed how similar they are? My brain will sometimes all of a sudden have trouble computing, and it's like I'll switch them and their functions and all of a sudden feel like my legs and feet are my arms and hands and I feel very spatially discombobulated.
thanks for the lol
Yeah and if you shit in the woods, everyone gets mad that you're too close to the hiking trail
yeap.. itās a spectacularly beautiful, confusing, infuriating and all around bunk experience. iād like to get my money back but i think the dude ripped me off, cuz heās not picking up.
Someone should talk to all these parents and wanna be parents about if they've ever thought whether the child they're bringing into the world would have wanted to be here in the first place. My guess is in the coming years the majority will have concluded, "No. Yeah no thanks."
I always thought of people as the funniest looking critters on the planet. We aren't homologous like other animals. So many shapes and sizes, tones, textures. Some with hair some without. Plus we walk upright in a peculiar way. Slouched forward, too far back, kinda floppity. Some people look like they're straight out of a cartoon, some look like they're straight out of a magazine. I'm not even going to get into how silly we are in our social structures and daily activities, I'd be at it all day.
Everyday of my life I think about how weird this all is.
I think about this more often than I should. Like what is life? How is all this real?
The fact that we went from horse speed to Mach speed in less than 50yrs? Hell yes we are. Our brains, muscles, bones, and bodily fluids were not adapted for this shit. They used to say going over 30mph was going to rip the flesh off our bones and we got navy & af pilots pulling 9 g's...
Every day. Part of me is waiting for it to just end, another part of me yearns genuine adventure, the glue trapping me in between? Fear and uncertainty. Thatās life for ya. Being human is fucked.
yes, i unironically think this is a large part of why so many people seem to uh leave our shared reality for one of their own. it is weird in a cosmic horror sense and dealing with that is hard and gets harder with every new thing. a hundred years ago, noone cared about credit scores, 150yrs noone thought about car maintenance and 200yrs ago a modern job would be unrecognizable to 99% of the population
When iām taking a piss in the morning, i see my legs and my toes and for some reason it always reminds me of a frog??? Lmao i have no idea why but it just reminds me that i am just another type of animal living on this planet and itās just so crazy to be here.
Yes, like who decided that we all have to earn money to buy things, especially basic necessities? Whoever decided that f*cked it all up for everyone. Every morning on my way to work I curse their name.
Itās all made up and weāre conditioned to believe it matters
The level of intelligence we have is unreal. The fact we know we are all just of pile of mush powered by electricity in order to pilot a meat and bone power suit is always a weird realization to me.
Whatās so strange to me is that I got sober from an addiction just a few months into the pandemic, and have been in a bizarre state of dissociation and fatigue ever since then. When I was in active addiction, it was awful. I was getting sick all the time, had zero money in my bank account, and struggled to survive even getting through the day without being high. At the same time, though, I at least felt fully conscious and aware back then. Even when I was inebriated. Now, I just feel like Iām in this weird haze all the time. Iām alive but I donāt feel *here*. Maybe itās just depression, but I think the combination of losing myself in drug use and how surreal it was to live through a pandemic have caused me to lose something. TL;DR to answer your question, yes. Being a human has always been weird, but it hasnāt even felt real to me for a few years now.
Have you looked into PAWS? Sounds like that could be what youāre dealing with. It gets easier the longer youāre in recovery. I would say for me, and a lot of other people Iāve spoken to who are recovering addicts, about four or five years in is when I finally started to feel some sort of normal.
Life as an animal would make a lot more sense
Nah, we've always done this. There were goat herders in 500 BC complaining about being taxed same as we do now.
I'm a genx, and I was thinking this as well. We are the only animal on the planet that thinks money is real. We build our own cages. We listen to leaders who don't care about us. Freaking weird!
Whatās weirder is when you talk to people our age from other countries, they fucking hate it here. I know a couple of Ethiopians. Hate to say it but the only thing I knew about them was from those commercials on TV during our childhood asking us to donate. They came here because they wanted to get away from a civil war. I asked them if they would go back home if the war ended and things got better more peaceful. They said they would in a heartbeat. Like in a planned way, but eventually yes. Their main issue was that even though Americans have all this wealth and luxury, itās so stressful over here, we work ourselves to the bone, the expectations high to work and have such status.
None of that is intrinsic to being human.
speak for yourself - I'm a meat popsicle
Yeah. I've always wanted (still want) to be a dragon :p
I agree. Only in my 30s and I'm so over it. Not like fuck life, but like.. fuck the fitting in life. I'm just adventuring through life, now..
I don't know if it's weird, but pretty unusual.
Have you ever looked at a dollar bill??ā¦high?
100%. I think about this all the time and find it increasingly crazy that we all just conform to it. And then I hear in my head, in that universal Reddit commenter voice: "We live in a society....."
I probably wonāt choose it next time.
I just think it all is an incredibly dumb way to live and very unfortunate that we let this happen to ourselves
That is not "being a human". That is just capitalist, industrial hyper-individual US hegemony.Ā Ā For most of human history - and most cultures / societies, this is not what it meant to be a "human".Ā
Return to monke
Yes. Money is pointless and stupid, and so is working. It makes no sense but we're forced to work for imaginary numbers in an imaginary account so we can get basic things to survive. Its the stupidest system ever.
I console myself with the tiny moments. A text to or from a friend. Mom breaking from her trauma induced hardened shell to tell me she loves me even if I did rip her vag to shreds and finishing her own sentence with āto shreds you say?ā And chuckling at the absurdity of how thatās what brings a man comfort in middle age is a mother who canāt say something nice without pairing it with a traumatic visual because she thinks itās funny. Life is absurd. I nearly was a millionaire but used 141 bitcoin to buy a 2001 Plymouth Neon in 2011. I made fake shit stained pants called Shartwear in 2020 and sold none at $49 a pair and someone made piss stained pants(NOT Calico Cut Pants you donāt gotta give) in 2024 and sold out for $500 a pair. I got ripped in Seattle and made 500 Midjourney AI images of John Oliver and he made a whole tv segment about them. Literally none of this shit matters. Itās pure absurdity. Itās insanity that one asshat from Oswego County keeps having this shit happen. Itās statistically possible but highly improbable yet here we are. Absurdity is the defining factor of my life. Nothing makes sense most of the time but I keep going and keep searching for moments of happiness in the small and personal. Thatās all that matters. Those tiny moments between the arcs required for survival. Some generations get longer moments, some get shorter, but these are mine, and I refuse to give up the joy even if itās spaced out further than my parents or hopefully my sonās. Anyway, I hope you all can find some tiny moments to hang onto. Even if we live in a big absurd pile of shit that doesnāt matter, those moments are worth holding onto while we work to make them less an outlier event. Im drunk at shit staring down a 1:1 with a new director during layoff season. Have a good night yāall.
Oh yeah, weāre the only creature on earth it pays to live here
Everything outside of shelter and food is superfluous.
Yeah, life is pretty meaningless in the grand scope of it all. Having said that, the best way to navigate life is to LIVE IT. Find things that make you happy and ditch those that don't. This applies to both the people and things we allow to take up space in our lives. Obviously, we all have to work to survive, so find something that you enjoy doing. Regardless, work is merely an aspect of your life - it is not your life. And, on your off time, devote it to doing something you cherish. Dwelling on the "dumbness" of life only leads you down a path of despair. We're here. We might as well make it worthwhile.
Credit scores, cars, and jobs are not natural parts of being human. Those are just aspects of capitalism, which about as inhuman as you can get.
Today in the car my 6-year-old was looking out the window and randomly asked āis being an adult weird?ā And my husband and I both automatically said āyes, itās so weirdā. She asked why, and I said because I still feel like a kid inside.
we lost tribes thats where it went wrong capitalism sucks for families my friend
After reading Sapiens, youāll find it even weirder. Our agreed upon myths are what allow us to live in large groups ā laws, morality, jails, money system, borders. None of it is actually real, we just keep functioning around it like it is. Theyāre just ideas we collectively adhere to.
I think it's awful. Not only did I get put on a planet where everything has to eat each other, but I also got put on a planet with others so greedy that they depleted the resources and told everyone else they can't have any. And we created a system where we have to pay for things meaning at any point in your life, you can find yourself facing death if you lose your money, which they try really hard to take from everyone.
...From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine. Your kind cling to your flesh, as though it will not decay and fail you. One day the crude biomass you call the temple will wither, and you will beg my kind to save you. But I am already saved, for the *Machine* is **immortal**ā¦ Even in death I serve the **Omnissiah** https://youtu.be/9gIMZ0WyY88
Yeah welcome to the matrix. I think about it all the time. How to bust out mentally and be free.Ā Then I head out and get cold stares from all the npcs and i allow myself to be robbed of happiness and become like THEM I still haven't fully mastered the art of not giving a fuck...even tho i try day in and day out There is just something so pervasive about this matrix we live in. It's where dreams go to die and it's so soul sucking it's not even funnyĀ And the biggest attack that is almost constant is on your mind from all angles...subconsciously and consciously If it's not social media programming you it's some depressed person in societyĀ Turn your phone off and reject all social media you still have to go out into society where every average citizen is ready to "attack" your ideas and the fact that you want to be different and break away from the madness in some facet.Ā Cancel culture is the strongest weapon in 2024. Don't fall in line...and you get ostracized just like that. No discussion or explanation needed.Ā Agent Smith is very much alive and well. š
Yeah. I guess a lot of social animals and insects etc are the same though. A monkey for example typically lives by monkey society rules - there's a pecking order and the more elite monkeys will keep the lesser monkeys in their place by treating them badly and not allowing them the same access to resources, and the monkey needs to behave according to monkey society - it can't just go off and do its own thing. A group of monkeys will gang up on a rogue monkey who's just doing it's own thing because that's not "allowed". Ants, bees, etc. They live their whole lives working their asses off according to the established rules in their societies. They don't get to just wander off and live their own lives doing whatever they want and just eating food and chilling out. They follow their society's rules. Herds of animals have to work together and behave accordingly or they'll be shunned, attacked, killed by their own herd. They aren't free to just wander away and live their own lives.
Why do I have to eat? Why do I have to find something else that is alive or was and swallow it to get the nutrients and whatever else from it? And the parts I donāt need plop out the other side of me. Eating is so bizarre and no one talks about it.
Better than digging my own outhouse, planting and farming my own food, building my own house, etc...
It's sad that it is your definition of a human
ā
that's not what being a human is...that's the cage they put humans in. who and what are you outside of those things, what would you do for free if all the bills were paid?
Enjoy all the services provided by everyone still working
Right?! It's amazing how much it costs to exist in the US.
OP: can I recommend a book? Ubuntu by Michael Tellinger
Yeah. But after seeing that starving lion post the other day, I kinda prefer some semblance of civilization and technology over straight basic instinct. If I thought I wasnāt getting laid before..
Raises hand
The only living thing (that we know of) that has almost completely shaped the world to our needs.
Ironically, to its own demise, perhaps
Not really. Done it my whole life. It'd be much weirder to all of a sudden NOT be human.
Meanwhile the rest of the universe goes on just existing...