We can value anything, and everything, or nothing. — Fire Ologist
The value of a single human life?
I believe the individual experiences and safety of every individual on the planet is equal. And I strive for the safety and security of my own life and those immediately connected to me with an unwavering urge for my appreciation for life and it's right to exist.
And I believe that is universal. — Gingethinkerrr
Does life have any potential to be anything beyond suffering, or is that too much of a pessimistic stance? I cannot see life as anything other than this, but it could also be something that we simply create out of life. — Arnie
if these workers aren't forced then it maybe a good thing that teenagers and old people can work if they want to or the pay is attractive enough to them. — boethius
the point of my little lecture about the unemployment statistics is that if you need to resort to the argument that low unemployment is some "great tragedy" that has befallen the Russian people then that's pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel of available gripes. — boethius
Unemployment statistics only count people able and looking for work. — boethius
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/12/04/everything-for-the-front-how-war-is-changing-russias-labor-market-a83311Teenagers, elderly people and even prisoners are plugging drastic holes in the Russian workforce created by people being recruited into the army or fleeing the country.
https://www.businessinsider.com/kremlin-ally-boasts-of-low-unemployment-which-is-really-fueled-by-ukraine-losses-2023-5TV host Dmitry Kiselyov, a bullish ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Sunday boasted about the health of Russia's economy 15 months after the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
In an edition of his show on Russian state broadcaster Rossiya 1, Kiselyov said that it's "always important to visualise the overall proportions" and specifically "the proportions of the Ukrainian economy and how they've changed over the past year," reported BBC Monitoring 's Francis Scarr.
"This is especially important in comparison with Russian figures," he said. The spin doctor, known as "Putin's mouthpiece", went on to point to a number of factors he claimed showed that Russia was economically performing better than Ukraine.
He omitted how Russia's invasion has decimated the Ukrainian economy, and boasted that in Russia "unemployment is at an historic low."
It's mostly hyperbole such as describing low unemployment of 3.5% as catastrophic. It's not some neo-classical "optimum" level of unemployment (to make the rich class richer) but it's far from a "catastrophe". — boethius
there exists an X such that 1) X provides purpose in the world, and 2) if there be no X, then there is no purpose, — tim wood
I didn't say there are two types of people — flannel jesus
https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/we-are-here-on-earth-to-fart-around-and-dont-let-anybody-tell-you-any-different/And I’ve had a hell of a good time. I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.
Now since I've defined what I'm talking about this much do you finally get it? — Echogem222
This isn't about taking sides. — Tzeentch
living by that principle is inconvenient. — Vera Mont
Further suppose those agents start breaking the guy's fingers and he spills his guts about how to disarm the bomb and they disarm it.
— RogueAI
His fingers and toes are all broken, and he still doesn't know how to disarm the bomb, because he didn't make it or arm it. He doesn't know who they are or where they are. The terrorists are smart enough to send an ignorant mule to plant it. — Vera Mont
I think there is a persistent confusion between self and consciousness which messes up a lot of the discourse.
— bert1
So then "consciousness" is impersonal? For instance, my awareness of being self-aware isn't actually mine? :chin: — 180 Proof
I don't really know what the OP hopes to achieve with his tautology — Leontiskos
the user who deliberately put himself on his own ignore list remains unnoticed by this fact. — javi2541997
My question is how does one know when that is the case - ie they're chatting sh*t. And to the contrary, when they really do know what they're talking about. — Benj96
One piece of evidence is that I don't seem to be struggling against "reality" as much as I used to. — BC
Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind;
Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily;
Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness;
Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.
Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency. — Tao Te Ching
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-CamusAs editor of the Parisian daily Combat, the successor of a Resistance newssheet run largely by Camus, he held an independent left-wing position based on the ideals of justice and truth and the belief that all political action must have a solid moral basis. Later, the old-style expediency of both Left and Right brought increasing disillusion, and in 1947 he severed his connection with Combat.
[snip]
As novelist and playwright, moralist and political theorist, Albert Camus after World War II became the spokesman of his own generation and the mentor of the next, not only in France but also in Europe and eventually the world. His writings, which addressed themselves mainly to the isolation of man in an alien universe, the estrangement of the individual from himself, the problem of evil, and the pressing finality of death, accurately reflected the alienation and disillusionment of the postwar intellectual. He is remembered, with Sartre, as a leading practitioner of the existential novel. Though he understood the nihilism of many of his contemporaries, Camus also argued the necessity of defending such values as truth, moderation, and justice. In his last works he sketched the outlines of a liberal humanism that rejected the dogmatic aspects of both Christianity and Marxism.
First of all, does it make sense to speak of shared sensations? — sime
To me that leans too far. You can so lean, as the lines are extremely blurry. But I can’t unsee the lines. I still see enough to call being in the middle something happening. — Fire Ologist
I would hate to think that it undermines all attempts to articulate ideas rationally - though I agree that many people have taken it that way. — Ludwig V
All, for human beings, is in the middle. — Fire Ologist