Stress is a sign of fertile grounds for learning. Then again, we all have to draw a line somewhere.

Was it Jung who said “Where you least want to look is precisely where you should be looking.” ?

Who's complaining about his pronouns now? I thought you were against that kind of thing. — Pfhorrest

Yeah, that's not how it works. Calling an obvious octopus (by all it's attributes necessary to be an octopus), a giraffe will annoy any octopus, imo. That is a reasonable reaction to stupidity.

It has nothing to do with the shit-show that is evident and apparent sheep getting unreasonably upset when a majority of people identify them as a sheep when they prefer to identify as a starfish.

(You know I'm just taking the piss out of you for fun and don't actually give a damn, right?) — Pfhorrest

Then for what?

I think my gist may come from my experience with people that take high-doses of red-pill(s) have a high susceptibility to get dogmatic — Swan

I know what you mean. The pill metaphor breaks down. As I see it, it's just human to crave authority. And it seems to me that we all believe in something, however vague, and act and talk from that.

Some fall into reckless ideologies - or start falling back into a religious state of mind. Take the scientism crowd for instance - I do not think red pills should become fetishistic placebos for (few joys) we happen to have in life. Moderation in all. Some red-pillers are often unskilled with managing their psychological health in accordance because they think that 'red pills' hold explanatory answers (that MUST be it, 42). — Swan

I totally agree. The red pill is one more blue pill. All of the pills are blue pills, in a certain sense. As I see it, we use words to orient ourselves in existence. I also agree about scientism, rationalism, just about any -ism. And my own whatever-ism.

The explanatory answers of the red pills. Ah yes. I love this theme. Conspiracy theory, the general fantasy of unveiling the truth. We like sexy grand narratives. We are lost without oversimplifications, myths. One of the more seductive and confounding myths is that of living mythlessly.

I like to think that I handle 'the voices' well, but too much of anything results in overexposure and high-sensitivity if I do not let myself desensitize in some fashion, because then you just get low-receptive people calling the dogmatics idiots (when they may or may not even be wrong). — Swan

Indeed. And sometimes it gets too mean for my taste. And even the positive stress (when real conversation happens) reminds me of nicotine. The world today is just so crowded, noisy, and pluralistic that I need TV, nicotine, news, books. It's like treating over-stimulation with over-stimulation. I think about moving to someplace outside the city. I have envied janitors who work alone at night. Hard to know if it's an idle fantasy.

I know what you mean. The pill metaphor breaks down. As I see it, it's just human to crave authority. And it seems to me that we all believe in something, however vague, and act and talk from that. — jellyfish

Would you say all 'beliefs' have a potentiality to be dangerous in some degree then..? If humans are highly susceptible to crave authority.

I totally agree. The red pill is one more blue pill. All of the pills are blue pills, in a certain sense. As I see it, we use words to orient ourselves in existence. I also agree about scientism, rationalism, just about any -ism. And my own whatever-ism. — jellyfish

That is a very interesting take. I was thinking something similar, that the red pill is nothing but a red capsule with blue gel inside. Perhaps the blue pill (really does) just kill us all in the end. Human(s) attempting to escape all things human - the blue goo and desire to consume it may be inescapable - for some (red pill poppers) just turn into addicts - addicted to the blue goo - the bold red seductively attracts, void of answers, but it is the blue substance inside that ends us all.

Indeed. And sometimes it gets too mean for my taste. And even the positive stress (when real conversation happens) reminds me of nicotine. The world today is just so crowded, noisy, and pluralistic that I need TV, nicotine, news, books. It's like treating over-stimulation with over-stimulation. I think about moving to someplace outside the city. I have envied janitors who work alone at night. Hard to know if it's an idle fantasy. — jellyfish

I was watching a movie last night; and the family owned a farm for regular vacationing. I felt envious thinking to myself about that. I am not much of a country gal, but wish sometimes my family owned a farm out in the country, even if comes to something as simple as milking a cow. It would be a nice escape to be on a farm for a bit.

I too can get overwhelmed with a lot of the chaos. Often, I need long periods of complete silence, and keep the radio off during my work commutes. If I can't have good music, or listen to a lecture of some sort, I'd prefer complete silence.

Would you say all 'beliefs' have a potentiality to be dangerous in some degree then..? If humans are highly susceptible to crave authority. — Swan

Yeah I'd say so. Even if our ideas are well-adapted to the world (maximize survival and comfort), there world can and does change. Any successful system of habits/thoughts can become obsolete (maybe by simply beginning to bore our wicked hearts.)

And then there's the issue of us not simply wanting to maximize survival and comfort. What I have in mind is the glamour of war, hard drugs, risky sex. Dionysus, in other words. We can get bored, stultified, world-weary and so crave danger, intense experiences, etc.

That is a very interesting take. I was thinking something similar, that the red pill is nothing but a red capsule with blue gel inside. — Swan

I like the way you put it. I see this idea as one of the fundamental things I realized as I studied philosophy. Nietzsche liked to talk about an organism venting its power. So even if we are seduced by an ideology that doesn't privilege survival or respectability, it's giving us something. It makes us feel noble, grand, like we're really living. It's all self-help books, even if someone of them are dark, ironic, and dangerous.

Perhaps the blue pill (really does) just kill us all in the end. Human(s) attempting to escape all things human - the blue goo and desire to consume it may be inescapable - for some (red pill poppers) just turn into addicts - addicted to the blue goo - the bold red seductively attracts, void of answers, but it is the blue substance inside that ends us all. — Swan

Nice. Yeah, I think the human as human wants to transcend the human. I like this theme in Kojeve. We don't just desire like other animals. We desire what others desire. We desire recognition, the submission of others, to be envied. Our restlessness or itch for the impossible object is our glory and our curse.

I edit to add what is easy to leave out: we desire to be in love, to be dominated, to be lost in a Cause. In my lonely and glorious wickedness I sometimes envy those who think they solidly are somebody. I find my own name alien and strange. It's pasted on. It's a dead thing slapped on me by the machine. Sartre felt this way, I think. I don't care about his positive results. I do love his darker lines. The gods laugh with and at the grim existentialists.


To me the typical blue pills are connected to the relaxed warmth of group membership. Red pill types are blessed/cursed with the creative genius as their ideal --and are maybe just antagonist personalities who enjoy disagreeing, finding faults and holes in the systems of others. Corrosive reason, the demon in the machine, the god who only exists as the negation of others gods.

So I agree with what you suggest, that we'll always need some kind of pill --that we're the metaphysical-mythical animal. Does this kill us directly? As I see it, nature does that for us, no matter what we believe.

I am not much of a country gal, but wish sometimes my family owned a farm out in the country, even if comes to something as simple as milking a cow. It would be a nice escape to be on a farm for a bit. — Swan

I relate. I think about a little piece of land, a tiny house, a life more physical and rounded, where I use lots of tools that keep things up and running. My training involves computers, but part of me rebels against the idea of staring at screens 40 hours a week. It's just so discarnate. And then the products I'd be making would only push the culture further in that direction.

I too can get overwhelmed with a lot of the chaos. Often, I need long periods of complete silence, and keep the radio off during my work commutes. If I can't have good music, or listen to a lecture of some sort, I'd prefer complete silence. — Swan

I highly relate to this. I love silence. Maybe it's because I want to enjoy the quiet noise in my own head. I think McLuhan saw it coming, the dissolution of certain way of being in the electrified hyper-connected global village. The lonely crowd. Yet I also love the stimulation. Ambivalence.

Update: Thinking I had philosophized my way to happiness turned out to be wrong. I was just happy for a week, and coincidentally doing good philosophizing at the same time. Back to panic attacks again for no good reason despite reminding myself of the philosophy I thought had solved it a week ago.

:sad:

Often, I need long periods of complete silence, and keep the radio off during my work commutes. If I can't have good music, or listen to a lecture of some sort, I'd prefer complete silence. — Swan

Likewise. As I get older I more and more prefer silence (of either an anechoic place/headphones or remote wilderness) even to my favorite jazz or blues. A touch of misophonia maybe plays a role; but it's prolonged quiet that stills me deep down. So I can listen to myself think.

... the god who only exists as the negation of others gods — jellyfish

:death: :fire: :scream:

Update: Thinking I had philosophized my way to happiness turned out to be wrong. — Pfhorrest

I've been there. Up and down. I've scribbled joyous manifestos only to be dragged back down. In my experience, no abstract system holds things up. With the same 'metaphysical' system I've been both very high and very low. We're flesh and blood. The stuff we say and think are just the tip of the iceberg. I connect this with the 'anti-metaphysics' of the darkness as presented in Nietzsche and elsewhere. We're embedded in a terrible way, more vulnerable than we would usually like to know.

I've been there. Up and down. I've scribbled joyous manifestos only to be dragged back down. — jellyfish

A PULSE. Amor fati, brutha! :cool:

A PULSE. Amor fati, brutha! :cool: — 180 Proof

You too, brother. 'We know time.'

That's a really thoughtful response, thanks for taking the time to write it out. I suppose I'm still filtering through things myself.

I really like what you said here:

To me the typical blue pills are connected to the relaxed warmth of group membership. Red pill types are blessed/cursed with the creative genius as their ideal --and are maybe just antagonist personalities who enjoy disagreeing, finding faults and holes in the systems of others. Corrosive reason, the demon in the machine, the god who only exists as the negation of others gods. — jellyfish

Actually, I typed a long response, but I just removed it. I don't want to make this a sob fest.

Likewise. As I get older I more and more prefer silence (of either an anechoic place/headphones or remote wilderness) even to my favorite jazz or blues. A touch of misophonia maybe plays a role; but it's prolonged quiet that stills me deep down. So I can listen to myself think. — 180 Proof

Very much same for me. I have a love/hate with music - because it has the power to trigger (misophonia?) in me as well. Good songs slowly lose their magic - to where I prefer to play music (piano); instead of listen ... this helps reduce sitting still and contemplating losses & old feelings, you are instead, just feeling and then, creating new feeling.

I now just listen to white noise, people talking about interesting things (if they are going to talk at all), or in complete silence. Silence feels so good. I love to be still - probably because I am never still in the head. One day I dream of a total stillness.

Thanks for the sympathies. (@creativesoul too). The philosophizing I did a week ago didn't actually have anything to do with metaphysics really, but was more an insight that certain philosophical questions (how to deal with "the Absurd" in short), that had never made any sense to me at all until I was struck with this emotional condition of anxiety, dread, and horror, are actually just an illusory byproduct of that emotional state, exactly opposite to the non-rational "this is important, this means something" feeling of so-called mystical or religious experiences (of which I've had plenty, never attributing them to anything mystical or religious though, just recognizing them as nice emotions). IOW that "the Absurd" is just a non-rational "this means nothing" feeling attached to the exact same thoughts and experiences that, in different moods or to other people, would not prompt such feelings; and that despite what those feelings insist, there isn't actually any problem there to be solved, which is why it feels unsolvable. There isn't a problem, just an illusory feeling of a problem, and the solution is to get rid of the feeling, not to dwell on the non-problem pointlessly to no end and thereby perpetuate the feeling. "The meaning of life" is just to feel like there is a meaning to life, because there is nothing more to the question, it's just about feelings.

I thought that that realization had broken me free from the loop of feeling bad because life seems meaningless because I feel bad because life seems meaningless... which all started with me feeling bad, just about nothing in particular, until my brain found things to chalk those feelings up to, which then perpetuated those feelings. When I had this realization (thanks to someone here on this forum actually, comparing the feeling of existential dread to the opposite of a mystical experience) I simultaneously entered a nearly week-long period of near-mystical-experience high, feeling better than I've felt maybe all year long. And then between yesterday and today, for no reason I can find besides maybe either lack of good sleep or too much caffeine trying to counter that, I found myself spiraling into a panic attack about pointless cosmic bullshit there's no sense worrying about again, and even reminding me "there's no actual problem there, this is just an illusion of a problem prompted by an irrational state of mind" didn't break me out of it again like I thought had happened a week ago.

(I added about 13 paragraphs on this topic, starting about 7 paragraphs down, in the last essay of my book early last week).

.

Actually, I typed a long response, but I just removed it. I don't want to make this a sob fest. — Swan

Hey, I am happy to read it. Or send me a PM. I am addicted to the red pill. I like deep conversations. IRL, I am 'that friend.' My idea of a good time is sharing a pot of coffee (black, of course) and walking around for 3 hours talking about all the stuff that 'one' doesn't talk about in mixed company. .

That's a really thoughtful response, thanks for taking the time to write it out. I suppose I'm still filtering through things myself. — Swan

Thanks for pardoning what I feared would be excessive. I tend to err on the side of 'too much.'

I am addicted to the red pill. I like deep conversations. IRL, I am 'that friend.' My idea of a good time is sharing a pot of coffee (black, of course) and walking around for 3 hours talking about all the stuff that 'one' doesn't talk about in mixed company. — jellyfish

Fellow red pill addict here. Why haven't we ever (as far as we know) crossed paths on one of my long monological walks? PM me, jelly, so we can discuss a moonless rendezvous for deep conversating while fortified by beverages of choice. :cool:

I guess we've just missed one another so far in this too-wide world. I think I'd recognize a fellow monological walker. These days I'm walking the lonely-lovely streets at 4AM. I have the cityscape to myself, not counting the headlights on the interstate above my head and the coyote who lives in an ex-junkyard nearby. That coyote is my brother or sister.

I need moderation in EVERYTHING too many "truths" I do not handle well in large doses, I need a balance of alternative perspectives and constant discussion - not just 'swallowing pills' to be swallowing - I need examination, and stretching... maybe that is what philosophy is - although I don't think philosophy is necessarily swallowing a red pill (e.g. accepting all things/whatever as true), but the preference to examining various 'red' and 'blue' pills & compare/contrast - examine - and pose necessary (healthy) clashes between on another... So say, if someone offered me a 'philosophy red pill' it is unlikely I would take it before cutting it open and examining the contents, lowering it's potency, then taking the inner goo as it comes.

Doing excessive pill swallowing of anything is bad for my mental health. Philosophy, logic I need moderation, because yes both can induce stress to some degree if I don't take breaks. Math follows similar. But at the same time, I can't imagine it's good for my 'head' health when I do more than 2 hours of it, because I start developing headaches (LOL). I can't say I know ANYONE that is substantially mentally healthy under the age of 30 that does nothing but take red pills - so I think psychology must be considered along side philosophy - especially for newbies and the younger generation (or for anyone..) that are not skilled in handling such truths and managing copes.

I will say this, Ethics greatly improves my mental health and makes me feel wonderful. My favorite branch of philosophy is ethics, if I had to name anything, for this reason.

I study law, and I love the ethics and theatrical portion. I love Nussbaum's take on Philosophy and Law for that reason. Yes, because WITHOUT this consideration law can cause great depression in all things really, and brain melt when you so detached and not attending to your emotional health - without moderation anything has the tendency to depress you very quickly unless you practice stoicism and such. I do not practice stoicism in any degree, so you can imagine shit effects me in many ways.

I will say this, talking/discussing philosophy with others I find very stressful. I find this forum stressful as hell. Half of it is just folks throwing bad medicine laced with nonsense and cheap red paint at others, that NO ONE is opening their mouth OR minds for.

@Swan

I’m sorry if I stressed you out before. I have an addictive personality so moderation is extremely difficult for me but you’re right. It is very much needed. Even in debate. It just irritates me when people don’t read what I say because I was neglected a lot as a child and I do actually take my time to read everything others write even if I think it’s wrong.

I shouldn’t have called God must be atheist an arrogant fool it’s true, I still believe he was behaving like one but I usually make a point to differentiate between behaviour and person as I don’t believe anyone is anything in permanence. Just a bunch of humans fluctuating between it all.

Anyway hope you have a good night and that there are no hard feelings.

↪180 Proof

I guess we've just missed one another so far in this too-wide world. I think I'd recognize a fellow monological walker. These days I'm walking the lonely-lovely streets at 4AM. I have the cityscape to myself, not counting the headlights on the interstate above my head and the coyote who lives in an ex-junkyard nearby. That coyote is my brother or sister. — jellyfish

:cool:

Hey, I am happy to read it. Or send me a PM. I am addicted to the red pill. I like deep conversations. IRL, I am 'that friend.' My idea of a good time is sharing a pot of coffee (black, of course) and walking around for 3 hours talking about all the stuff that 'one' doesn't talk about in mixed company. . — jellyfish

Thanks. I am very much a tea drinker (or just plain water - boring, I know). I do like black coffee on specific occasions, but I've found it drives me uncomfortably up walls. I could use "that friend", as I find them extremely difficult to find, or maybe I am just constantly looking in the wrong places. :razz:

Your posts are extremely refreshing (usually I have a tendency to overwhelm) with my long-winded rambles (it doesn't help I love to write - so I can get VERY long-winded), and just end up boring people off - I get like that usually all hours after midnight, to which I could use an ear to ramble into. My friends (or more so 'associates') either fall asleep or haven't much to add.

No hard feelings. I am not an asshole at all, so that post was not meant to bust your balls or anything, and I know you were frustrated with him. It is just a pet-peeve of mine when other's go around indirectly claiming this form of faux-humility (which is really just faux low-self esteem self-depreciation posts glossed up to look noble) that only chumps fall for, above all others - attempting to lower the confidence that other's may have; and pseudo-diagnosing people with emotional problems while claiming to have some transcendent upperhand on self-reflection/critical self-analysis, and etc. Those are like, the least self-aware people I've met - and tend to not understand people all that well for the amount of armchair psychology they spew; most "combative" individual(s) I've found on forums and in the internet & such; do too much self-reflection (and are quite self-aware) in my opinion, to the point where they have a tendency to become somewhat narcissistically absorbed in it - & they are struggling with their own 'red-pills' (truths) about themselves.

I really can't see someone that self-reflects on a daily basis being some form of pacifist. Lol. I want to say elderly people that are pacifists piss me off, as well. Most of them have lost of the cognitive capacity to even self-reflect (which is where the elderly-arrogance) comes from. Which is bizarre and off-putting, generates low receptivity from people that still have the capacity to overcome challenges. Imaging virtual signaling your noble efforts of kindness while simultaneously calling those you (don't understand - through any form of personalized interaction and/or individual evaluation) intellectually/emotionally deficient. So, yes I go around checking people that think they're uncheckable.

Imagining coming on a Philosophy or debate forum telling people to calm down. As jellyfish said in your thread, are we going to ignore that a majority a Philosophers just write books on books of shit-talking back and forth to each other (ripping each other apart) - of course with more 'tact' and verbose intellectual rants.

That to me, is the nature of philosophy. Conflict. So conflict-avoidant people (shining their superior passivity), attempting to intervene and silence different communication styles that hold more conviction than yours makes little sense to me. But sure, let's call people that speak with conviction "aggressive," "rude" etc, etc. THESE types of silencing tactics do not work on me. Save your bullshit, honestly. As someone that's taken various speech classes and has been said to have a naturally commanding tone, I find these posts about silencing diverse communication styles to be just nonsensical.

Most people that operate around people knows no one gives a flying fuck about not stepping on your toes. People will talk over you, EVEN IF you raise your hand. So sure, you can grab and seat and eat - or continuing raising your hand waiting for NO ONE to call on you (even though that that's the "nicest") thing to do. All respect I've gotten is from demanding it; not expecting it and getting upset when no one gives it. If you want respect, you demand it. That's all I get out of it.

BUT cultivating patience has by far been one of my largest hurdles - along with my intuition (which I attempt to limit/reduce) to get the best of me, because a large amount of my posts are wholly intuitive, rather than a basis of long-term analysis and things of the like. But what can you do.

...I found myself spiraling into a panic attack about pointless cosmic bullshit... — Pfhorrest

Anxiety is a horrible experience. Panic is fear-based though, so I'm left wondering...

What is there to be afraid of when it comes to 'cosmic stuff'? I'm sorry if you've already been asked this, I haven't read through the entire thread. I'm curious...

Did you once believe in the God of Abraham?

Thanks. I am very much a tea drinker (or just plain water - boring, I know). — Swan

I like green tea. It tastes like dirt in a good way.

Your posts are extremely refreshing (usually I have a tendency to overwhelm) with my long-winded rambles (it doesn't help I love to write - so I can get VERY long-winded), and just end up boring people off - I get like that usually all hours after midnight, to which I could use an ear to ramble into. My friends (or more so 'associates') either fall asleep or haven't much to add. — Swan

Thanks. I like your posts. They are raw and authentic.

Okay.

when other's go around indirectly claiming this form of faux-humility (which is really just faux low-self esteem self-depreciation posts glossed up to look noble)

attempting to lower the confidence that other's may have; and pseudo-diagnosing people with emotional problems while claiming to have some transcendent upperhand on self-reflection/critical self-analysis, and etc.

I’d argue that all humility, faux or otherwise comes from insecurity. However we shouldn’t be saying insecurity like it’s a bad thing as I honestly feel our insecurity is what forces us to be humble. Acknowledging that no one is secure in the first place is important here.

Also you do realise that reading this back, your whole response also sounds like “pseudo-diagnosing people with emotional problems while claiming to have some transcendent upperhand on self-reflection/critical self-analysis, and etc.”?

That to me, is the nature of philosophy. Conflict. So conflict-avoidant people (shining their superior passivity), attempting to intervene and silence different communication styles that hold more conviction than yours makes little sense to me. But sure, let's call people that speak with conviction "aggressive," "rude" etc, etc. THESE types of silencing tactics do not work on me. Save your bullshit, honestly. As someone that's taken various speech classes and has been said to have a naturally commanding tone, I find these posts about silencing diverse communication styles to be just nonsensical.

I mean the nature of reality is conflict really.

It is just a pet-peeve of mine when other's go around indirectly claiming this form of faux-humility

Well it’s a pet peeve of mine to come onto a philosophy forum, expecting to talk about philosophy and expecting people to be able to argue well enough to convince you that you are wrong when you really are. Yet when they refuse to read what is written (which you and god must be atheist have both claimed not to do) with my posts and comments and start saying unhelpful things like calling me an entitled manchild and saying I sound like this and that just because they can’t come up with an argument, when they refuse to do all of this then it’s nolonger a talk about philosophy. It’s just some basic response that I could get from anyone on the street really.

So tell me, why should I give a damn about your pet peeve when you don’t understand mine?

Are you saying I have faux humility because I actually do or because you are jealous of the fact that I have real humility? Or are you just showing off to try and get off with Jellyfish?

Now, I actually apologised and I’ll let that apology stand.

However I do not accept your “Sorry, I'm not an asshole, but..” response. Try again. I’m being my authentic self, if this is your authentic self then that’s fine. Right now though, the only difference between us is I see you as an iceberg but you look back and see a mountain. I’m not a mountain.

It still amazes me sometimes that someone as rude as yourself can call people names, contribute nothing to discussions except vitriol and then give a crappy “I’m sorry, but you deserved” it response because I actually genuinely felt sorry for the way I treated you because I understand one thing. It takes two to tango.

Oh you’ve done speech classes? That’s nice, I’ve got a masters in ethics. However neither of us should be making appeals to authority because it’s fallacious and you kinda want to try and avoid fallacies in philosophical debate.

As someone that's taken various speech classes and has been said to have a naturally commanding tone, I find these posts about silencing diverse communication styles to be just nonsensical.

Oh I see, so when you command things and others don’t listen your ego gets bruised and you call them insecure for not recognising your true place as leader of all? Right then. Maybe you should read my intellectual honesty post again and take some notes. Unfortunately though I’m not so weak willed that I bow to trumpism.

“Silencing diverse communication styles”
Example 1
Student: Professor, you’re an arrogant manchild

Professor: get out.

Student to other student during debate: you’re an arrogant manchild

Professor to insulting student: you’ve lost the debate.

Get over yourself.

OP: a gem from that controversial "philosopher" Jesus Christ: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.". ;)

...seriously, "Swan" by his?/"her" own admission finds this forum exhausting, hates it and all zyr actions on here point to them trying to pick up men in an uncomfortably edgelordy/nerdy way <gag.> A few seem to be biting too, lol … maybe there should be a dating site cringedating.com or something to relieve people who are actually on forums like this to engage in legitimate intellectual discussion from deadweight sh!tposting wherein people hijack threads to twist the words of others and foolishly ascribe motives to them to try look edgy/cute or whatever ...

To get back to the actual, original post: I've engaged with philosophy in both a formal academic setting and on my own. In an academic setting where I've taken courses produced by the actual philosophy department (e.g. metaphysics, environmental ethics, etc.) I've found the study to be very disheartening and depression-inducing but I think this is because most of these professors seemed to be nihilists at heart. I find it very hard to learn from people with nihilistic tendencies. Additionally there was this whole "pissing contest" vibe within the philosophy department at UCSD (my alma mater) that made me truly hate it. When it seems like there is no room for debate, authentic exploration and discourse in a discipline, it really turns me off.

However, I've tangentially encountered philosophy in my religious studies coursework (this was my major) and, when approached from a multi-disciplinary standpoint I found it to be fascinating, enriching, and sometimes legitimately epiphany-inducing.

I seriously think that isolating philosophy into one discrete discipline is bizarre and elevates the act of "philosophizing" to some holy institution that is reserved for long-dead white men. I also feel it decontextualizes philosophies from their original geographic, temporal and sociological context which, in my opinion, makes it impossible to grasp the totality and actual gestalt of certain philosophical concepts.

TLDR: When I've studied philosophy within discrete "philosophy-department" academic courses I've found the study to be depressing. Whey I've encountered philosophical concepts in interdisciplinary study of other things (i.e. religion, politics) I've found it to be very enriching and even sometimes uplifting.

I need to remember that more often! Keep getting taken in by these trolls and engaging with them the way I would anyone else. Drawbacks of egalitarianism I guess.

What is there to be afraid of when it comes to 'cosmic stuff'? I'm sorry if you've already been asked this, I haven't read through the entire thread. — creativesoul

I'll just quote a paragraph from the last essay of my book:

The immense difficulty most people face in living a life of enjoyment rather than suffering, much less bringing others, never mind the rest of humanity, never mind all sentient beings on Earth, and possibly elsewhere, along for the ride. The apparent inevitability of death bringing even a good, enjoyable life to a premature end, where any end at all to such enjoyment would be premature. The threat of any projects and organizations, whole civilizations, maybe even one's entire species coming to an end, and so any good one might have done before death, any legacy left behind that maybe made even a hard and short life count toward some greater good that outlasted it, still being lost to time. The threat of the entire planet being destroyed by the natural aging of the sun, should any legacy of anyone or anything that exists now even manage to survive until then. And even if we manage to cure all of life's ills for everyone, even stopping death by aging, and survive all the threats to civilization and the planet itself by becoming a technologically advanced starfaring civilization, there is still the threat of the entire universe itself winding down to uniform lukewarm nothingness over cosmological timescales, as all available energy sources are used up, life of any kind becomes impossible, and all signs that any life ever existed are lost forever, not that anyone could be around afterward to appreciate them anyway. — The Codex Quaerendae: On Practical Action and the Meaning of Life

Also more recently since I wrote that, the prospect of living forever is also terrifying because boredom.

But when I'm not feeling so pointlessly anxious, I can look at all that stuff and just hope for progress in overcoming it, not worry too much about failure at that endeavor, and also not feel that fear of eternal boredom because so long as I'm happy just to be alive ("ontophilic" I've started calling it) there's no need for distractions to fill the time.

Did you once believe in the God of Abraham? — creativesoul

I was raised in a household that did, but then gradually grew out of it thinking they were just stories for children like Santa Claus, only to be surprised as I reached adulthood to realize that adults honestly believed those stories and didn't just tell them to children. So I guess "not really", but "technically".

Hope this doesn't sound trite. It certainly could be thought of overly simplistic, but I find there to be a universal common denominator in all of those cosmic fears and the God of Abraham...

They're all logically possible.

However, logical possibility alone does not warrant belief. There are certain things that come alongside privilege... time to think about all of the different logically possible scenarios is one.

:wink: