is being depressed or even anxious the human default? — TiredThinker
Then you would see how such advice doesn't apply to my research-based analysis above. — Garrett Travers
No. Fear is the affective default (and stupidity the behavioral default). IMO "dukkha" is the derivative effect (pace Siddhārtha Gautama).But is being depressed or even anxi[ety] the human default? — TiredThinker
It teaches me you confuse a normative analysis with a factional one, not for the first time. Your research is moreover circular. You define children as loving and when they exhibit behaviour that is not loving than that is somehow learned through emulating others. The descriptions though of positive energy allow for both good and bad behaviour. — Tobias
What I do grant you is that they seem to be less depressed. But well also depression is not a normative category. The good and the wicked can both be depressed. What I do not grant you is that "they are deeply loving by nature". Or only in the trivial sense that thye do not bite the hand that feeds them. I do think by the way that love the the ontological human condition so if you mean it in that sense you might be right too. — Tobias
However what I take issue with is that you seem to equate this disposition with friendliness, or goodness. — Tobias
If that is the case than somehow this fall from grace in later years must be explained. — Tobias
Can you elaborate a little? — Tom Storm
I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life.
Welcome to the "subversive" dark side. :up:I sometimes entertain the rather subversive idea that the role of modern culture is to make the world a safe space for the ignorant ('ignorance' in the traditional sense of the absence of wisdom or sagacity). Liberalism is exclusively egological, that is, the individual ego, buttressed by science and living under the social contract, is the ultimate judge - which almost always devolves to 'what I like' (hence identity politics). And capitalism as a system thrives on generating false wants and useless appetites. — Wayfarer
I sometimes entertain the rather subversive idea that the role of modern culture is to make the world a safe space for the ignorant ('ignorance' in the traditional sense of the absence of wisdom or sagacity). — Wayfarer
capitalism as a system thrives on generating false wants and useless appetites. — Wayfarer
Welcome to the "subversive" dark side. — 180 Proof
I sometimes entertain the rather subversive idea that the role of modern culture is to make the world a safe space for the ignorant ('ignorance' in the traditional sense of the absence of wisdom or sagacity). — Wayfarer
Anyway - with respect to the OP, there are states of endogenous depression, which I'm sure you know, and which are properly the province of mental health and medical professionals. But there's also the dimension of existential angst. — Wayfarer
It is connected with loss of competence and self-esteem. It is loss of a kind of sense-making — Joshs
That should cover the rest of your comments. And Rousseau/ Christian and me are antithetical to one another. I formulate my views on data and philosophy. — Garrett Travers
I myself do not define children as loving, I said they areby nature loving, explorative, game generating, and otherwise not miserbale. An observation born out by data across multiple studies - that was a broad analysis I sent you - and one that, for the vast majority of children, only differs among those with abusive parents. Which is of course, an ethical violation for all the same reasons. — Garrett Travers
And Rousseau/ Christian and me are antithetical to one another. I formulate my views on data and philosophy. — Garrett Travers
it is not the situation that cannot be coped with, it's the emotion one has, which may well include loss of self esteem or even self loathing. — unenlightened
it is generally the case that traumatic stress is the most usual triggering cause. — unenlightened
The 'first noble truth' of Buddhism is that existence is 'dukkha' - generally translated as stressful, sorrowful, unsatisfactory. It is inherent to human existence, unavoidable - but there is a path out of dukkha, which is to identify the root cause. All of this is laid out and elaborated in innummerable ways by various schools of Buddhism.
The broader point however is that I think many ancient philosophies were oriented around the fact of existential dread and its amelioration - Stoicism, Platonism, and other Greek philosophies also approach it in those terms.
The radical problem with modern culture is that it seeks to 'normalise' the human condition, instead of seeing it as problematical or flawed, and then can't understand why happiness is still so hard to obtain — Wayfarer
I guess the modern approach to mental health is get used to it! or, roughly, shut up or put up! — Agent Smith
Clearly, then, depression is not the default state of man. Quote the contrary. It is only the default state for those human beings that are totally separated from their real 'default' state, namely the natural state. The natural state is to feel high all the time. The reason people do drugs is because they are trying to get a taste of the natural human state which is very similar to being 'high' on certain recreational drugs except without any of the negative aspects, or the dulling effect that such substances have on the mind. — Luzephyr
I guess the modern approach to mental health is get used to it! or, roughly, shut up or put up!
— Agent Smith
From the Buddhist point of view, that's encouraging people to endure needless suffering. The issue is that post-Enlightenment culture has lost sight of there being any way out of it, but that is due to its own philosophical shortcomings. — Wayfarer
Perhaps Viktor Frankl's insights might be relevant to that. — Wayfarer
it is generally the case that traumatic stress is the most usual triggering cause. — unenlightened
I guess the modern approach to mental health is get used to it! or, roughly, shut up or put up! — Agent Smith
The issue is that post-Enlightenment culture has lost sight of there being any way out of it, but that is due to its own philosophical shortcomings. — Wayfarer
I guess the modern approach to mental health is get used to it! or, roughly, shut up or put up! It makes sense, pragmatically speaking; after all, there's not much we can do to reduce all the suffering around us. — Agent Smith
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