I see no point in any of the rest of your OP, if your first sentence is accepted as fact/true.
We, the universe and everything in it, becomes 'the will of god,' so, the significance or 'lack of,' any event, either real or imagined is 'forever,' assigned by god exclusively. All existents and all happenings are nothing more that manifestations of the 'free will' of god.

Ask yourself this Ben!
Is god + what god creates, 'superior' to god alone?
If your answer is yes, then god is not omnipotent, as god + creation is better.
If your answer is no, then the action of god creating, is unnecessary, as such an act cannot add any value or significance whatsoever, to god, as an already omni existent.
The god posit makes no sense, so the only option imo, is to declare it nonsense.

Surely everyone thinks of all these things after watching the comedy videos. — Athena

Well for me, they just clearly show how ridiculous and stupid, soooooo much of what we think are essential cultural differences between us, are. Such are really, historically, self-imposed utter nonsense and false moral standards. The most offensive and disappointing for me, is those who I politically care about most, and empathise with most, who will say and think stuff, such as 'I know my place,' 'I am a smelly serf.' I am further annoyed by the audience laughter (piped or live) caused by a comment such as 'I have 8 kids but I'm not married.'

Comedy/tragedy/reality/humanity?

In conversations with folks over my years and in listening to angry politicians and just angry people, in various news programs and documentary programs, I have encountered two main 'placeholders' at either end of a range of human notions about justice (placeholder 1) and vengeance (placeholder 2.)

I have listened to theists give quite rational arguments, related to the idea that they hope hell exists, because it is so unjust, if it does not, because evil scum, such as the Hamas terrorists that performed such acts of horrors, on innocent men, women and children, can 'only be killed once!' and that's not a 'satisfying' level of 'vengeance' on them. They must suffer for 'eternity' and suffer at a max level, every moment, as time passes for them, after they are dead!

When that is going on in your mind, perhaps as a victim of horror, visited directly upon you, and or those you care about, then to me, you are becoming akin to those insane perpetrators who committed the horrific acts against you. Israel and its current slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza right now, are performing actions 'akin' to the insane perpetrators I mentioned, and even worse, may well be doing exactly what Hamas wants. Only the fact that those surrounding Israel, who consider Palestinians to be the same creed/tribe/type of people, as them, have not yet joined the fight against Israel, offers any hope at all, for all of us, against a serious escalation of this fighting.

The latest Israeli/Palestinian conflict or Russia/Ukraine or any other such historical or current conflict, surely means that we each have to decide, where we personally stand on all these placeholder notions.
Justice, horror/terror, vengeance, etc. The following questions come to mind.

1. Is it rational, or wise for you, to want to impose a punishment on anyone, for any heinous act (or continuous actions, based on harbouring or demonstrating as evil a personality and character as any human can perceive,) that will last for an eternity, after such perpetrators have perhaps even been killed for what they did, even in a horrible manner?

2. Is it rational for you to ever sanction/appreciate/accept so called 'collateral damage,' (what a ridiculously benign term for such horrific reality!!!!) when those who have been terrorised, seek 'justified vengeance'?

3. Do you assign any importance to the notion of rehabilitation? In any inner vision/notion you have of hell style vengeance. The ones being punished cannot die (I assume) a second time (hence the eternal aspect of the punishment). So you are beyond the reach of any notion of rehabilitation or forgiveness or 'Jesus dying (but only over a weekend) for your sins.' Do you really want that to be true?

I think your own internal answers to such questions make you either part of a future in which human beings might learn how to be more progressive creatures, or you are helping to maintain and rinse and repeat the horror and terror we have all been aware of as a possible way to be, since we were a part of and then came out of the wilds and the darwinian rules of the survival of the fittest/ most adaptable/competitive/cooperative species.

Nothing is new at all, in all the events that have happened in the current Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
It's all been done sooooooooo many times before.
Yes, the two state solution sounds like a possible way out and even though it is even more unlikely, so does a new country/state called PalesIsrael or Israelipal, etc. These do seem no more that forlorn hopes for now.

Could Israel have decided to react by;
1. Securing the attacked areas and killing any terrorists that they found there.
2. Declaring war against Hamas alone. (which they will say they have done, ONLY! :roll:)
3. Seeking full global support against Hamas by exposing the utter horror they had just inflicted on Israeli civilians.
4. Use every stealth tactic in the book to find ways to attack Hamas, without killing any civilians and attempting to make some kind of reparations to the family of any civilians that do die because of a global pursuit of all members of Hamas?

Could such an approach not be in so many ways, better than what the current Israeli leadership decided to do?

Here is a group I am a member of, which is well organised, and is doing a better form of politics than most, imo. It's only under 3 mins long and I suggest it, not as any kind of recommendation of the group, but merely just as an example of people working in common cause, to help (at least in my opinion) to improve the human experience.


I will pick a mod at random! Say @Baden, (just because I don't want to always burden Jamal!),
just to ask if posting such a wee vid is ok in the context I am using it here? If not then I will understand its removal. I don't want it to seem like I am on a recruitment drive, for any political group, including those very few, I am a member of.

Such apathy is useless imo. I am not suggesting you are personally apathetic, as you have only typed about the way that many people do initially react to bad news stories.

Each of us can help change things. No-one is powerless, we can vote, we can protest, we can donate, we can pressurise, we can organise and unite in common cause, we can communicate/debate/discuss with each other, even on places like TPF. We can each do much, much more than say 'that's terrible' and feel secretly satisfied that what you saw in the news is not currently happening to you. Those who decide to become nihilistic, depressed, hermitical, pessimists, certainly won't change anything for the better for anyone, including themselves.
If you don't eat and drink, when others are starving and dying of hunger, thirst or any other cause, then you will be too busy dying yourself, to help stop them from dying.

Ok, I will stop responding to him!

Whether you believe in my words or not, corruption didn't exist in Japan — javi2541997

Yeah sure Javi, Japan had no corrupt leaders and nothing like Kagemusha, the thief, no rapists, no villains of any kind, until the westerners arrived. How naive are you? And you have the audacity to ever call me ignorant? I know you are young but get a grip son!

I will respond to the other rambling nonsense in you latest post later. Time for beers!

If the world had a bit of Bushidō, it would be a better place to live in. Loyalty, honour, rightness, etc. — javi2541997

Nonsense! Do you see a lot of examples of bushido in use in the everyday lives of modern Japan?
Care to cite examples? It's like you are some lost character like 'Kagemusha,' from the Kurosawa movie, or one of the other pathetic characters depicted in that movie. No loyalty, honour, rightness, just uneducated morons, following nefarious leaders towards their own pointless destruction, how pathetic.
Scream 'Banzai,' like clowns, as dumb Japanese soldiers charge machine gun positions with their silly little bayonets and samurai swords, only to be slaughtered like sheep. Yeah, great strategy Javi, I can see why you admire such examples of loyalty, and honour. :roll:

This is exactly the kind of BS that the application of horror and terror results in. BS like bushido. Ignorant terrified Japanese soldiers from their ancient days all the way to WW II.
Time we all (as I hope and reckon most modern Japanese already have,) rejected such backwards thinking. We and you can do much much better that Bushido.

You keep shouting 'banzai' if you must sonny, but you will always belong to a dead and dying past of horror and terror, that has no future. Just like horrors like Hamas have no future imo.

I understand your confusions. The first thing to cognise, to try to start your repair, is to understand that democratic socialism assigns a higher priority to people, compared to currency. You should be able to access as much mental health services, of the highest quality and for as long as you require, for free, from cradle to grave. Try to remember that money is nothing more than an invention as a means of exchange. Come on, you can do it, progress a little from your bushido boy miasma!

A better idea would be that you seek professional help for your imbalance.

Regardless of banning or not banning from TPF. Ignorant fascist views are disgusting imo.

That was a very childish response to @Alkis Piskas and compelled me to make the following comments:
Your bitter, irrational, very childlike and scattered personal attacks towards me, across various threads, give me cause for concern as to your behaviour.
In previous exchanges, you have indicated your bushidophile status, and your respect and admiration of the Japanese military during WW II. You also defend Spanish nationalism, to the extent that imo, you do not utterly condemn the Spanish conquistadors for their atrocities and genocidal history, in the way that most modern rational thinkers do.
I think these views, point to the possibility that you harbour notions that are borderline fascist at worse.
I hope I am wrong that you hold such views, but if you do then I think the TPF mods and administrators such as @Jamal, should consider if my concerns here are warranted or not. You have called on them a few times now, to ban me from TPF. I fully accept that who gets banned from TPF and for what reasons is their purview and within their remit. But if you are going to snipe at other members in the way that you have demonstrated in your post to Alkis, and you continue to irrationally snipe at me, and you hold views that are in fact, as I have suggested then perhaps the mods should discuss this with you/me.

Do others have notions about what it means to be a citizen in a democracy? In a kingdom, everyone expects to rely on the king, but in a democracy, every citizen has a part to play. This gives us a kind of immortality because our lives are bigger than just ourselves, and we carry the purpose of giving our best to the future and our nation. Everyone has a part to play. — Athena

Well, I did try to highlight examples of fantastic citizenship and community spirit, that I know for a fact exists in the small Scottish town I live in. Surely that and the fact that such is alive and kicking in 2023, should offer you some contentment that we have not all surrendered to tock yet.

Is this your stance? — baker

Israel's reactions to Hamas are very old, very predictable and mostly what Hamas expected and wanted imo. Don't get confused with how the current Israeli regime reacted and what the majority of the Jews in Israel want, and the Jewish diaspora. From your posts so far I do not get a strong indication that you personally would respond to terror and horror visited on you and yours with a like for like response. That's what it comes down to, would you? Are you an eye for an eye kinda person?

Oh, you did get fooled. — baker

Well, In the world according to baker anyway, yes?

I really admire you for your passion and your ideals, universeness. I have seen this vein of yours in other exchanges too.) — Alkis Piskas

Thanks, but you recognise it because it is part of who you are.

Something else now. As the discussion has been progressing, and after both of us having used the word "horific" a few times, I realized that indeed horror is felt while something is happening and after it has happened, whereas terror is felt in anticipation, as you said, of something that is about to happen or may happen. So, we can say that they differ sequentially or time-wise, in the sense of "before" (terror) and "during" or "after" (horror).
(But still they cannot be considered "opposite".) — Alkis Piskas

Yeah I agree, they are more like variations on the theme of human fear, rather than opposites.

Belief in nothing would be a belief! All hail the paradox!

All conquerors in history fall into this category: Gengis Kahn, Alexander the Great, Ceasar, Attila, ... We take the side of the conqueror and winner and we ignore and forget about the opposite side, the victims on the bodies of whom these conquerors have stepped on, the violence used, rapes by the men under their command, and so on, and on a mass scale. — Alkis Piskas

:clap: :clap: Well typed Alkis! It would be such a big step forward in the human psyche imo, if we stopped presenting these historical butchers as anything other than that. Our children should not be taught that these are people we revere, in any way at all. That is an example of how we could change the future of our species for the better, imo. These butchers are of their time and era, but that's no excuse imo, they represent the worst side of humanity and we need to resist and defeat that primeval burden and only ever use it in defense and not respond to like for like punitive action. Rape for rape, slaughter and butchery in response to slaughter and butchery. No, no, no, no, no! No fucking more! Gandhi said it so correctly:


I am sooooo glad that I am not alone in my hope that all these past so-called 'leaders,' from Alexander the butcher, to Caesar the butcher, to Hitler/Stalin/ Napolean the butcher to Putin the butcher and Hamas the butchers, they all need to be utterly vilified and never admired. The day that a majority of human beings grasp that, will be a very good day for the progression of our species imo.

So, no, I can't see any signs that would make us change so radically as to reverse the course of history. — Alkis Piskas

Yet you offered a great start for us all, imo. A full reassessment of what we value most from the history and events of our species. Such a move in the education of all future generations everywhere, would cause such change in the human psyche for the better, imo. If we could also combine that with a major campaign, to educate on the utter folly and pernicious affects of presenting any theology or theosophism as 'the actual word and commands of existent supernaturals,' then I think that would be another massive progressive step for our species. No more dictates or presentations of authority from Popes or Kings or Imams or Pastors etc from anywhere!

Too many on TPF keep asserting 'what can we do about it? We just can't change this shit! It all runs too deep and it is too embedded in who we are.' That's just total BS to me. We can change, we are a very adaptable species. It does not matter how deep the rot goes, we have a great deal of healthy flesh as well! We can slowly and surgically remove the rot. It may take a long long time for our flesh to heal but it will heal.

You need to seek assistance from a qualified psychotherapist friend.

But I do believe sane minds can resolve things peacefully. It's possible, just not easy. It's not easy to "bury the hatchet" on past wrongs. I think that was the point of the thread on vengeance, horror, and terror cycle. — schopenhauer1

:up: Yes it was,

Of course, these are responsible. Whoever incites people to violent actions is the main responsible for the results of these actions.
Hamas, Isis, Jihad, etc. are all terrorist organizations that spread horror in the world. — Alkis Piskas

Yeah but don't forget to also accuse such as the FBI, CIA, MI5, MI6, the old KGB and many others, including groups like the KKK, the proud boys, neo-nazi groups and nefarious rich elites.
All gangsters everywhere! Yet still, I believe we can defeat all that shit, if we all learn to value cooperation and common cause for a better way to live, more than any other goal our species has.

Yes and no. Yes, our behavior is not so animalistic as in the Stone Age. And no, our behavior is governed lagely by our subconcious mind and our conditioning (in both a Pavlovian, physiological way and in a mental way, as repeated patterns of thinking, biases, beliefs, etc.) Religious fanatism, for instance, is one of the extreme cases. Wars are still crated based simply on relifgious beliefs.
So, we have just changed the our animalistic behavior to an irrational one. The consequences remain more or less the same. (Let's hope that they don't get worse!) — Alkis Piskas

Do you believe hope is all we have? Can hard work, focused intent, a united common cause to live better, revulsion against the status quo, discussion, debate, protest, organising, politicising, pressurising, etc, make a difference? BUT never, ever, ever mimicking or responding to the use of horror and terror tactics with like for like, or anything akin to such? Is that not what nations and peoples, have to LEARN to do, no matter what depraved horrors are spewed against them? You do not defeat horror and terror by responding with more horror and terror imo.

It's not like the civilians get to decide. The people who order the pulling of triggers do. — baker

And along with the actual perpetrators, those are the only ones that deserve to die, which I think you would agree with.

Irrelevant to the wars at hand. — baker

Yeah but my position as an atheist, is relevant to your mentions of some Christians who behave like monsters (same with muslims who behave like monsters), who try to scapegoat non-existent gods, to try to justify their heinous crimes. Such justifications can only fool their like and not atheists like me, or any rational thinkers, whether they are theists or atheists or any shade in-between. Getting religious fanatics, to stop using god as an excuse for their bestial behavior, is as you suggest, not going to happen, as it's too convenient and useful a scapegoat, but no-one, other than their followers, fellow fanatics, and ringmasters (and probably the ringmasters could not care less) accepts such attempted justifications anyway. Al·lahu Akbar is just some shit to shout, but 'god is most great,' is not a valid phrase to shout when you do pure evil deeds, unless you intended it, as the utter mocking of your god, that it becomes, when you are deranged enough, to take part in the slaughter of innocent civilians.

Wrong how exactly?
And you didn't answer my question. — baker

:grin: Do you want me to start explaining to you how I, born in 1964, would have led the Celts, born BCE, against the Romans during the time of Boudica? I would certainly not have championed her strategy, would you? She lost! Badly! If you want to start a thread titled 'Boudica ..... could you have done any better?' Then I will certainly offer you 'what I would have done in her place,' perhaps you could play the Romans and indicate what you would have done to counter me! Although it seems like we would be better playing against each other in an on-line game of Civ V or VI. Boudica responded incorrectly, to the brutality, horror and terror used by Rome imo. The Celts should have engaged in far more stealth tactics against the Roman military (but of-course, not civilians), imo.

It's telling how the theme of religious exceptionalism is barely ever brought up in discussions of war. Even though it is this exceptionalism that so often drives the conflict, provoking it in the first place. — baker

I am an atheist. Everything in the bible came from humans, no god involved, so no gods to scapegoat. Theism, or to be more accurate, religious dogma, has been used very often indeed, to justify the use of bestial levels of horror against the proverbial 'them' by the proverbial 'us.' But that is just as I said, an attempt to scapegoat that which I am 99.999% convinced has no example existent.

It's doubtful any involved party believes there is such a thing as "innocent civilians". Warfare is essentially tribal: any member of a tribe will do. — baker

I don't think this is true at all. I think most civilians on both sides of such conflicts, consider the unacceptably labeled 'collateral damage,' as unacceptable. All dead civilians have the same status, regardless of where they die or how they were killed. They did not make war on anyone, but war killed them unjustly.

Where then would be the drama of life ... — baker

Do you find the butchering and slaughtering of innocent civilians acceptable based on your need for drama in your life? I would certainly hope not!

In order to get peace of mind, we'd need to address things on the level of ideas, which are largely independent of the facts of a situation. (That's why we have philosophy.) — baker

In my opinion and in my experience, a good thinker (rather than such, imo, a silly standard, as a 'great' mind,) considers life at the level of ideas, events, and people, as all such 'levels,' are relevant in the search for truth. Are we able to address things at the 'level' of human notions of horror and terror? and analyse the ways in which we see such nasty tools, manipulated by nefarious powers. We have memorialised such behaviour, being demonstrated currently and in history, sooooooo many times.
In my opinion, we have extensive examples of how such nasty tools are employed in manipulative ways. I question why it is still so easy to fool and manipulate so many of us, so often, despite all the previous examplars we have. Can we not establish a better way to combat these abuses and deliberate attempts to manipulate human fear?

You are right. "The horror of life itself" was badly expressed. I meant "The horror in life", horror as part of life. — Alkis Piskas

Ok.

Even then, can we render psychopaths and insane people, who cannot tell right from wrong, who can act as animals, responsible for their actions? — Alkis Piskas

Only partially imo, I think the main responsibility lies with those in authority, who CHOOSE to nurture and augment such pathology, and then wind them up to max hate status, direct them to a target, (often innocents that they can easily overcome,) and then film and record the horror that ensues, to use later, at part of their vile plan to achieve their goal. That is exactly what Hamas has done imo.

And wars, haven't they existed since the dawn of Man? Doesn't all that make them part of our nature?
So, whatever is the cause of horror, it is part of life. — Alkis Piskas

Yes, such has been part of our base primeval nature, and the horror and terror of that has been demonstrated in very bloody ways, since we came out of the wilds, but do you not think we have learned to alter our behaviours from those that were ruled mainly by pure instinctive and often bestial responses. In what way can we claim that we are now civilised, unless we can point to examples, currently or historically, when we have not been, what we would now call 'civilised'? Are we always doomed to respond to the nefarious use of horror and terror tactics, by resorting to the same or similar horror and terror tactics, in our pursuit of vengeance? Can we do no better than that?

Yes, really. — BC

Not really. But I will try to explain better, why I repeated my 'not really.'
You typed:

The stronger power in asymmetrical war is compelled to use brutal force because it has little alternative. Israel can neither lose nor leave Palestine, — BC

This it seems to me, confirms that horror and terror tactics are used by both sides in war, regardless of which one is considered to be the more powerful. One soldier deciding to butcher innocents from the other side because they have been sanctioned to do so by those who are directing the conflict is what I am trying to discuss. It's not the psychopathy of those who commit such acts that I am trying to discuss, nor is it which side employs such tactics more than the other side.
I am trying to discuss how we might reduce or stop such atrocities from happening in the first place, or how we all might respond differently when such horror and terror has been visited on us, those we love or those innocents that we all know, did not deserve such a fate.

Perhaps a better question to ask you is why do you think some in positions of authority/power choose to use/fully sanction, butchery and torture, horror and terror, against their enemy?

Taking the Hamas example. Hamas want to inflame Israel, into responding to the horror and terror inflicted on their innocent civilians, with their own horror and terror and slaughter of innocent Palestinians in the many thousands. Hamas want Israel to do this, as they hope this will inflame all the Arabic/Islamic peoples that surround Israel, to join the fight against Israel, and this will open many new fronts in this war, so that there is much more chance of the destruction of the Israeli nation.
So, do you think that we can develop responses, that will prevent a group like Hamas, from EVER achieving such a goal, by using the kind of horror and terror tactics they have employed here?
That is the direction I am trying to take this discussion, rather than talking about why some group or side may turn to horror and terror tactics, due to being the weaker or stronger force in a conflict.

Got ya. I have nothing. Good luck. — Tom Storm

:smile: Fair enough Tom!

I'm just commenting that 'human v animal' is an odd way of putting things, when humans are animals. — mcdoodle

Okay Sherlock, if it bothers you so much, I am happy to change to "human animal v all other animals," happy now? :roll:

↪mcdoodle :up: — 180 Proof

:rofl:

I would argue that ideas of 'happiness' in philosophy often collapse in the dilemmas of life in the question of ideas of immortal or eternal perspectives, and perspectives of life in tje here and now of everyday life. — Jack Cummins

I think I absolutely agree with this, if I understand it properly. I often think that 'high brow' (for lack of a better metaphor) philosophy, religion, theism or even that which I often espouse myself, in terms of 'high/fair/equitable,' secular humanist, democratic socialist, ways to live 'happier,' more 'meaningful,' more 'pleasurable' lives, often come across to many others as 'utopian,' or forlorn dreaming, when we consider the realpolitik of the day to day lives of most humans, regardless of their economic status.
I found that in my teaching career, I was more successful in progressing an individual pupil's knowledge, when I took the time to gain a clear understanding of what their prior learning system was and what stage they were currently at, due to that prior learning/experience. The problem lies in how long that can take to establish a detailed enough profile of the current knowledge level each pupil had and design an effective personalised curriculum based on their specific needs and goals.

All philosophers, theists, atheists, ideologues etc are weaker imo, the less they are in touch with such as street epistemology.

I find this a bit confusing Jack. What would you summarise as a 'philosophical construct of purpose?' Has there ever been much consensus amongst philosophers as to the nature of meaning, happiness and pleasure? Perhaps its my lack of academic knowledge of philosophy and philosophers that fogs my understanding about what you are asking. Are you looking for discussion on what past and current philosophers have stated regarding 'meaning,' 'happiness,' and 'pleasure,' or are you asking for what these terms mean in the everyday lives of any TPF poster, including philosophy novices such as myself?

Sorry, but your imo, unnecessary point, deserves a 'no shit Sherlock,' response.

This is the problem of asymmetric warfare: a surprise attack by a small force can wreak great damage. — BC

Not really, all wars are asymmetric imo. They all contain atrocity in all shapes and forms.
Conquering armies of the past were not often kind to the conquered civilian populations.
Did the allies during WW II do the same to German pow's as the Germans did to the jews? Where was the symmetry in that? I could offer many many other historical examples of asymmetric treatment used in the history of war. The phrase 'the evil that men do,' comes to mind.

There is no moral solution to the problem "in the world as it is" -- a world packed with injustices and grievances. Long standing (and grave) injustices would have to be unwound, which is a utopian goal. Nice, but highly unlikely. — BC

Could you envisage a grievance process, that had global reach, that is a lot more robust and effective than any we have today or have had in the past? I think this is a way forwards. We already have some good war crime authorities that have had past successes, such as brining horrors such as Slobodan Milošević to justice (even though he died in his cell first). The trials at nuremberg etc.
Do you not think such a robust and highly effective global authority could be achieved?
How about an authority that can declare economic war on any individual or group in a position of authority, who is deemed to be employing the kind of horror and terror tactics that Hamas have performed. Do you think that future tech, including AI, could be used to strip all assets and resources from such a group in the future, far more successfully than we can now?

See, it's not only the horror of the war. It's the horror also of criminality, the horror of sickness, the horror and of ugly accidents, tho horror of catastrophes, individual and massive ones ...
It's the horror of life itself. — Alkis Piskas

Thats way too far for me. Any notion of horror that people might associate with natural illness, accidents, natural catastrophe etc are quite different from horror and terror as deliberately employed by nefarious or evil humans, as a means of achieving a goal they covet.
In general terms, life for most humans is not horrific, but I agree that horror and terror are aspects of life and living that may affect an individual personally, in a myriad of ways. I want to resist any attempt, deliberate or accidental, to edge this discussion towards one about nihilism or antinatalism.

Hey, it could be worse, you could be a civilian trying to survive in Gaza or help others survive in Gaza. You and I will not organize that perfect world. Perfection can only ever be an asymptotic approach anyway, thank goodness, else a god might become a real emergent prospect. :scream:

You do all you can do Athena, which is probably much more than most would choose to.
Helping out locally, via volunteer work, is I think one of the best uses of a person's time you can ever take part in. The wee town I live in, has so many wee community help groups, and they are all fantastic.
Mostly retired folks who do stuff like, offer to run someone back and forward to hospital appointments, etc for free, phone an elderly person or a lonely person for a chat, help pick up trash on the beach, help clean up a local sitting area or a bit of forest, organise regular free or very inexpensive local events and social gatherings, so that people can find some companionship, and someone who will listen to their problems and see if they can help. Retired skilled tradesmen who will do some wee jobs for free, if you can't afford to pay, free IT support, from those with the skills to offer it, such as me.
'Men and women in sheds,' is a wee group that allows some folks to get together, and use their skills to produce some stuff, that is then sold in local charity shops or is gifted to folks who could use what they make, from a shovel to a bunch of clothes pegs. Folks who give their time freely to work in local food banks or help out in local support groups, depending on the skills they have. There are locals who grow a lot of excess fruit and vegetables in their gardens and allotments, they donate a lot of this to the local food banks and even the stuff that falls into their gardens and starts to rot, is collected by a local farmer and this helps keep his animal feed costs down.
I find that individuals who do take part in these regular activities are a lot more content than those who sit at home watching shit reality tv shows. Just keep doing what you can and where you can, but also remember to enjoy your wee swim now and again.