Such a perspective is gaining more traction and it definitely makes sense. Consciousness being God is a theory that is extremely recent but it has some solid logic behind it, although some sages from our ancient past already hinted at all this. ("The kingdom of God is within you.")

This also raises the question of what happens to the self during sleep or after death. Is there even a 'me' or is it all illusion? What difference would it make if there were 100 billion humans or just one? And what makes humans so different from other animals here on Earth?

I think you are onto something for sure. Consciousness and time are so vital to reality, yet their mystery still eludes us to this day.

Life works for you when you grew up in a safe and stable family, where you were nourished, supported, protected, and loved. Where you had all the tools you needed to develop and discover yourself. Where you didn't face abuse, neglect, or loss at an unreasonable early age. Obviously, we all have problems and issues, nobody has a perfect life or anything like that. But our system IS broken because it is reflected through the behaviour of so many people: the immense loneliness, the obesity and physical health issues, the declining birth rates, etc. This is not just ''my'' perspective, i'm just looking as objectively as possible.

I agree that conflict and competition has a place in society, but what we have right now is beyond all reason. It is a free-for-all, and if you struggle, you need to get lucky to get genuine support and help. If you suffer from abuse, violence, racism, or if you are a single parent for example, your life can seem like burning hell. You suffer genuine wounds, manifsted deep within your mind, and you feel like nobody cares. That's not normal.

Oh and society is not getting better. It's going to collapse, but that's a truth that very few are willing to accept yet.

Disagreeing is one thing, but it's more like that I am stating the sky is blue, and you're like 'nu-uh, to me, the sky is green!'

Go offer a counterargument to my point about obesity, for example. Don't just base everything from your perspective, try to see things from the other side.

It's not to shun the experience of suffering, but to endure it without letting it consume you.

In the second half of 2024, an Ukranian man lost his wife and three daughters to a Russian missle strike. He instantly lost his direct family, his legacy, his support, and most of his life.... How much did he suffer? We cannot know. But he didn't falter to suicide. To my understanding, this man still lives and fights today. How many would just seek death after experiencing something like this? We all face hardships in life, but your RESPONSES to these events are what determine suffering. Mentally ill people struggle with this substantially more, but it's true for everyone.



I'm glad that your life was more pleasant, and this is where the disconnect comes from. However, try to look at statistics or facts. Look up how many people are overweight right now, for example. Look up divorce rates, suicide rates (especially amongst the youth), the amount of mental health medication that is being produced and sold every day, the amount of alcohol, cigarettes, and porn that is flowing every single day. I genuinely believe society itself is ill, not just me. Most people are addicted because we are self-medicating to deal with a nihilistic timeline, and some need these coping strategies more than others.

There is no 'perfect world' but there is freedom. A world where we don't endlessly try to control each other, or where we only care about profit and violence, and so on.

I don't understand this borderline obsession where it's just ''my'' spirit. Don't gaslight me into thinking that the world outside is doing perfectly ok, and it's just me who's suffering in this synthetic world. Yes, there is still good in the world, and yes, taking care of yourself and building mental fortitude is critically important. Yet, we can also look at the outside world, as unbiased as possible, and just point at facts. For example, being overweight is not normal. It should be extremely rare. We should all take our health seriously, yet in our modern world, millions of people struggle with their weight. Go to any city in Europe and you will find someone who is overweight within a few minutes, and probably even quicker in the USA. Why don't people ever ask these questions? Why don't we question seemingly normalized elements in our society that are absolutely not normal?

You are right that the amout we suffer in life can vary wildly. We all have our stories, our backgrounds, our unique views on the world, and so on. Although I do still believe there is inherent suffering on Earth, the amount each human suffers on a day-to-day basis is different based on an innumerable amount of factors, most of which are beyond our control.

For cooperation: yes, ofcourse there is cooperation in life, especially in human history. But looking at the very fundamental level at which life operates, it's about combating entropy. Staying alive is work. A living organism that does nothing will wither and die eventually. We all need energy, nourishment, and rest. Try to stop sleeping and see where it leads you, or starve yourself intentionally, and you will die. I am talking at the deepest, fundamental level at which life works in our universe. It's a rebellion against entropy, which is fascinating and beautiful in my opinion, but also harsh. Every day, millions (if not billions) of living organisms are killed to nourish others (mostly humans), or they fall ill and succumb early, or miscarriages happen, and so on. There is no inherent justice or karma in life, it is seemingly extremely random, ambivalent, and unfair to human minds. Those who experience suffering first-hand, especially at a young age, typically awaken much earlier to this harsh truth. If your life is all pleasant, easy, and fair, then life seems like paradise. Until your parents pass away, or your best friend silently leaves you, or your partner cheats on you, and then you don't know what to do, because your worldview was shattered.

This is also why creating a genuinely fair, just, and meaningful world is so important. Humans are intelligent, cooperative, adaptive, and creative enough to create a world that is in accordance to our needs, where we genuinely care for each other, we don't discriminate, we don't condone violence or racism, and so on. But we now live in a competitive free-for-all, and it's been absolutely disasterous to our spirit. It is not normal that millions of people suffer from mental illness, or physical health issues like obesity, or the immense loneliness that so many feel, or the disconnect and agitation between the sexes. Why don't we create a world where we are free again: free to love, to be ourselves and to be different, free to create meaningful and beautiful art, and free to explore the wilds again. Why can't we return to our legacy.....

You will only empathize with me if you've also been to this depth of despair. This is not stated out of arrogance, but out of truth. I've been neglected, bullied, rejected, and i've had to deal with illness and loss at a young age. There is no doubt this shaped my worldview and even made me somewhat bitter, although I do my best not to falter to nihilism. But i've experienced the cruelty, apathy, and injustice in our world first-hand, especially since I am 'lower class'. When you view the world from my perspective, everything I've said so far will make sense.

Pain is not suffering but i'd classify it as some part of it. If you injure yourself physically, don't you suffer physically aswell? Pain can be a broad concept but I was mostly referring to literal or physical pain, like injuring yourself in a literal sense.

And for protection: yes, I stated that. We should prevent bullying and protect the most vulnerable in society. However, that is not the same as enabling a victimhood complex or deluding ourselves that life is always fair and nice. We should both teach our children to be kind and empathetic, but also to take control of their own emotional and mental well-being. They are not mutually exclusive.

Time can be complicated. As the other posters here have already shown you, there is a difference between 'subjective' time (your experience of time passing) and fundamental time (time as a fundamental force of the universe).

If I were to fall asleep and get kidnapped during my sleep, I'd wake up and find myself in a different location, with no conscious awareness of what has happened. Yet, the fact that it has happened, and that this took time (since we cannot teleport), proves that fundamental time is real. You are correct that in regards to subjective time, these events didn't happen. You lose consciousness once you fall asleep, and you regain it when you wake up. To you, the observer, it is instant. Consciousness, in this sense, seems inherent to the universe itself. You are either conscious, enabling you to experience reality, or you are not, and everything passes by you without your awareness of it. This also explains the mystery behind the fascinating history of our reality, and how everything works the way it does, without needing a conscious observer to experience them, unless the universe itself is also conscious.

Consciousness and time are obviously connected, and their true nature remains a mystery to us, even to this day. It will probably take an immense amount of time for the human species to gain a more fundamental understanding of reality, if we survive for that long, that is.

In short: ArtM is mostly pointing to subjective time, and he is completely correct in this regard. Yet, there is also something as fundamental time, not related to the conscious observer who is experiencing it, and this element may not be forgotten if we wish to fully understand time, and how it works.

Anarchy is one of the biggest threats to the current system, that's why there's endless propaganda in circulation to diminish what it actually is, how it works, and how the supermachine we are running on top of the world actually works (defined by greed, nepotism, slavery, etc). The more people embrace their roots and the more people understand what is going on, the more in trouble they will be. Hence the relentless propaganda and brainwashing.

Tbh, it's not worth fighting against. It's like trying to convince a Christian that his God is dead and that Jesus won't come back to the Earth. You will be hated and villified for speaking the truth, and at some point it just takes its toll. Best to just live your life to the best of your abilities.

I appreciate the sentiment and remember that it's never personal. I simply disagree at a fundamental level. Cars have definitely become safer, faster, smarter, and so on. I do not own a car but have driven for hundreds of thousands of kilometers in my younger days, so I have my fair share of experience. I still stand by what I said: driving a car is boring, it has tons of fundamental issues like a constant demand of a supply of FUEL (the primary concern), maintenance, endless roads and similar infrastructure, endless laws to regulate how people drive, not to mention all the accidents and loss of life that occurs due to traffic, and so on.

It is crucial to understand that the entire infrastructure we have only serves the system. People need cars to go to work, and we need an endless supply chain of trucks, ships, and planes, to transport goods all across the world, just so we can endlessly trade, consume, and pollute.

Personally, I haven't driven a car in like five years, and my life has only become better. I notice this trend in many other similar fields: the more I slow down and just appreciate life itself, and focus on doing more meaningful things like going for long walks, journaling, sketching, playing music, etc, rather than staying on the treadmill like the system demands, the more I heal. And this insight made me realize that I don't need a car to live well.

Just think about this: what would happen if all cars were to vanish overnight? Obviously it would cause major issues: supply chains would be disrupted, to say the least. But go back in time further, before there were cars, and ask yourself: was life worse? Did people not experience life? The endless expansion and growth only serves the system, not us. We must put up with it. There is no going back.

And i'd rather be alive 60 years ago than today, because then atleast I'd be able to afford a good home and raise a family on an average income, and before our lives were bombarded with noise and before social media took over our relationships, and when the future atleast had the illusion of being prosperous.

None of your points refer to 'progress' in any sense. Who cares that cars are better when all cars do is make us slower, tired, and ravage nature? Who cares that phones and TVs are better when they numb and disconnect us? Food is DEFINITELY not better, I don't know how you can think that. Look up the statistics on how many people struggle with their weight or metabolic health issues like diabetes. It's staggering yet unsurprising. Most food you can purchase at your local grocery store is genuine garbage.

The more equitable view towards race and gender is a positive for sure, but who says it will last? What is stopping society & its corrupt leaders from falling into facism or another evil ideology, rapidly stripping away the rights of minorities? In theory, there is nothing stopping us from stripping away women's rights again, or discriminating against ethnic minorities and enforcing it by law, except for us. The attitudes have shifted for the better - which is a positive - but there is no guarantee it will last, or further improve. That's why 'progress', of any kind, is a delusion.

The world we live in is a reflection of our minds. You need a high level of consciousness to see beyond it all, which can be difficult. But when you experience the world beyond the self, you can also see the truth and recognise the horrible dystopia WE have built. Just like how World War 1 & 2, the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Palestine, the horrible decisions made by China and the USA, and so on, are all self-made consequences of our own decisions. This is something very few people dare to accept, as it is simply much easier to point fingers (the government, fate, karma, minorities, aliens) instead of pointing at ourselves and the world we have built. Something like money itself is only real because we keep the story alive. We don't actually need money to live, but the system demands it, so we must adhere to it (or radically reject it).

If progress and money are our Gods, then I am an atheist. I will be hated for it, but I don't care. Most simply refuse to accept that we are all addicted to our prison, and we will cling to it until it collapses.

Human progress is a delusion. 10.000+ years of progress and all we have created is pollution, poor health (millions are obese, for example), a system that requires IMMENSE amounts of energy and work to maintain, a loneliness epidemic, a multiculturalism issue, a housing crisis, low trust in governments, nihilism and addiction everywhere, and an erosion of the natural world (my country, the NL, is especially notorious, where ~9% of our landmass is still 'wild').

Yes, we got a lot of progress. Cars, airplanes, vaccines, computers, the internet, cellphones.... but did they really make our lives better? More convenient and efficient, yes, but better? Where is the true joy in our world? How many people wake up with a sense of bliss and joy when they wake up, and they go to bed with a bittersweet feeling because they can't wait for the next day to start? Despite all this progress, despite all the improvements and high standards of living, the fundamental issues persist and are only growing worse.

Life doesn't work in terms of 'progress', there is only evolution (adaptability & change), not 'progress'. In reality, life follows cycles, and even death is a part of it. Harmony is the quintessential essence of life, and all natural life follows this principle of balance. Take, for example, someone who is overweight. This person can improve his diet, exercise more, do some fasting, and lose the weight. This person 'progressed' from being overweight to being a regular weight, by adapting his lifestyle and making changes in his life. Yet, there is nothing preventing him from becoming overweight again, by making poor decisions regarding diet. This simple example shows that in our world, life doesn't work in terms of 'progress', where you transfer from an insufficient or broken 'yesterday' (or today), to a better 'tomorrow'. The ideology of technological progress has been our most profound collective delusion, and I fell for it just as easily when I was younger. When you stop viewing life as a 'race' wherein you have to 'progress' from a bad start to an alleged happy end, but instead view it as a journey where you only apply changes within the locus of control, and accept everything outside of it, your quality of life, stillness, and happiness goes up dramatically.

So, no, anarchism is not about violence or made up by a few angsty teenagers. It is our fundamental way of living, it is deep within us, even to this day. Obviously, we are brainwashed by the system from a young age, so actually breaking free is immensely difficult, and it is not random that the 'outcasts' (the poor or the counter culture individuals, for example) pose the biggest threat to it. As unimportant stated, we simply refuse to lick boots, and our world would be a much better place if more people would do the same.

Anarchism is the only way of living that can work, because it respects the inherent mystery and beauty in life, and it doesn't try to dominate or control nature, including other people.

Anarchism was the only way of living that humans have known before the rise of civilisation. Yes, times could be rough, but compare it to our modern society. Addiction, mental illness, inequality, pollution, nihilism and hedonism are rampant. Almost everyone is addicted to something (to cope with the fact that they are stuck within the system), mental illness is rising, the planet is dying (due to massive overproduction and -consumption, and the relentless extraction of resources), inequality and absurd competition are at an all time high (good luck getting a home), and so on.

More people can feel it now: this quiet sense of dread. We refuse to admit that our way of living has been a colossal mistake; we have built a castle on a foundation of quicksand. If we are truly honest with ourselves and we look deep into the mirror, we see the truth. Our way of living is not right. We are stuck in jobs we'd rather not do, endlessly bombared with advertisements, deadlines, and noise, we rely on hedonistic activities or substances to get through the day, it's getting more difficult to form meaningful relationships (mainly due to economic pressure and lack of time), and few of us truly see a way out.

The key pillar of anarchism is a lack of domination. We don't want to be told what to do, and we don't want to spend our energy towards activities that don't benefit us or our community. We want to be free, really free, and live in harmony with nature and our fellow humans.

So to put it simply: communism is different because it still clings to the root of the issue: the need for dominance. So long as we have forced schooling, forced employment, the state, institutions, the judicial system and as long as we are unable to take care of ourselves in a meaningful way, we will always remain imprisoned. Could we get rid of all of this? To most people, it sounds absurd, yet to our ancient ancestors this was all there was.

You are onto something here that an increasing number are beginning to realize. Consciousness is not just some 'brain activity' or anything of that nature. The true nature of reality itself is still a mystery, and your ideas are grounded. Spacetime is real, of course, because we can prove that other planets exist, which existed long before the Earth had any forms of life. However, you are correct that without consciousness, the notion of the passing of time is meaningless.

There are various methods, such as through meditation, that you can ''unlock'' something the Buddhist call Jhana. This state of hyper-awareness, or a heightened consciousness, is very real, and something I've experienced as well, but only very briefly. I believe that consciousness itself is also flowing, evolving, and in motion, just like water, time, and evolution. Who knows what the descendants of humans one million years from now will understand about the universe? Assuming life on Earth still exists, of course.

In my experience, the lowest paying jobs were the most soul-draining. Intense micromanagement and a seemingly endless supply of work to do. If you get higher up and the pay increases, the amount of actual work you have to do decreases. Not universally true, of course, but still.

Homo Sapiens have existed for roughly 300,000 years. Our system is roughly 12,000 years old. Seems a bit off.

Yes, of course people have to work, almost all life does in some capacity, and there are various strategies that lifeforms use to survive and pass on their genes. Humans are no exceptions. I am not claiming utopia and i'm not promising some fantasy world. What I am claiming is that our world is fundamentally misguided: we fall for an overwhelming number of illusions, especially the illusion of progress. We are also falling for the illusion of 'work' in the sense that work is tied to productivity and hours worked. You simply must work 40 hours, or you are lazy! In reality, for most jobs, you are producing profit for your owner. And most jobs don't need 40 hours of work to do what they need to do. You show up, you perform the required tasks, and then you wait until you are allowed to go home. There are exceptions to this, obviously, but it rings true for millions of jobs today.

There is no nefarious actor directly, but there are loopholes. Loopholes that enable the rise of billionaires while most people struggle, and loopholes that enable some people to be free from any work at all from a young age, simply because they are born into the upper class. You cannot trick me into thinking that all work nowadays is mandatory, important, or even crucial, or else we'd all starve. Some jobs are certainly important, think of farmers and people working in the logistics and so on, but there are way more people than there are mandatory jobs. Yet, all these people need to work, because they need money (and because they fall for the illusion of 'contributing.')

Our world has exponentially opened up, which is why we are now living in a global civilisation, there are 8+ billion people on the planet (unprecedented in our history), we are facing impending climate change disaster, and the list goes on. We lost sight of what truly matters: harmony, community, freedom, peace, and simply the joy of existing. Can people still imagine this? Just happy being alive? Not needing your coffee just to get through a day? I'm sure it exists, but why can't everyone feel like this? Because most people are trapped: enslaved by the system. It's not their fault.

Our system is built on the illusion of pressure, control, and rush. This is everywhere: in academia, at the workplace, in our media, and so on. We are taught, from childhood, that life is competitive and that you must always prove yourself. If you fail, you lose and you should do better. Never mind the fact that millions of people live in poverty, bound to be permanent wage slaves, since it's 'their fault.'

If you LIKE this system, then that's one thing. But don't gaslight people here into thinking that the system is only in my head.

Interesting post and well explained.

Maybe we, as humans, are simply overcomplicating something very fundamental. Time is inherent to reality, like space. We call it 'spacetime' for a reason. Time can be viewed as a 'dimension' but it is not a dimension like height, depth, or width. For example, we know that time slows down when you travel at extremely high speeds, or when the gravitational pull becomes supermassive.

You are spot-on with your dissections of subjective and psychological time. We all understand and feel what you mean, and we've all had these experiences. It is not possible for human beings to experience the naked reality as it is, because everything (including time) is filtered through our mind and senses. That's why the passing of time becomes kind of nonsensical when you are asleep. We still do have a 'sense' in this regard, we know how long we've slept (generally), but while asleep, we are not conscious, so we do not experience time. Yet, time always is. Time is just like space and life: it just is.

Sometimes, there is truth in simplicity.

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You write such thoughtful posts; I really enjoy reading them.

And no, not everything is a story/fiction/illusion. There is a natural world, and this may even exist within us. What I referred to in my OP are the explicit 'norms' we are telling ourselves, especially in this achievement society. The norms around productivity, competition, consumption, and so on.

And regarding politics.... Are the current politics working for us? Who is accountable for the mass migration and the issues surrounding them? Who is responsible for the housing crisis, the climate change crisis, and so on? Our politicians? They shift and change every few years, but these problems persist. Sure, if we want to create a different world, built on different stories, we also need a different form of politics. I envision a system that elects leaders, that discards political parties entirely, and where we vote for ideas and not ideologies, empty dogma, or just the parties themselves. Our democratic system, while good in theory, doesn't actually work, because nobody is taking responsibility and nobody can be held accountable. We point fingers, we change political parties or representatives, but the fundamental issues remain. What good is politics if it doesn't serve the common man?

Very thoughtful post and I thank you for your insights. I will read the works you mentioned, as I have not heard of them before.

Of course man has nature. We are nature! We are, as I like to put it, children of the stars. But when it comes to norms, as defined by what we (as people) find 'normal', is it not true that this is in constant flux? We could maybe find some exceptions. Is it normal to have children? For most people, sure, but there are plenty of people who never had children, intentional or not. Is it normal to be kind, empathetic, and just? I hope so, and we can find plenty of evidence for this in our history. Yet, we also find tons of evidence of human beings being cruel, evil, unjust, greedy, or downright psychopathic. Did Buddha behave according to nature any more or less than Hitler did?

Maybe we just agree to disagree, or maybe I am too simple-minded to actually get your point. I simply believe that anything we find 'normal', including all our behaviours and attitudes, are shaped by the stories we tell ourselves. If I was born millenia ago, I'm sure my life and perspective on the world would be so substantially different that it becomes absurd, due to the substantial differences in our technology, understanding of reality, religious values, and so much more. Or, to put it another way: what are the core similarities between how humans behaved 20,000 years ago versus today?

And to all the other posters: thank you very much for your kind and thoughtful words. I appreciate it.

What do you mean? And I am not a Peterson follower. I don't follow anyone, I read literature all across the spectum and would align myself most closely with Stoic philosophy.

The human mind seeks answers because it cannot understand the true layer of reality. We think we can understand the world through our sense, for example, but these are illusions. True reality has no such thing as 'color' or 'sound' and so on. We are stuck in a permanent filter.

We are, in a sense, extremely primitive. We have evolved in a similar way to all other lifeforms. We are slowly proving to be the exceptions (not due to our biological origin, but due to our behaviour, intellect and heightened consciousness). We are still extremely early in this 'path of enlightenment.'

Our primal instincts still run deep within us. This is why our emotions, especially fear, are so powerful. We fear the unknown, fear change, and we fear what might lie beyond in the void. To handle this fear, the mind creates stories. Stories about fate, karma, God, a higher purpose, Heaven and Hell, and so on. Since none of us alive today understand the naked truth regarding the nature of reality, and this is a question we may never find a truthful answer to, we create our own answers. This is why there have been countless religions, philosophies, rituals, and traditions in the history of humanity.

So regarding your Hotel Manager Theodicy, you'd indeed have to be willfully ignorant to believe that God, if He exists at all, runs the show. There is so much injustice and suffering going on, on this planet alone (both man-made and natural) that there is no legitimate case for a managing God. So go ahead, have some intercourse before marriage. He won't care. Or don't. Your call.

We should have listened more to Nietszche. We need geniuses like him now more than ever, to wake humanity up from its spiritual slumber and to start to take matters into our own hands. We are already stuck in an era of nihilism (and hedonism), since God is dead and we have no alternative. We have tossed the baby with the bathwater, and we cannot cope with an empty crib.

You raise solid points and don't worry, I didn't feel anything you wrote as a personal attack. Scrutiny is always welcome.

You made me reconsider my stances somewhat, and for that I thank you. I think I know where my position is coming from. I envision an intrinsically good and empathetic society, where every single human is taught to care for both themselves and each other with the same amount of love, wisdom, and empathy. A world so fair that acting unjustly, even things like telling lies or slandering, is so preposterous, we don't even consider the possibility. Now, obviously, our world (right now) is the total opposite. I'd argue we already live in a free-for-all society, it just has the illusion of being nice and consistent.

I live in a rich Western nation, and the standard of living here is quite high. However, even within my nation, millions of people live at the poverty level. I've experienced this all too well. If you are poor, you are discarded by the system and even your 'friends'. Capitalism is competition, and if you are poor or have a low-status job, or perhaps a poor reputation on top of that, you 'lose'. And if you lose, you may as well go die in a gutter. Is that justice? Where's the community?

Hopefully, I haven't digressed too far. This is about free speech of course, I am simply exploring my own stances. I think the truth is that I have lost faith in most of my fellow humans (even if I don't consider them evil or corrupt, just misguided) and that's where most of this comes from. And I distrust the system the most, having witnessed the soulless evil of a government entity first-hand.



See, I don't think that is absurd. You are correct that in our world, and especially the USA, most people would do exactly that. As Donald Trump famously stated: "I could shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters."

Most people right now still have a strong desire to follow and to conform. This is why things like norms, traditions, and laws are so effective. The average person fears repercussions much more so than they have the desire and courage to be different and authentic. This is obvious, as we couldn't have a society at this scale if every single person was free and there was no such thing as the rule of law.

I simply envision a different world, one where everyone lives with the core virtues (wisdom, courage, justice, temperance, stillness, and piety) and from that, we would create such a meaningful, beautiful, and joyful world that it goes beyond our realm of comprehension, since our dystopia right now is simply the complete opposite. At least I still have my cat.

Thank you for the response. A few things need to be cleared up.

First of all, you should always trust your own instinct and accept the consequences of your own actions. Would you really blindly walk a potentially dangerous path, just because a stranger told you it was safe? Blind faith in anyone is always harmful, this has nothing to do with free speech.

Second, in your example regarding cooperation, this has to be a matter of trust. Any profession or task that requires a team to complete succesfully requires some level of trust and interdependence. If we would only sabotage each other, or get each other killed for no reason, the human species would not have survived for long. Cooperation is written in us genetically.

And third, there should be obvious exceptions regarding privacy and decency. No, a man should not be allowed to talk about his genitals near an elementary school. But that doesn't mean he should be banned from talking about his genitals, or get punished for it (by the legal system or otherwise). He should, if needed, be removed from the location if he does not cooperate, but that should be all.

Fundamentally, I do care. I care about autonomy and freedom more than about being 'nice' or 'safe'. I believe that, at the end of the day, the only one who you can truly trust is yourself. That doesn't mean that we should live in a free-for-all wasteland society, in fact it is important to live with virtue and kindness (I practice Stoic philosophy). And it doesn't mean I think other people are inherintely evil.

At the end of the day, freedom of speech is one of the most important freedoms we have, as authoritarianism and other evils can only begin to rise when we give up this crucial freedom.

I am a free speech absolutist. You should have the inherent right to speak your mind at any time, and any place, without a fear of violence or another form of retalliation. It is up to others to decide how they wish to respond. This applies to all speech, even hate speech and so on.

Now, of course there will be consequences to your speech, as most human beings will use their emotions upon hearing something they don't like. There's still a powerful primitive element in most of us. However, the legal or moral repercussions should be based on actions (and evidence), not on words.

Fundamentally, nobody knows.

Would it even be possible for humanity to reach a level of understanding that makes us understand the 'why' behind creation? To see not just the bigger picture, but the entire picture?

In my opinion, based on the information and scientific understanding we currently posses, the universe had a beginning. It is expanding in size and going forward in time. Based on these facts, the Big Bang theory seems most reasonable: an infinite point creating all matter (dark and regular) that sparked the beginning.

This leads me to believe (not know) that there is a 'higher' dimension beyond our universe. A cosmic web that is truly infinite and timeless. There is no such thing as time or space, nor particles or energy. It is nothing yet not nothingness. The web that is the fundamental fabric of not just the universe, but of infinity and eternity. Now you may ponder why this web exists, or what caused it to exist, and to that I must say that I have no clue.

If the cosmic web exists (or, as an alternative term, the 'hidden void'), then at least it explains what our universe is expanding into. This would also mean that the universe is not actually infinite, just incomprehensible in size; ever-expanding and slowly heading towards complete entropy.

Ultimately, we just don't know. We are still far too early in time to even begin to understand these questions, or to start our search for the truth. Will we ever reach this level of understanding? It is not likely, but it is okay to dream.