There's nothing that says anybody has to accept the way things are and should not do anything to disrupt the order of things. That sounds like fatalism or something else from ancient times. — WISDOMfromPO-MO

Indeed, there is not. And I am not advocating that anyone just accept the way things are and not do anything to disrupt the order of things. I disapprove of many aspects about the established order of things. When I was younger I was much more devoted to disruption. When the opportunity presents itself, we should (figuratively speaking) take off our wooden shoes and drop them into the works (sabots = wooden shoes, dropping wooden shoes into the gears = sabotage.)

At 70 I don't disapprove of disrupting the bad things about life, I just don't have as much energy as I once did. During the 40+ years that I was working, I resisted unreasonable authority and unthinking adherence to the dominant paradigm as much as I could. (Naturally, that made me a less than highly desired employee.)

I don't use any fertilizer, weed or insect killer on my lawn. I use a minimum of energy keeping the grass short (it's not very short; in fact it looks like hell -- but there is no good reason to keep grass 3 inches short. See Thorsten Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class). I let weeds that I like grow. If I don't like them, I pull them up. I recycle yard wastes, food wastes, plastic/paper/metal. I produce very little "garbage". I bicycle and use public transit. I eat a minimum of meat and fish. I live in a small house.

I spent about 15 years working in a socialist organization educating "the public" about Marx, De Leon, economic justice, the meaning of class, and so on and so forth. I donated to the cause. I wrote material.

People need to find the area in which they can make a difference, and go do it. Become informed, but don't keep listening to and reading the same old bad news every day. It's just too demoralizing. Keep abreast of what is happening, but that doesn't take a lot of time. Things, like the disasters, don't change that much from month to month.

Do I believe that 'the people' can change the direction away from certain disaster that we all seem to be heading for? Sure I do. Do I think 'the people' will rise up, smash the corporate dictatorship, take over the government, and usher in a period of progressive ecological, economic, educational, et cetera policy which will get us all collectively out of the shit hole we seem to be sliding into? No, I think that is fairly unlikely.

So, I continue doing what I can do and recognizing that my power to effect change in the world is quite limited. It's more limited than I would like, but there's not much I can do about it. Got a magic ring or something you could give me to enhance my powers?

Like in what way? — Buxtebuddha

They have difficulty because they idealize their parent, and no live person is going to match that ideal.

I said let's break the garage-in-garbage-out cycle — WISDOMfromPO-MO

Like I said, most of us are just too over-exposed to all this stuff, most of which is way beyond our capacity to control, affect, stop, change...

Once you've become informed, you don't need fresh doses of this stuff. It's like if you eat a healthy diet, there is no need to take vitamin pills. For instance, there is nothing new to say about Marxism; liberalism; "progress"; conservatism; Enlightenment rationalism, autonomy of the individual, rule of law; empiricism/"science"; technology; transhumanism; postmodernism; feminism; queer theory; identity politics; neo-liberalism; "the logic of free markets"; globalization; populism; "democracy" vs. "tyranny"; dualism vs. non-dualism; overconsumption vs. prosperity; Malthus vs. Adam Smith, etc. etc. etc.
It's pretty much all been said. Several times a day it is repeated. Unplug, tune out, turn off (as opposed to Timothy Leary's advice to Turn on, tune in, drop out).

No, I am constantly adding novelty to my life. — Rich

Your genes are driving your novelty seeking behavior. Other people's genes drive familiarity seeking.

by the application of the right strategies. In fact, it may be possible to turn such a person from someone who hates you at the time, into someone who deeply loves you once they realise who you really are. — Agustino

Perhaps you could share just what those strategies are that can turn someone who hates your guts into somebody who realizes who you really are, and then in love falls deeply with you.

It sounds a bit far fetched to me. I passed it by a jury of 12 sentimental drag queens and they delivered a unanimous verdict (with very little drama) that it was highly unlikely you could do any such thing. They know a really bitchy queen, however, they would like you to demonstrate your methods on.

"Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not seven times; but... How many times did Jesus recommend? (And was it a command or a recommendation?)

490. That should get you a ways through a few years of your relationship. She of course will have to forgive you 490 times. (Or did he mean 70 squared? 4900 seems a little high to me. If you were to live 60 more years, you might have to forgive her (and she you) every 4.4 days, max.

For which of you, your bride or her groom, will there be more difficulty forgiving 490 times?

"How bad and long lasting does pain have to be for death to be good?"

Pain can be subjectively rated; to some extent it can be described. It's not possible to rate pain objectively, nor describe it objectively. The best one can do is create a subjective consensus about the kinds of pain and what subjectively severe pain does to one life.

I've experienced what I would call moderate pain quite a few times, some have a fairly long (2 months) duration. I could stand that kind of pain. I've experienced severe pain (burns, post surgical pain, broken bones) quite a few times, but the pain did not last long. If this severe pain was expected to last a long time, I wouldn't be able to hold out indefinitely.

There are two kinds of pain that I find difficult to tolerate: Very sharp, very strong 'stinging' pain (like that from a burn) or very strong dull-type pain accompanied by the feeling of 'coming apart'. Lower back pain might be an example -- not just pain, but the feeling of one's back being dislocated (which, of course, it wasn't).

I think the willingness to forgive is important. And I don't mean just forgiving unfaithfulness, or an attempt on one's life by one's partner. Sometimes we have to forgive, or maybe a better word would be"overlook" or "tolerate" other people's flaws.

After all, everyone has flaws, and most of us have at least one or two glaring flaws that are hard to ignore. But... our good mates overlook them, ignore them, or forgive them. And we in turn forgive their foibles, flaws, and fiascos.

There is, however, a limit. A "mean drunk" alcoholic can be just too exhausting to put up with. A chronic gambler may be as exhausting as an alcoholic. Violence (hitting, striking, kicking, etc.) and frequent abusive speech ("you stupid, ugly slut"; "you worthless piece of scum" and so on) shouldn't be tolerated for long.

"it" (whatever makes a relationship good) isn't this, it isn't that, you say. WHAT, exactly, do you think it is that makes a relationship not only work, but be good?

Right. I don't believe in the perfect person. If someone has a reasonably good assortment of virtues, and not too many vices, that's as good as we get, this side of the grave.

Expecting perfection, or even expecting a lot better, is usually a recipe for disappointment when looking for a companion/lover/mate/spouse/weekend fuck.

I am suggesting that we all cooperate, respect one another, respect non-human life, and respect the Earth as the home of all life. — WISDOMfromPO-MO

Right. Keep it simple: Like Micah 6:8 says it, "What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God?" One could lead a good life by following what you or the prophet Micah said.

A complete rupture and departure from the worldviews that have created and sustained modern business and science might be a no-brainer — WISDOMfromPO-MO

No brainer in more ways than one. Obvious, on the one hand, brainless on the other.

I agree that there are times when one wants to chuck the whole sickening mess. But, pause...

One of the things that intelligent, well read, and maybe over-informed people need to do is selectively cut back on the data feeds that are plugged into their heads.

There are tons of agencies out there serving up bad news about the world: the environment, the economy, the education system, the government, white supremacists, racists, and sexists, liberals, republicans, conservatives, democrats, private prisons, ISIS, lead poisoning, and on and on. It isn't all fake news, but it is very tendentious, and they don't generally offer any solutions. One is just left with more and more discontent and disturbance. We are overstimulated with bad news.

I am not optimistic about the future, but I find some peace in the realization that there is nothing significant that I can personally do about most of the problems I know about. I get further peace from cutting back on hearing once again about x, y, or z problem. It also helps to cross some concerns off the list. I'm just not going to worry about the Alberta Tar Sands industry for instance. It's not that I don't care that it is an extremely filthy way to get petroleum, it's just that there isn't room in my agenda for the tar sands problem.

Yes, I know there is a lot of plastic particles in the ocean screwing up ocean life. Again, I can't solve that problem. It doesn't help to read about it again.

If the world looks like it is going to hell, it probably will--if for no other reason that it has been picking up a lot of momentum, and who is going to stop it? There are problems that I can make a dent in. Small and local, but I'll just have to settle for that.

I too once felt we should have a complete rupture. Let the Revolution begin! It would be a bad experience -- at least as bad as the crap we are already putting up with. People would not be brand new beings after the rupture. It would be back to business as usual.

Yeah, poetic, but let's not go there.

The angle: many men look for a spouse that is like their mother, and many women look for a spouse who is like their father. They usually have a difficult time finding a spouse who makes the grade.

There is a timer on reproduction -- more for women, but also for men. you have a few years before you have to worry about it.

Welcome to The Philosophy Forum.

Because of course, getting an education and a job is important, but if we forsake forming bonds in order to focus entirely on getting ahead in life, when we finally achieve that goal, how much time will be left? — Eric Wintjen

You can, of course, look for your mate while you are getting an education. After all, women in college are also looking for mates. Then, many couples start out relatively poor and develop their careers, have children, and in time reach their plateaus of earning, hopefully not too long before retirement (which is probably 50 years into the future, IF all goes according to plan).

As for your parents...

They didn't know how things were going to work out when they met each other. Nobody does. Relationships follow many different plots, sometimes ones which nobody wanted. But... that's life for you.

Love as much as you can.
Put 'being' before 'achieving'
and do good work.

Not that I give a rat's ass whether it is, was, or will be, but... Que sera, sera. Whatever will be will be.

"It Is What It Is' is an idiomatic phrase, indicating the immutable nature of an object or circumstance. This is commonly used in American culture as a response of acceptance to something that makes little sense or has little to no validity. [edit: used a lot because so any things make so little sense.] It may also refer to: It Is What It Is, a 2001 film directed by Billy Frolick.

It may also refer to:

It Is What It Is, a 2001 film directed by Billy Frolick
It Is What It Is, a 2007 autobiography by David Coulthard
It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, a project by English artist Jeremy Deller
It Is What It Is, a radio show hosted by Michigan sports radio broadcaster Sean Baligian
In Music

It Is What It Is (ABN album), a 2008 album by the rap duo ABN
It Is What It Is, a 1982 album by the Australian rock band The Hitmen
It Is What It Is, a working title for the 2007 album by the rapper Cassidy released as B.A.R.S. The Barry Adrian Reese Story
"It Is What It Is (What It Is)", a song by the rock band Adam Again on the 1992 album Dig
"It Is What It Is", a song by Lifehouse on the 2010 album Smoke & Mirrors
It Is What It Is, a song by Kacey Musgraves on the 2013 album Same Trailer Different Park
"It Is What It Is", a song by Lecrae on the 2016 mixtape, Church Clothes 3"

It could have been that an alpha female looked you in the eye and said, "You. Follow me." And you followed.

What resemblance do you think your mother will have to your sought after "good woman"?

May you, , be forever watched over by machines of loving grace.

She found me, if you know what I mean, O:) — Buxtebuddha

I don't. Elaborate, in excruciating detail.

Rather than looking for perfection...

What is a reasonably good woman like? What is a reasonably good man like?

Ok, now the ethical problem. Whether you should buy vinyl records or not is a "first world problem". Starving third world peasants have to make do with cell phones.

How you make money and what you do with it is always an ethical problem, no matter what.

Your first ethical responsibility is to yourself. If you don't take care of your own needs (within your ability to do so) then someone else will have to help you with your needs, or you will end up on the street. I don't know how old you are. If you are an adult, you are probably on your own.

Taking care of yourself is a lifelong project. It isn't just today's needs that you need to take care of; it's also your needs in 10 years, or 50 years. If you don't save any money while you can, then eventually you will need help just to exist. You probably don't want that.

Hence the budget. Don't spend all of your money each month. Save a substantial hunk of what you earn so that you can take care of future needs.

Many people believe they have some responsibility towards other people. Some of that responsibility is discharged through taxes (some of which is spent on good works). An important part is discharged through voluntary giving. 30% is not sustainable, unless your income is really high (in which case you wouldn't be worried about costs).

When you decide to give to charity, think about it carefully. Not all charities are "good". Some of them are more or less frauds, some of them are very inefficient (they waste a lot of the money they get on overhead), some of them are ineffective (they don't accomplish much), and some of them are self-perpetuating.

Despite the bad ones, there are a lot of good charities. How to find out which ones work well:

Start here - an article in the New York Times about how to pick charities

Guide Star ratings

BBB (Better Business Bureau) ratings

Charity Navigator

GIVE WELL

CHARITY WATCH includes information about sneaky, slippery reporting by charities

I worked in the non-profit sector for 40 years, at various agencies. There are a lot of hard-working, honest people doing excellent charitable work, but there are also a lot of ineffective charities run by hard-working honest people. Why is this so? A lot of projects run by charities are trying to solve difficult human problems, and it is just plain difficult work. Sometimes even honest hard-working people are just not able to accomplish very much. So... choose carefully.

What is it about loving music (which is itself a very worthy thing) that requires you to buy vinyl records? Is it the music or the vinyl that you like? Or is the music you want only available on vinyl?

You need a turntable (not terribly expensive) and an amplifier ("turntables" as such didn't or don't include amps), and either speakers or good headphones. One reaches diminishing returns after a certain point. Maintenance? What's to maintain? If you don't need high end equipment, the costs are not that great. And most people buy music over a lifetime, so one's budget isn't depleted on a monthly basis.

30% is a lot for charity. I'm not knocking it, but but it sounds like your income isn't that great and most people's budgets won't support 30% for charity or religious giving. Giving to charity is imminently worthy, but a third of one's income? Don't forget saving money. Having money in the bank is TREMENDOUSLY helpful in all circumstances, and you don't have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars (right now, anyway). But having say, $10,000 in savings prevents so many minor problems from suddenly becoming major problems. (It takes time to save up money, of course.)

You didn't ask for my advice, but I'm a font of advice, which I can't help giving. Try this:

How much do you spend on these? (The percentages are what is considered reasonable.)

housing.......................30% - 40$ (if you are living on your own. In some cities it is 50%.)
food............................20% (assuming few meals away from home)
transportation.............??? (car or public transportation or bike and foot)
health insurance.........maybe 15% (if you are on your own; less if your employer provides insurance)
savings.......................10%
charitable giving........10%
all miscellaneous expenses.....15%

It adds up to 100%, or more (or less) depending on your circumstances.

Thanks. I was reading an essay by a sociologist who said that sociologists urgently need to get reacquainted with biology. "Sociology’s Stagnation Part II: Genetic Confounding"

Sociology can be an important science, and sometimes it gives us valuable insights. But all too often sociologists and other social scientists are blind to anything other than social causes of social outcomes. Professionals in these fields continue to act as if we were blank slates waiting for social forces to mold us into the people we become. More to the point, many social scientists ignore the fact that genetic predispositions can explain social trends, and that individual differences in heritable personality traits can explain important social outcomes.

That was part II. Here's Part I.

How many students were taught that human beings evolved about around 150,000 years ago in Africa? How many know what a gene is? How many can describe Mendel’s laws, or sexual selection? The answer is very few. And, what is worse, many sociologists do not think this ignorance matters.

In the minds of many sociologists, it is a great sin to “biologize” human affairs.

This is hilariously awful, DB. I recall an article a couple of years back about the dangers of zoos reinforcing gender stereotypes in visiting children. — Wayfarer

What were the animals doing that reinforced gender stereotypes? Was a female rhino doing the dishes while the male rhino worked on a car?

So, I came across this series of essays (I guess you could call them that) — darthbarracuda

You could call them screeds, rants, diatribes, tirades, harangues, attacks, fulminations, or just plain shit.
There are alternatives.

written by a belligerent feminist (or something) — darthbarracuda

Or something... Maybe she was a harridan -- a belligerent old woman. Or an ugly old hag. A witch. I don't know what she was,. Just pointing out there are other words available. Maybe she was a, gasp, bitter crank. (Lots of feminists are.)

that basically claims that the chemicals in males' semen influences the behavior of females and that this is at least partially responsible for the patriarchy. — darthbarracuda

If only there were chemicals in semen that could influence their behavior. It's probably the enzyme patriarcase. It breaks down matriarcose.

I would put this in the same category as a feminist's claim that an erect penis is tantamount to rape. Or a picture of an erect penis is an advertisement for rape. (You know, like the large billboards displaying a huge erect penis on wheels chasing screaming women through the streets.)

Studying philosophy just doesn't seem to fit into my schedule.

Second or third syllable in, someone continues on with their conversation as if it wasn't obvious I was talking. — Chany

That bugs me a lot too. Sometimes I really wonder, "was I just imagining that I was talking?" when some jerk butted in and took over the conversation as if no one had the floor.

Humorless knot holes.

Sanctimonious hypocrites.

The kind of conservative who is always saying no one wants to work these days.
The kind of liberal who is always identifying racists, sexists, and so on.

Micromanagers. (Well, really most supervisors and managers whatever they do.)

People who are like cats -- who are very picky about who they will talk to, socialize with, purr for, sit next to, have sex with, etc, and {i}especially when they condescend to grace one with their presence.[/i] Elitist snobs, in other words. I lift my leg on them.

I prefer the more egalitarian dog types.

Even very young children have sexual interests, whatever adult sexual course they will follow. I vaguely remember having sexual thoughts (feelings? don't know) when I was maybe 4 or 5. (No, this is not a child abuse story.) I was always interested in other boys. I then had no terminology for any of this, of course.

Question: Would it have helped me develop if my parents had been like the intrusive-manager parents in the documentary? (It would have helped me, certainly, if my mother had been less hysterical about childhood sex play. It would have helped her a great deal if she had been able to deal with sexuality and fertility before we were all born.)

Answer: Almost certainly not. The medical/psychological understanding of those decades, and the probable interventions which were likely were not to be wished for. But I don't want to knock my parents too much. They both did as well as they could with limited resources and a large family, and it was not bad.

Most people probably do not have "ideal" childhoods managed by "perfect parents". They muddle through and none-the-less manage to put respectable adult lives together when the time comes. (Of course, we all know people who decidedly don't manage.) The transsexuals I have known were also putting adult lives together, and their gender identity was one among several issues they had to cope with.

That's one of the things about the site -- it's an odd mixture of conventional and conspiratorial writing.

There is something fishy about the site. For instance, there is a screed about the Charlottesville business being linked to Clinton and Obama:

The events in Charlottesville took place days after an earth-shattering Disobedient Media report broke into the mainstream, unequivocally and finally debunking the baseless Clinton-Obama argument that it was Russian hackers who interfered in the 2016 American election...

Massive court victories by Judicial Watch calling for emails from Clinton’s aides around the 2012 Benghazi attack, and others pertaining to the handling of the infamous “Comey memos” the DOJ failed to turn over following former Director James Comey’s departure, have party leadership in a state of utter paralysis as various scandals unfold and the party descends into free-fall...

There is also this weird ad on the site:



I have every intention of rewinding my hose.

Let me know how I can get or adopt said tumor. — Posty McPostface

I'll have somebody send it to you as soon as I am dead.

It is at least quite strange (to mention one of the cases listed in the link) that the US authorities knew the Manchester guy before the UK authorities did. — Mariner

I thought that that was a result of a 'leak' of information that was supposed to have been kept confidential and wasn't.

Yes, this is an interesting question.

They carry IDs with them to help the sky-god distinguish martyrdoms from routine riff-raff die-offs, I suppose. And with 7+ billion riff-raffs to keep track of, most of them no-count infidels, not to mention pigeons, pigs, and penguins, it might get confusing for even omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent sky gods.

The martyrs are probably over-estimating the reward. I suspect they get some coupons and maybe free samples.

An intriguing mystery. But then, why do terrorists rent cars/vans/trucks using their own credit cards? Why don't they steal somebody else's card first? This would frustrate and slow down the investigation. Too much trouble? Are car/van/truck rental agencies so fastidious about IDs?

Or is carrying a passport on the day of a scheduled terrorism act a sort of "signature" (like serial murderers who always use the same kind of man's tie to strangle their victims with)?

Are you suggesting that the police are not actually "discovering" passports on site, but are merely planting evidence, so that they can report progress in the investigation?

I think people are born with a bent toward pessimism or optimism, and I doubt they will have much luck deliberately converting themselves to the opposite. However, people may change, and if they do, I think they probably can't take much personal credit for it. Like, maybe a tiny little tumor begins growing in the "That will never work" gyrus or the "What a great idea" sulcus of the limbic system and produces a gloomier or sunnier take on the future. I, for instance, have unaccountably become more optimistic and cheerful in the last few years. Probably a tumor. Or early alzheimers.

Chomsky is a very insightful writer, very persuasive. Kind of relentless in a way. There's a good film, "Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, 1992. It's a more interesting way to get a dose of Chomsky. Very well done. On the other hand, I don't think Chomsky will say anything that will really surprise you.

"A huge, well-organized coalition links the US entertainment, media and information technology sectors in a "common front" to oppose cultural protectionism..." — WISDOMfromPO-MO

The info and amusements businesses probably don't want to destroy indigenous cultures -- they probably wouldn't gain much if anything from doing that. What they do want to get rid of trade barriers of any kind. (Granted, the effect is the same.)

And the info and amusements businesses don't have to do anything special to have a destructive effect. All they have to do is show up. What they sell will do the rest. (And what they sell is in many cases, a good thing in itself.)

A related aspect of global capitalism is the immense concentration of production within fewer and fewer but larger and large corporations. Disney has become one of the behemoths. Disney owns ABC television (and associated cable, stations and radio operations); ESPN; Disney Parks and Resorts; Lucas Films; Marvel Entertainment

Bertelsmann, a German company, owns Penguin, Random House, the world's largest publisher, plus lots of other print and publishing operations. Three companies, Penguin Random House, Hachette Livre, and Harper Collins have just about half of the publishing market.

The 30 biggest wreckers of indigenous culture are:

Alphabet (aka Google), Disney, Comcast, 21st Century Fox, Facebook, Bertelsmann, Viacom, CBS, Baidu, News Corp, Advance Publications (Conde Nast), iHeartMedia (aka Clear Channel), Discovery Communications, Grupo Globo, Time Warner, Microsoft, Asahi Shimbun, China Central Television, Hearst, CDecaux (world's largest outdoor advertiser--bus shelters, etc.), Axel Springer, MediaSet, ITV, Fuji Media, Hubert Burda Meda, Gannett, ProSiebenSat.1, Yomiuro Shimbun, and in 30th place, Time, Inc.

All true, and that's capitalism for you. You were expecting... something else?

The author of your linked article is a member of a group specializing in indigenes. Right: Indigenous cultural forms are most likely doomed. They'll be gone before too long. We know this because we have seen this in our own culture, and in our own communities.

Calico (printed cotton cloth) used to be an indigenous craft/industry in Calcutta. The British, bless their crass craft-crusthing capitalists, learned how to print cotton cloth and (eventually) swamped the local indian craft with machine-made goods. If they hadn't done that, bright cotton prints might be in the same category as Ugandan bark-cloth--a lovely, hammered bark product which locals make in small quantities.

In the long run, the destruction of local craft (wherever it is located) could bite back. My favorite post-apolyptic fiction theme is people suddenly deprived of massive technology (like the electrical grid) having to figure out how to survive with technology dialed back to 1880. Mostly they have to rediscover old methods and techniques on the double, or they die much sooner, rather than later.

Are compassion and empathy really the answer or is this some other pretentious attempt at giving one's life more meaning than it already has or doesn't at worst? — Posty McPostface

Compassion and love are eminently good things, real and true.

...the Nietzschean interpretation that life is meaningless and power solves all, or the pessimism of Schopenhauer — Posty McPostface

There are aspects of some philosophers / philosophy that one is better off laying aside.

Haven't you felt a sense of confusion or apathy due to the ever changing aspect of meaning? — Posty McPostface

Of course I've felt confusion; apathy -- not so much. Meaning, for me anyway, hasn't been "ever changing"; it's more like "punctuated change". Several years of confident meaning might suddenly run into the ditch. The search for meaning then bubbles up and is itself a meaning.

One has meaning when one's life feels like it is meaningful -- so yes, it's subjective. Meaning is a very dear thing, but it isn't life itself. Meaninglessness is unpleasant. It's like that quip about hell: "If you find yourself in hell, keep going." (Otherwise, you might get stuck there.) Life seems meaningless at times but we mostly keep going. Why? Because life is itself a meaning, and we will not find additional meanings if we just drop dead from ennui and apathy.