Help me stop being jaded

[Nocturnal]

Originally posted by: Queasy
NO

NO

NO

Bad dog

This made me chuckle.

 

[cheapgoose]

shut up! nothing wrong with being jaded.

have a :beer:

 

[CrazyHelloDeli]

Originally posted by: MonkeyFaces

Originally posted by: CrazyHelloDeli
I'm going to assume you aren't being "emo". If you truly feel this way I can only suggest some Philosophy reading. It help tremendously in clearing the mind and allowing you to reevaluate your current path in life; as well as scrutinizing your own beliefs and determine whether you should hold said beliefs anymore. I suggest:

Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle - Is all about the goal of happiness and how to achieve it. Also explains the relationship and symbiosis of selfishness and selflessness. You must lose the negative stigma you have about selfishness and realize that without self, you cannot be self-less.

Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologiae

Rene Descartes - Discourse On Method, Meditations

G.W. Liebniz - Discourse on Metaphysics

John Stuart Mill - Utilitarianism, On Liberty

You will notice that all except Mill believed in "God", not necessarily the Christian God, that a supreme being exists and our purpose is realized through this being. The reason I suggest these is that, you are, in my humble estimation, at an age where you have dangerously realized that you can think and reason to an extent beyond the everyman. Descartes mentions this danger explicitly, as being a point of no return where you can easily lose yourself. Many will say that I should recommend more of the Contemporary philosophers, such a Nietzsche and Sartre, but you grasp many of the points these two put forth, but without perspective to temper your mind.

Can you state which of these works is most contrary to nihilism? What seems to make the most sense right now is the idea that our world is filled with no purpose and that every human work, action, or inaction is the result of one wanting to fill the void (basically everything is done in ignorance).

I consider nihilism as being anti-hope, so I will answer with what I know to be the most hopeful.

If you just like to learn for the sake of learning, and aren't completely shut down to the bible and its wisdom, read Thomas Aquinas. He is without a doubt the single most hopeful philosopher, followed by Aristotle. I am by no means Catholic, or even Christian, but I can take many of the amazing insights into human experience that Aquinas offers.

 

[mjrpes3]

MonkeyFaces: You aren't going to find any good answers on this forum. And the issues you raise are not exactly lunch time conversation, so forget about discussing nihilism over a game of Halo with you friends. But you might be comforted to know that a whole two and a half millennia of writers have been where you are. The philosophers are a good start. I like Plato and St. Augustine, although the one that you would probably most identify with is the 19th century existential philosopher Kierkegaard. His writing style is pretty dense, so be warned. Personally I'm not a very big fan of Aquinas or Descartes, as their text is quite logical and dry.

And you shouldn't limit yourself to just philosophy; you can get a different perspective on life just by reading 19th Romantic poetry, Dostoevsky, or Proust. There's also Buddhism and meditation... it will make you feel better knowing that it's possible to meditate daily on the absurd and nihilistic state of life and come off feeling happy as a daisy.

Whatever you do, don't let yourself fall into the trap of thinking that you know everything there is to know about the world, letting yourself come to a nihilist conclusion. There's a lot more to life, if you are willing to do a bit of searching.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: Dangerer
dude.... where are the paragraphs

Fixed.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: hungfarover
you are crushed by a_wall_of_text_01 for 12,852 hit points.
you die.

LOADING PLEASE WAIT...

:laugh::thumbsup::beer:

/me tries to pull ROFLCOPTER out of uncontrollable spin

 

[chrisms]

Originally posted by: LostWanderer

Originally posted by: chrisms

What if "making it" is the end goal that achieves happiness? What if drive itself is the source of unhappiness? Now you could argue that everyone has some sort of a drive, even if that drive is to lay on their butt the rest of their life. But having a specific skill and being in this "continuous struggle," I think those are more attitudes of a career man than of human beings as a whole trying to find happiness. Those who think they've made it may have made it, if thats what makes them content with life. Are you telling me a man living in a huge house in the Bahamas, as he as always dreamed of, is now not trying hard enough as he sits on the porch and drinks a Martini?

Again you sound like a career man, not people as a whole. "The more you have, the more you want" is not true of everybody. I agree that happiness comes in degrees, and that our itendency is to analyze our situation every now and again to set out and improve our lives.

Hmm... Interesting interpretation and good advice. I wasn't really thinking of only material things, but I can see how it comes off that way. I guess I don't understand how anyone can be fully "satisfied". There's always something else. The example of the guy in the Bahamas; maybe he wants a wife to share it all with, or kids to pass it all on to, or maybe he's not satisfied spiritually. Or, what if he wants others to share in his good fortune? There's always global peace and prosperity to work for. See what I mean about always being something else? Is my perspective just skewed?

Nobody can be fully satisfied. Like you said, there is always global peace and prosperity to work towards. But eventually this man cut his losses and realized that his life was as good as it could get, because if he started to work towards global prosperity he would have to give up his home in the Bahamas and work to save children in Africa.

What I mean here is that I disagree with your point that "making it" is a foolish goal. For some, it is the end goal. It is the decision that you've got it as good as you ever will. Your happiness has reached a point where it can improve little, while the risk of attempting to improve it may result in a destruction of your current state of being.

So if, as you say, there is "always something else" before you can be completely happy, is it not logically sound to accept what life has given you and not risk losing it all over just a slight increase in happiness? This is the point in which someone "makes it."

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: mjrpes3
MonkeyFaces: You aren't going to find any good answers on this forum.

My answer was good, so was yours, and so were several others.

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: WingZero94
Read the book of Job in the Bible.

Can you post Cliff's? That thing has 42 chapters!

 

[mjrpes3]

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: mjrpes3
MonkeyFaces: You aren't going to find any good answers on this forum.

My answer was good, so was yours, and so were several others.

Sorry, I wasn't clear with that. I really meant we gave him good guideposts to help him get through.... but you can't really have all your problems with life solved with just one forum thread

 

[MonkeyFaces]

Thanks for all of your helpful insights. I have to come to the conclusion that my displeasure regarding the truth (there is no purpose in life but surviving and deriving pleasure from self satisfaction) came out of the belief that humanity should serve a better purpose. I now take satisfaction in our meager existences and I will divert my efforts into "pleasing the machine". Out of all of my pondering, I have gained the insight necessary to mollify mental displeasure due to the fact that life is just a drama meant to fill in the boredom of living.