Fragile Children =

[Anonymous]

I am a follower of Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren was a 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk who was persecuted because he told his followers they could chant and practice to take control of their lives and attain enlightenment in their lifetimes. His collected writings are hundreds of letters of encouragement to his followers. The most remarkable thing about the letters is that 13th century Japanese samurai and farmers and peasants and widows complained about the same shit people complain about today. They had problems dealing with other people - family members, neighbors, bosses, government officials, fellow samurai or farmers or peasants, etc. Essentially people have always found themselves surrounded by a**holes who don’t treat them with sufficient respect and make their lives difficult. Nichiren’s samurai follower got into fights defending himself for following Nichiren when he went out drinking with his fellow warriors. Nichiren’s guidance was that is great to stand up for yourself and your beliefs but sometimes you just need to go home and drink sake with your wife.

[Anonymous]

Single, unmarried liberal women are absolutely terrifying. Truly deranged. I believe they should have a higher voting age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Single, unmarried liberal women are absolutely terrifying. Truly deranged. I believe they should have a higher voting age.

Just like the 21 year old single guy living with his parents who leaked info on discords for an ego boost? It’s not going to happen either way. Society needs to give incentives for these people to grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Single, unmarried liberal women are absolutely terrifying. Truly deranged. I believe they should have a higher voting age.

And single unmarried conservative men aren’t horrifying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Single, unmarried liberal women are absolutely terrifying. Truly deranged. I believe they should have a higher voting age.

Who is talking about single unmarried liberal women?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a follower of Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren was a 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk who was persecuted because he told his followers they could chant and practice to take control of their lives and attain enlightenment in their lifetimes. His collected writings are hundreds of letters of encouragement to his followers. The most remarkable thing about the letters is that 13th century Japanese samurai and farmers and peasants and widows complained about the same shit people complain about today. They had problems dealing with other people - family members, neighbors, bosses, government officials, fellow samurai or farmers or peasants, etc. Essentially people have always found themselves surrounded by a**holes who don’t treat them with sufficient respect and make their lives difficult. Nichiren’s samurai follower got into fights defending himself for following Nichiren when he went out drinking with his fellow warriors. Nichiren’s guidance was that is great to stand up for yourself and your beliefs but sometimes you just need to go home and drink sake with your wife.

We are exposed to so many more a**holes now though lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a follower of Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren was a 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk who was persecuted because he told his followers they could chant and practice to take control of their lives and attain enlightenment in their lifetimes. His collected writings are hundreds of letters of encouragement to his followers. The most remarkable thing about the letters is that 13th century Japanese samurai and farmers and peasants and widows complained about the same shit people complain about today. They had problems dealing with other people - family members, neighbors, bosses, government officials, fellow samurai or farmers or peasants, etc. Essentially people have always found themselves surrounded by a**holes who don’t treat them with sufficient respect and make their lives difficult. Nichiren’s samurai follower got into fights defending himself for following Nichiren when he went out drinking with his fellow warriors. Nichiren’s guidance was that is great to stand up for yourself and your beliefs but sometimes you just need to go home and drink sake with your wife.

We are exposed to so many more a**holes now though lol.

Whatever. Life is much easier now, but people are so damned and determined to be miserable they search social media for an imaginary grievance to obsess over. Enjoy your life. It’s not that bad.

[Anonymous]

people are miserable BECAUSE life is easy

humans need danger, and struggle, and shared purpose

if our lives were all much more precarious we would probably be happier

instead we are stuck sitting in office chairs getting fatter, dumber, and older

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:people are miserable BECAUSE life is easy

humans need danger, and struggle, and shared purpose

if our lives were all much more precarious we would probably be happier

instead we are stuck sitting in office chairs getting fatter, dumber, and older

I agree with the shared purpose not the other parts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a follower of Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren was a 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk who was persecuted because he told his followers they could chant and practice to take control of their lives and attain enlightenment in their lifetimes. His collected writings are hundreds of letters of encouragement to his followers. The most remarkable thing about the letters is that 13th century Japanese samurai and farmers and peasants and widows complained about the same shit people complain about today. They had problems dealing with other people - family members, neighbors, bosses, government officials, fellow samurai or farmers or peasants, etc. Essentially people have always found themselves surrounded by a**holes who don’t treat them with sufficient respect and make their lives difficult. Nichiren’s samurai follower got into fights defending himself for following Nichiren when he went out drinking with his fellow warriors. Nichiren’s guidance was that is great to stand up for yourself and your beliefs but sometimes you just need to go home and drink sake with your wife.

We are exposed to so many more a**holes now though lol.

Whatever. Life is much easier now, but people are so damned and determined to be miserable they search social media for an imaginary grievance to obsess over. Enjoy your life. It’s not that bad.

I was just thinking about bigger problems like the threat of nuclear war and climate change, and how these are problems our ancestors never dreamed about having to manage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a follower of Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren was a 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk who was persecuted because he told his followers they could chant and practice to take control of their lives and attain enlightenment in their lifetimes. His collected writings are hundreds of letters of encouragement to his followers. The most remarkable thing about the letters is that 13th century Japanese samurai and farmers and peasants and widows complained about the same shit people complain about today. They had problems dealing with other people - family members, neighbors, bosses, government officials, fellow samurai or farmers or peasants, etc. Essentially people have always found themselves surrounded by a**holes who don’t treat them with sufficient respect and make their lives difficult. Nichiren’s samurai follower got into fights defending himself for following Nichiren when he went out drinking with his fellow warriors. Nichiren’s guidance was that is great to stand up for yourself and your beliefs but sometimes you just need to go home and drink sake with your wife.

We are exposed to so many more a**holes now though lol.

Whatever. Life is much easier now, but people are so damned and determined to be miserable they search social media for an imaginary grievance to obsess over. Enjoy your life. It’s not that bad.

I was just thinking about bigger problems like the threat of nuclear war and climate change, and how these are problems our ancestors never dreamed about having to manage.

But they did, it just looked different. For most of human history, most humans were barely above the edge of starvation. Mass disease deaths were always a possibility, as were mass murder by rivals or conquest. Half of the kids you bore would die, if you survived childbirth yourself.

Do you think death by nuclear war is any different than death by Genghis Khan’s armies? You and your kids are as dead.

I really don’t get this idealized version of the past. Humans have always mostly barely survived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The weird idealism of some fantasy agrarian commune life that people apparently think was real in this thread is absolutely bizarre. I thought people outgrew their Lord of the Rings fantasies by about age 13 or so but I guess not.

Here is a life tip: you do not live in Mordor.

I think a ton of people dream about living the life in Game of Thrones rather than modernity. Of course they won't be killed or get disease.

It stems from Jeffersonian cringe so it runs deep in the American psyche

That america is gonna be a whole nation of yeoman small individual farmers

It is this insane idealist agrarian fantasy from a bunch of people who have literally never stepped foot in a farm.

[Anonymous]

No one is arguing that people in the past or in other countries today didn't/don't suffer more physically. But you all are being really naive if you think physical suffering is the only or even greatest of human suffering. Whether you admit it or not, our great society has produced people who are now incapable of handling a host of small obstacles, let alone survive and thrive under the harsh conditions our ancestors lived through. And yes, they did thrive despite their harsher conditions. Young people today are triggered with everything and face much more existential angst than previous generations. You all simply saying such it up there is nothing to see here except whiners is not helpful and so totally blind. Something about our society is wrecking havoc on our ability to find fulfillment and happiness.

Someone brought up productivity and I think that is spot on. All the technological advances just allows us to become more productive to the point where we are expected to be juggling and multitasking all the time. Our productivity expectations are insane and only increasing. All for what? Does productivity lead to happiness? Most definitely not. What it gets us is more material goods maybe, but I'm convinced it actually leads to less happiness. People centuries ago got very little done in a day compared to humans today. So what? They were definitely not less happy. We are on the hamster wheel of productivity to nowhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a follower of Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren was a 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk who was persecuted because he told his followers they could chant and practice to take control of their lives and attain enlightenment in their lifetimes. His collected writings are hundreds of letters of encouragement to his followers. The most remarkable thing about the letters is that 13th century Japanese samurai and farmers and peasants and widows complained about the same shit people complain about today. They had problems dealing with other people - family members, neighbors, bosses, government officials, fellow samurai or farmers or peasants, etc. Essentially people have always found themselves surrounded by a**holes who don’t treat them with sufficient respect and make their lives difficult. Nichiren’s samurai follower got into fights defending himself for following Nichiren when he went out drinking with his fellow warriors. Nichiren’s guidance was that is great to stand up for yourself and your beliefs but sometimes you just need to go home and drink sake with your wife.

We are exposed to so many more a**holes now though lol.

Whatever. Life is much easier now, but people are so damned and determined to be miserable they search social media for an imaginary grievance to obsess over. Enjoy your life. It’s not that bad.

I was just thinking about bigger problems like the threat of nuclear war and climate change, and how these are problems our ancestors never dreamed about having to manage.

But they did, it just looked different. For most of human history, most humans were barely above the edge of starvation. Mass disease deaths were always a possibility, as were mass murder by rivals or conquest. Half of the kids you bore would die, if you survived childbirth yourself.

Do you think death by nuclear war is any different than death by Genghis Khan’s armies? You and your kids are as dead.

I really don’t get this idealized version of the past. Humans have always mostly barely survived.

But yet they were able to produce works of art, literature, music that we admire and often fail to match even today? When I read classical literature or music, I actually think people are getting dumber and we are the ones barely surviving, so drowned by modern distractions and technology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one is arguing that people in the past or in other countries today didn't/don't suffer more physically. But you all are being really naive if you think physical suffering is the only or even greatest of human suffering. Whether you admit it or not, our great society has produced people who are now incapable of handling a host of small obstacles, let alone survive and thrive under the harsh conditions our ancestors lived through. And yes, they did thrive despite their harsher conditions. Young people today are triggered with everything and face much more existential angst than previous generations. You all simply saying such it up there is nothing to see here except whiners is not helpful and so totally blind. Something about our society is wrecking havoc on our ability to find fulfillment and happiness.

Someone brought up productivity and I think that is spot on. All the technological advances just allows us to become more productive to the point where we are expected to be juggling and multitasking all the time. Our productivity expectations are insane and only increasing. All for what? Does productivity lead to happiness? Most definitely not. What it gets us is more material goods maybe, but I'm convinced it actually leads to less happiness. People centuries ago got very little done in a day compared to humans today. So what? They were definitely not less happy. We are on the hamster wheel of productivity to nowhere.

Yeah this is what I’m saying. For all of the physical comforts humans have now, we should see more higher order needs being fulfilled, but they’re not. It’s broken.