TAC said:
Directionless as ever, but trying not to worry about it. I think my biggest problem is that I've grown used to a life of zero responsibility and my natural laziness has been magnified tenfold. Haha, just got some points added to my driving record since I never bothered to do traffic school (I had two months). Anyway...
Did some serious Yi Ching consulting today (for the first time since, I dunno, spring/summer last year). It seems that as I suspected, there's nothing major for me to do right now, and my fleeting worries were well placed. I have to make honest and sincere my mind so I can engage in observation to see opportunities to do things better as they arise. The path will then be to very deliberately engage in actions to slowly cultivate yang energy, and naturally disperse the false yin of a mind conditioned by worldly things, and again grab my true self. However, incorrect observation will continue the current trend of receding yang, and I will once again be completely consumed by false yin (and end up in one of my very bad places, I felt it looming in the distance while in my delightful switching between drunkenness and nodding every night). It also seems that while I am able to be among inferior persons without being negatively influenced, if I stay withdrawn and don't seek out good persons to learn from/be influenced by their yang, my prospects aren't too good.
I was half surprised to learn how seriously I take this stuff...trying to think of how to act for beneficial results, drug use wise it's kind of obvious, but that's kind of a tall order unless I do some actively positive things. We'll see how it goes (don't hold your breath waiting for good results, but y'all know that by now).
Utahrd said:
I sincerely believe that this modern way of life, where we all have too much time on our hands, is what really brings out our tendencies towards depression. I mean, for how many thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of years have people been farming, reproducing when they were 15, and dying by the time they were 30? The amount of time in human history that we have been hunter-gathering, or farming, or at least living much shorter lives, VASTLY outweighs how much time we have spent with computer technology, overly controlling government, modern medicine etc. Think about how many women used to die in child birth, and what the infant mortality rate used to be?
I dunno why I am trying to spark a debate in which I am not qualified to participate. I guess I'm trying to say that we would all be better off running from woolly mammoths and trying to escape from saber toothed tigers, all the while finding nuts and berries, catching gophers for food, dying of unpleasant infections, and trying to have as much unprotected sex as we can in an attempt to increase the probability that some of our offspring will survive.
I disagree, I think waaaaay more people would self-report happiness now than back then. You had shit to do because you had no choice, could you follow interests and passions, take up delightful activities in the days of communal living or subsistence farming? No, 'twas just animal survival, and maybe thing would be during fruitful years, but the slow death of hunger that came with draught or famine...hahaha no.My point being that I don't think the physical lifestyle is the result of modern woe, if anything it has eased it.
I think the major issue that bothers people bothered by the modern world majorly (namely, us) is that of alienation. There are a lot of superfluous persons, and as society has become increasing individual-orientated (both financially, intellectually due to the mindboggling amount of information easily accessible these days through digital media, and emotionally since you can connect with folks you agree with more but never ever meet semi-anonymously online) the number of folks marginalized increases. Communal raising (relying solely on two fucked up individuals (sometimes one) aka parents to make a decent person is a tall order, and even the extended family given that you needn't rely upon them to survive or secure social positions anymore is simply not viable), and having a place for every person (an important function to the community for them to fulfill) is what we need IMO. Don't ask me how to go about doing this, wouldn't be easy, but it is the best hope for a brighter future.
Need to stop taking all this APAP filled cold medicine ASAP so I can get good and drunk...and yes I overreact to minor illnesses and rest up waaay too much. Should be productive on here soon enough though. Toodles, everyone.
despite what it seems at times, a social life is awesome. heh....
