Comments by "AlexXx" (@alexxx4434) on "Einzelgänger" channel.

  1. “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” ― Bruce Lee
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  2. Cioran and Schopenhauer would have been best buddies to have at parties! 😂
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  3. I see that being happy in marriage takes incredible luck, effort, and time.
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  4. That's why real friends are valuable, you can be authentic with them.
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  5. Instead of having someone to listen to you, you can have a journal. It will listen to anything, even some things you won't tell a friend. Journaling helps you process your thoughts and emotions.
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  6. Wu wei is the way ;)
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  7. Society at large lacks self-reflection. Too much mindless grind coupled with mindless dissociation by abundant distractions and mindless consumption.
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  8. Counter argument: because the man"s wishes were swiftly granted he did not value them.
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  9. "You are supposed to bring kids into this world! Who else is gonna buy the overpriced real estate we've invested in?" Capitalist economy needs more kids to exploit them directly and indirectly. There are already relaxation of laws regarding child labor going on in US and other countries.
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  10. Anger is also a powerful drivng force, motivation. Such a shame that anger gets bad rep in common culture. Aristotel was right, anger could be used for bad OR good. Just suppressing anger is wrong and leads to mental issues.
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  11. It's not a gift, it's a mixed bag 😄
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  12. Connection with others is one of the basic human needs. There should be a healthy balance of solitude and social life.
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  13.  @KnockOffBeingFat  Sometimes? Check out the stats of break ups and divorces.
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  14. Capitalism, yo! Under this system humans are as valuable as their productivity output. Humans are essentially treated as robots at the workplaces. You can bet your ass once more cheap automation becomes available, humans will be substituted and thrown on the streets.
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  15. Good life is the act of balance
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  16.  @loomlarge  Duh!
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  17. It's easy to fuck up as a parent. Mostly because our parents have let us down, and have implanted bad examples and behaviors. But those people who had good childhoods and good loving parents tend to want to have kids, in contrast to those who haven't.
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  18. Childbirth rates are declining, so no worries, people are stopping wanting to procreate!
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  19. "You will own nothing and you will be happy"
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  20. It ceases to exist because the meaning is something that we create. Your meaning dies with you.
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  21. The main benefit of not being single is security.
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  22. While the goal of human self-improvement is a noble one, I cannot agree with the rest of his philosophy. I think it is incredibly misguded and idealistic, even dangerously so. His philosophy and ideas is a reflection of his troubled life, his coping mechanism, it seems. His use of terms like 'herd' to describe general population, dividing philosophy for "masters" and "slaves", indicates that he probably carried a superiority complex, narcissism. And what may come a surprise for some: world in general has been following his misguided philosophy for quite some time now. Notable specific example, its use by Nazi Germany to justify atrocities against humanity, thanks to discarding the 'conventional morality'. We live in a hyper-individualistic "superhero society", where those at the top or wanting to get there discard 'conventional morality' for the sake of self-interest and to the detriment of others. Where did it lead us, to the world where those at the top are masters and the majority of the rest are slaves and "the herd"? Morals weren't invented for nothing, it's a social construct allowing a society to function. If everyone's morals were individualistic and anti-social, then societies would not exist. "You can't live in a society and be free from the society", one famous man said. Moreover, talking about individualism, humans are products of their environment, which is some sort of society in the general case. While I do not deny free will, we humans are hugely affected by our environment. And without a society and culture humans are just another animals. I'm also not saying morals are set in stone, it's an adjustable social construct/contract. But if we are changing them we need to bear in mind the goal of that. Are we doing it in pure egoistical self-interest or for the betterment of the humanity? Or maybe a balance between the two? What I think is desperately needed in modern society is not more individualism but more collective effort. We won't be able to solve outstanding world crisis problems in individual fashion.
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  23. How about it's something in between? We are biologically and culturally programmed, but can make some conscious choices inside that framework.
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  24. The meaning of life is ultimately a creative question. You make of life what you will and what you can. Just like an artist when they decide to create.
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  25. Without other people you don't have "lows" of human interaction (which is abundantly more prevalent in modern highly competitive world), but you also don't have "highs" (love, support, compassion, understanding, acknowledgement). And there is of course a deeper existential question: what is the point of life if there are no other people to care about?
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  26. Life develops by getting only more complex: from single cells to multi-cellular organisms, which gained conscious and can contemplate life, death and the universe. This is the natural order.
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  27. Anger isn't a 'bad emotion' to get rid of. It's actually a great stimulant and is there for a reason when the body needs a boost for an action. You just need to channel it in a productive manner. BTW, any emotion can lead to unesireable consequences if not controlled, not just anger. Why modern religions are dissing on anger? Because religions teach obedience towards authority. Rulers need pacified herds, no uprisings.
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  28. Don't strive for anything, be soft and useless, go with the flow. I've been following this great Taoist philosophy my whole life!
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  29. Do not personally agree that one-off experinces necessarily provide more happiness than things. Things can by themselves provide experiences, on a consistent basis, hence provide more value, and potential enjoyment. Like not having a car and having a car are two different experiences. While one-off experiences are not always great, they might be unpleasnt, or even bad. And when they're gone you are left with just intangible memories and less money.
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  30. Capitalism turns everything into a commodity
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  31.  @Campfire30  What use there is in philosophy if it's not applied and tested in practice? An abstract thought exercise? Philosophy is about the 'art of living', hence the 'love of wisdom' is the word's original meaning.
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  32. Dialectical monism, also known as dualistic monism or monistic dualism, is an ontological position that holds that reality is ultimately a unified whole, distinguishing itself from monism by asserting that this whole necessarily expresses itself in dualistic terms.
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  33. Wealthy buy stuff for status, over anything else.
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  34. I think to solve the issue of greed we should not try treating it as a thing in of itself. Because greed is mostly a symptom, a coping mechanism for underlying negative feelings, emotions and expectations, in general: anxiety. This outlook is supported by the fact that greed is of compulsuve-obsessive nature, it cannot just go away, there is never "enough", otherwise the suppressed anxiety will surface right up. To fix abundant greed I'm afraid the society will have to change. It needs to be where each memeber does not fear for its future wellbeing, where there are firm social guarantees provided for everyone. Unfortunately, it looks like we are moving in a completely opposite direction, under the pressure of the greed-afflicted ruiling elite.
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  35. I'd argue there is no separate 'wise' mind, cause it's a part of 'reasonable' mind. Therefore we're left with a dichotomy of emotional vs reasonable mind. This follows "Triune brain" model, where emotions originate from "limbic system", and reason from "neocortex".
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  36. Patience is power only if you know the outcome beforehand. If you don't know the outcome you cannot be patient.
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  37. Happiness comes when all our actual human needs (see Maslow Pyramid) are being met. Everything else is copium. Western consumerist culture tries to sell us a lot of products under the false promise that it will fulfill our needs. Just watch the advertisements, often it sells not the poduct itself but the 'happiness' associated with using the product. That is a lie. Consumerist culture lures us to over-indulge in consumption to drown our pain when some of our actual needs aren't beeing met. There are plenty of addictions and distractions for us to chose. This is copium. On the other hand, Eastern thought, like Buddhism, for the purpose of reducing suffering when our actual needs are not being met proposes to reduce the needs. Reduce them to the bare minimum, and suggests to be content with that. But that doesn't make you happy either. It is also copium.
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  38. Nietzsche's "philosophy" was used by Third Reich. Fun fact.
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  39. Everincreasing, thanks to technology and competition, pace of modern life is a blessing and a curse. There is no turning back to prior "simpler" ways of living, yet we have to adopt, find a healthy balance in modern circumstances.
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  40.  @ddmddmd  We are close relatives. And we are also generally animals.
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  41. I interpret 'having no expectations' not as 'not striving'. But accepting that we have no control over external outcomes. We might influence them but never fully control. Quoting Epictetus: “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”
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  42. It's not that being born is inherently bad, it's that the world that humans have created is shit and is unwelcoming to new participants.
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  43. "Make the best use what's in your power and take the rest as it happens." — Epictetus
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  44. Quote from Wikipedia: Universal dialectic is an ontological idea which is closely related to the Taoist and Neo-Confucian concept of taiji or "supreme ultimate." In the West, dialecticians including Hegel explored themes that some see as remarkably similar, laying the groundwork for unification. Universal dialectic is envisioned as a single fundamental creative principle of inherent complementarity, as inspired by Heraclitus. However, rather than manifesting only cyclical change (as was the Greek view), it is progressive in nature, bringing about states of increasing complexity through a dialectical process of synthesis. Accordingly, the term "universal dialectic" can be seen as part of an attempt to Westernize and/or modernize the concept of taiji in regard to the fundamental role and nature of complementary opposites in the ongoing self-organizing process of creation. It associates this traditionally Eastern view with the concept of dialectic advocated by Socrates, Hegel, and Marx. This Western influence adds a progressive element to the inexorable process of change, a concept which is absent in Oriental thought.
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  45. The default meaning of life is continuation of life.
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  46. The organization aimed at the destruction of status quo is nothing but a natural progression on Tyler's philosophy of self-destruction. You need to first destroy to remake anew.
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  47.  @anonymoose6581  Not necessarily. You might be confusing anger and rage.
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  48.  @anonymoose6581  Anger clouding your judgement is a popular myth. Every emotion is useful as a motivator in certain circumstance.
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  49. It's the conflict as old as humanity: rationality, reason vs emotions, passion.
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  50. Wu wei comes through rigorous practice.
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