Post: #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21j_OCNLuYg

This person brings up some interesting points and outlook. Why we make life so difficult I think has a lot to do with chasing pussy. But it's not just pussy, it's the illusion of pussy that has been romanticized by Hollywood - that has made pussy obsessive. Giving up that illusion is a difficult journey. Men fall in love with make up or the illusion it seems. When pussy is made up -- it controls. When a woman is rated -- is it just the make up that she wears - that rates her 7 or 8? Going after a 8 or 10 means high level of game. But if the illusion is broken perhaps one would find women who are average looking just as appealing and more maybe life will become more easy.

Post: #2

To that end, why not just chemically castrate yourself so you stop thinking about it altogether? All that matters is that life is easy, after all.

Post: #3

There's some true wisdom to be found in this video.

The fact that you only could relate it to pussy makes you seem like the one who is pussy-obsessed.

I get the point of what you're saying, and there's something to be said for stepping out of the chase and enjoying other parts of life more, but I'm not sure why you didn't just let the lessons in this video stand on their own.

Post: #4

Nah, this Thai dude is just a smart lazy hustler, for which I give him full credit.

His "wisdom" consists of the fact that he figured out that working hard can be very tedious, and studying and trying to master a field of knowledge is even more so. Some people who come into possession of this wisdom become criminals, but those who have a scammer's talent and a distaste for violence realize that they can have a relatively easy life by hustling people out of their money in more peaceful ways. What better way to do it than by founding an "organic farm" based on "holistic principles" and being feted by goofy and/or nihilistic SWPL folk whose hatred for the world as it is leads them to worship an imagined farmer sage and his Oriental "wisdom".

The truth is that life is only ever "easy" because someone -- generations upon generations of men -- have worked and are working extremely hard to make it so. The material world is obdurate and unforgiving and human sentience is always imperiled and must struggle to sustain itself and its difference in kind against the dead materials that surround it and of which it is made. Because of the relentless slaving ingenuity of generations of men, we have increasingly prevailed in this struggle, and have built a world in which precious human sentience can be housed with relative ease and comfort. But none of it is ever easy, and no false wisdom of sleazy con men and hustling "sages" can make it so.

Post: #5

I watched the video - nothing mentioned about chasing pussy. Thai guys in villages have no shortage of pussy anyway. If he has a house and enough rice, village pussy will chase him and tie him up. Actually, the whole idea of "chasing pussy" is humiliating. Like pussy is some kind of prize.

His point is that the modern system fucks over the common people. Many people want to move to cities like Bangkok in Thailand or NY in the US and then end up sharing a small shitty apartment until age 40.

Another point is about modern capitalism, particularly land ownership. There is enough land for all of us, but a small percentage of people own most of it. If land were distributed more equally (and taxed at a prohibitively high rate if not used for own housing or agriculture), then more people would be able to build own houses and gardens in the middle of nowhere and live simple, fulfilling lives. Subsistence agriculture is possible even in northern climates, but in a country like Thailand all it takes is to work a little harder a couple of month per year and then work maybe 1-2 hours per day or less for the rest of the year.

Post: #6

If the simple life of working the land and making utensils with ones own hands was so fulfilling why did the human race move away from that?

He doesn't even attempt to confront that kind of question. His answer seems to be to just go back to the other side of the pendulum.

I remember once hearing a zen teacher tell her students how hard it is to find time to practice zazen in these modern times. I didn't think that statement made any sense. If anything, people have more time now to meditate than they ever have. In the past people would have to spend all their time ensuring basic survival (food, shelter, heat, safety, etc.) Today all you have to do is go to a basic job for 8 hours a day. Shit, you don't even have to do that, just go on welfare or setup camp at Pun-Pun's farm and mediate to your hearts content.

The real question is "why is everything one does never lead to a long-lasting state of fulfillment?" Or happiness, or easiness or bliss or whatever term.

It's not to say that Thai guy shouldn't be doing what he's doing, but he's not addressing what's most important, which is engaging the questions of

"Why am I doing what I'm doing?"
"Why do I still feel unfulfilled?"
"What would I need to finally feel fulfilled?"
"If I could achieve that, would I then feel fulfilled forever?"
"If no, then why not?"

It seems what matters most is to try to know ourselves as much as we can in all we find ourselves doing. To harvest that Gold of the human spirit. That's the common denominator in every man, the real opportunity for every man. Whether you're a simple farmer, a garbage man, or a CEO.

Post: #7

The OP's username really fits the video

Post: #8

(10-10-2015 05:03 AM)sour grapes Wrote:  Going after a 8 or 10 means high level of game.

What does this mean? Many guys who have tons of game bang low level girls (they may very well get quality ones too) and many guys who don't even know what game is go after and/or bang women who are at the top of the looks scale. You lost me.

Post: #9

From what I gathered from watching that video he was just preaching another form of minimalism. He was saying how a person could be happy through simplicity and living within your means. In otherwords if you feel socially obligated or pressured to pursue goals that don't add intrinsic value to your well being and happiness then you should question why. That is pretty sensible.

I think you're reading way too much into that speech though. It would be a pretty big misunderstanding to assume that this applies to most of our motivations in gaming and boning chicks. I certainly don't do it for ego purposes, I just like lots of pussy and am unashamed at that fact.

Another thing the guy giving the lecture wasn't saying that it's suitable for everyone.

He also didn't say that it applies to all areas of your life.

He also wasn't saying that you should never put in effort to make things work.

This dude builds his own houses from scratch, goes around giving speeches, and has formed his own following. He's "minimalist" up to a point but he clearly has cultivated a community around him and has channeled certain interests towards certain goals. He may be a material minimalist and maybe lives that way to a point but he definitely has ambitions.

Post: #10

Luckily life adjust this by itself... As you close in on your 40s, woman and sex will be like taking your supplements in the morning. You take them, and you get on with your day.

Post: #11

Kind of glib and pointless thread. Could've also just said "Life is easy - as long as you don't have ambitions"

Post: #12

Does he realize that if everyone followed his philosophy verbatim that not only would noone want to go see a TED talk by him, but that he would be incapable of giving one?

Post: #13

It takes very little to be alive, but so much more to live.

Post: #14

(10-10-2015 09:15 PM)Tengen Wrote:  It takes very little to be alive, but so much more to live.

^ Tengen nailing succinct truth.

Post: #15

After watching this prick for a minute, I had a desire to punch him in the face.

Then he'll find out how easy and rational life is.

Post: #16

^ With that attitude QC, you're more than welcome in BoschTown after the Fall.

Best putdown I've read of TED culture:

Quote:a $6,000, always-sold-out-unless-you-“matter” invitation to rub shoulders with celebrities and talk about how compassionate of a millionaire you really are.

Post: #17

(10-11-2015 12:00 AM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  After watching this prick for a minute, I had a desire to punch him in the face.

Then he'll find out how easy and rational life is.

Yeah, I'm sure growing up in a hardscrabble Thai village he has no concept of what it means to be confronted with the reality of violence.

Post: #18

(10-10-2015 08:00 AM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  Nah, this Thai dude is just a smart lazy hustler, for which I give him full credit.

His "wisdom" consists of the fact that he figured out that working hard can be very tedious, and studying and trying to master a field of knowledge is even more so. Some people who come into possession of this wisdom become criminals, but those who have a scammer's talent and a distaste for violence realize that they can have a relatively easy life by hustling people out of their money in more peaceful ways. What better way to do it than by founding an "organic farm" based on "holistic principles" and being feted by goofy and/or nihilistic SWPL folk whose hatred for the world as it is leads them to worship an imagined farmer sage and his Oriental "wisdom".

The truth is that life is only ever "easy" because someone -- generations upon generations of men -- have worked and are working extremely hard to make it so. The material world is obdurate and unforgiving and human sentience is always imperiled and must struggle to sustain itself and its difference in kind against the dead materials that surround it and of which it is made. Because of the relentless slaving ingenuity of generations of men, we have increasingly prevailed in this struggle, and have built a world in which precious human sentience can be housed with relative ease and comfort. But none of it is ever easy, and no false wisdom of sleazy con men and hustling "sages" can make it so.

I didn't say the video itself was truth revealed or that I agreed with everything he says or everything about his lifestyle. I said there was some true wisdom in it. Mainly in the simplicity of what it takes to be happy and how we often go so far away from what we really want in a misguided attempt to achieve it.

Thais naturally come across as cheesy, shallow, and dishonest to outsiders, so his demeanour may be rubbing you wrong, but if you saw what snowballing modernization is doing to the land and water here, not to mention how it's affecting what has long been a very satsisfactory lifestyle where this guy grew up, you'd know there's a strong need for his kind of thinking where he comes from. You can think you're far out of any cities and in the beautiful countryside, yet even there the creeks running by you are still poisonous - it can depress you to even look at the growing pains here directly sometimes.

And with economic powerhouses in this region just now revving up their engines, combined with a very callous mindset among those with power about the lives of the little man or taking care of the environment, it only looks sure to get worse.

So, sure, there's some truth to what you're saying and I agree that human ambition still has and always will have it's place of critical importance. But to pretend the modern paradigms he is arguing against don't take a toll on human happiness, create unnecessary suffering, and often "miss the point" or unthinkingly sacrifice too much in their aim is a gross overexaggeration of the worth in your own ideals. This guy's reality is just as real as yours, I assure you, and far more biting.

His points on housing, on the other hand, and the fact that you can build a perfectly livable place with your own hands. Even in the U.S. you can build a very comfortable home (and that with lumber) for a couple thousand dollars. Hell, there is no reason even a human living the modern American lifestyle can't fashion a very comfortable shelter out of a large, durable tent (assuming he has a place to put it) with some modern amentities and comforts added. And then meanwhile he can still go to school and work towards your precious human progress, so simplifying doesn't necessarily mean opting out - it can also mean more overall efficiency.

Yet even the poorest of people take it as fact that a home is far beyond their meager needs and take it as fact that they need a huge expensive home with a double car garage. Like they take it as fact that they have to sit in traffic for a couple hours a day to get to the job that gives them the money that pays for the car that got them there, when they may not have needed that (or that particular) job or the car at all. When there are so many other ways we could move people around than giving each person their own single car (just have a look at what that misguided idea is doing to life in growing Filipino cities).

You walk to the outskirts of the cities in Cambodia and the land is being flattened for subdivisions. Big boxy homes like we have in the states are being thrown up (though they're a lot more flimsy below the pretty surface). And the same cheesy advertising that sold it to us is now selling it to the naive masses in these places.

Should everyone live in a tiny house they can build for a couple grand or build an earthen house out of their own hands so they can live easier or stay out of debt? Probably not. But the fact that most people can't even comprehend these possibilities at all suggests that we might want to reconsider our values and paradigms and consider tweaking our course a tad.

One great way of doing that is watching videos of people you may not fully agree with and getting an outside perspective, whether you agree with their lifestyle fully or not. Or at least acknowledging they serve their purpose and letting others watch them without feeling you need to come blast someone else's lifestyle and promote your own.

And anyhow, I think it's real fresh for all the guys on this forum, most of whom grew up in cush Western homes and neighborhoods, where they get all the perks of human progress - without the sacrifices made for them that the poor Southeast Asian sees on a daily basis - to pretend they know what's best for the Thai villager. Or that they have a better grip on "reality." Or let's have a look at the PI threads, where men from this forum complain about how poisonous and unhealthy and unstable it is to live in a place like the PI, even with their first world income to protect them, and yet are more than happy to come enjoy the endless stream of pussy such conditions create.

Yes, the reality this guy talks about is real.

If you drive up to the simplest of Thai villages, their lifestyle is not that bad at all. I've been in the midst of it plenty of times with them, eaten at their tables and building real friendships, and they are probably happier than people I know back in fast-paced California by a long stretch.

Yet instead of looking closer at what we leapfrogged over in our quest to move forward, we force them to join with us. The modern world increasingly encroaches on them, convinces them they are doing it wrong, sometimes even forcefully wrenches them out of that carefree reality, and forces them into hacking it out for a shitty meal in the squalor of a place like Bangkok. Where it may be possible to bust your ass for an education and someday rise above, but it's an entirely different animal than what you know, you can bet on that.

Yes, not all are forced, but the more the modern world encroaches (and the less people slow down and consider alternative solutions), the less escapable diving into the pace becomes.

Don't get the wrong idea. I'm also a "rational optimist," if you will, when it comes to human progress. You won't catch me hugging trees or setting up some sham NGO out here so I can live a life of comfort off promising a return to the past. And I think in the long run, human progress will sort itself out and we'll figure out the best ways to live with ourselves.

But I think it shows some real arrogance to dismiss this guy's ideas so cynically. Or the idea that there may be ways of doing things different. If you knew how hard it was to make it in that place in their shoes and what millions upon millions are giving up to achieve what TV tells them they need, you might not feel so certain that you've got a better handle on the situation than he has.

And maybe that's outside you and your life so it doesn't matter, but I think the real wisdom is reflecting on how it applies to your own life and quest for happiness (and/or "progress"). So for me, this is far from the be-all, end-all of videos, but like I said, there's some true wisdom to be found in it and it's at least worth a watch.

Post: #19

Beyond Borders,

Thank you for your patient and civilized post. I regretted the perhaps excessive harshness of tone in my post soon after I made it.

The main thing I take issue with is the idea that "life is easy" and we just make it harder than it need be. Life is fundamentally a struggle against unforgiving material reality and any gains we make are hard won. That is all that needs to be said, and I don't think we disagree.

There is no doubt that the transition of a society from being an agrarian to an industrialized one can be jarring and ugly in many ways; it was the case in Europe in the 19th century, and in Asian countries in the last century. But in all cases the transition resulted in a much higher quality of life for the country's people, and the environmental problems, for example, proved to be temporary and reversible. This should certainly be the case today with much cleaner technologies being available.

Also, generally speaking, the life of the village and the farm is very hard and no picnic at all; most people, say in China, flee to the cities in search of a better life and as hard as it is there, it's still an improvement over back-breaking and monotonous farm labor. Now it may well be that Thailand is so fertile that nature takes care of much of that labor, which changes things somewhat; you would know that better than I do. But even in that case the transition to a more advanced society is very likely to make life easier for almost everyone in the longer term; and again I don't think you would disagree.

Once more, I'm sorry if my previous post came off as overly harsh or glib, and I thank you for your reply, which was decent and courteous as always.

Post: #20

(10-11-2015 02:38 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(10-10-2015 08:00 AM)The Lizard of Oz Wrote:  Nah, this Thai dude is just a smart lazy hustler, for which I give him full credit.

His "wisdom" consists of the fact that he figured out that working hard can be very tedious, and studying and trying to master a field of knowledge is even more so. Some people who come into possession of this wisdom become criminals, but those who have a scammer's talent and a distaste for violence realize that they can have a relatively easy life by hustling people out of their money in more peaceful ways. What better way to do it than by founding an "organic farm" based on "holistic principles" and being feted by goofy and/or nihilistic SWPL folk whose hatred for the world as it is leads them to worship an imagined farmer sage and his Oriental "wisdom".

The truth is that life is only ever "easy" because someone -- generations upon generations of men -- have worked and are working extremely hard to make it so. The material world is obdurate and unforgiving and human sentience is always imperiled and must struggle to sustain itself and its difference in kind against the dead materials that surround it and of which it is made. Because of the relentless slaving ingenuity of generations of men, we have increasingly prevailed in this struggle, and have built a world in which precious human sentience can be housed with relative ease and comfort. But none of it is ever easy, and no false wisdom of sleazy con men and hustling "sages" can make it so.

I didn't say the video itself was truth revealed or that I agreed with everything he says or everything about his lifestyle. I said there was some true wisdom in it. Mainly in the simplicity of what it takes to be happy and how we often go so far away from what we really want in a misguided attempt to achieve it.

Thais naturally come across as cheesy, shallow, and dishonest to outsiders, so his demeanour may be rubbing you wrong, but if you saw what snowballing modernization is doing to the land and water here, not to mention how it's affecting what has long been a very satsisfactory lifestyle where this guy grew up, you'd know there's a strong need for his kind of thinking where he comes from. You can think you're far out of any cities and in the beautiful countryside, yet even there the creeks running by you are still poisonous - it can depress you to even look at the growing pains here directly sometimes.

And with economic powerhouses in this region just now revving up their engines, combined with a very callous mindset among those with power about the lives of the little man or taking care of the environment, it only looks sure to get worse.

So, sure, there's some truth to what you're saying and I agree that human ambition still has and always will have it's place of critical importance. But to pretend the modern paradigms he is arguing against don't take a toll on human happiness, create unnecessary suffering, and often "miss the point" or unthinkingly sacrifice too much in their aim is a gross overexaggeration of the worth in your own ideals. This guy's reality is just as real as yours, I assure you, and far more biting.

His points on housing, on the other hand, and the fact that you can build a perfectly livable place with your own hands. Even in the U.S. you can build a very comfortable home (and that with lumber) for a couple thousand dollars. Hell, there is no reason even a human living the modern American lifestyle can't fashion a very comfortable shelter out of a large, durable tent (assuming he has a place to put it) with some modern amentities and comforts added. And then meanwhile he can still go to school and work towards your precious human progress, so simplifying doesn't necessarily mean opting out - it can also mean more overall efficiency.

Yet even the poorest of people take it as fact that a home is far beyond their meager needs and take it as fact that they need a huge expensive home with a double car garage. Like they take it as fact that they have to sit in traffic for a couple hours a day to get to the job that gives them the money that pays for the car that got them there, when they may not have needed that (or that particular) job or the car at all. When there are so many other ways we could move people around than giving each person their own single car (just have a look at what that misguided idea is doing to life in growing Filipino cities).

You walk to the outskirts of the cities in Cambodia and the land is being flattened for subdivisions. Big boxy homes like we have in the states are being thrown up (though they're a lot more flimsy below the pretty surface). And the same cheesy advertising that sold it to us is now selling it to the naive masses in these places.

Should everyone live in a tiny house they can build for a couple grand or build an earthen house out of their own hands so they can live easier or stay out of debt? Probably not. But the fact that most people can't even comprehend these possibilities at all suggests that we might want to reconsider our values and paradigms and consider tweaking our course a tad.

One great way of doing that is watching videos of people you may not fully agree with and getting an outside perspective, whether you agree with their lifestyle fully or not. Or at least acknowledging they serve their purpose and letting others watch them without feeling you need to come blast someone else's lifestyle and promote your own.

And anyhow, I think it's real fresh for all the guys on this forum, most of whom grew up in cush Western homes and neighborhoods, where they get all the perks of human progress - without the sacrifices made for them that the poor Southeast Asian sees on a daily basis - to pretend they know what's best for the Thai villager. Or that they have a better grip on "reality." Or let's have a look at the PI threads, where men from this forum complain about how poisonous and unhealthy and unstable it is to live in a place like the PI, even with their first world income to protect them, and yet are more than happy to come enjoy the endless stream of pussy such conditions create.

Yes, the reality this guy talks about is real.

If you drive up to the simplest of Thai villages, their lifestyle is not that bad at all. I've been in the midst of it plenty of times with them, eaten at their tables and building real friendships, and they are probably happier than people I know back in fast-paced California by a long stretch.

Yet instead of looking closer at what we leapfrogged over in our quest to move forward, we force them to join with us. The modern world increasingly encroaches on them, convinces them they are doing it wrong, sometimes even forcefully wrenches them out of that carefree reality, and forces them into hacking it out for a shitty meal in the squalor of a place like Bangkok. Where it may be possible to bust your ass for an education and someday rise above, but it's an entirely different animal than what you know, you can bet on that.

Yes, not all are forced, but the more the modern world encroaches (and the less people slow down and consider alternative solutions), the less escapable diving into the pace becomes.

Don't get the wrong idea. I'm also a "rational optimist," if you will, when it comes to human progress. You won't catch me hugging trees or setting up some sham NGO out here so I can live a life of comfort off promising a return to the past. And I think in the long run, human progress will sort itself out and we'll figure out the best ways to live with ourselves.

But I think it shows some real arrogance to dismiss this guy's ideas so cynically. Or the idea that there may be ways of doing things different. If you knew how hard it was to make it in that place in their shoes and what millions upon millions are giving up to achieve what TV tells them they need, you might not feel so certain that you've got a better handle on the situation than he has.

And maybe that's outside you and your life so it doesn't matter, but I think the real wisdom is reflecting on how it applies to your own life and quest for happiness (and/or "progress"). So for me, this is far from the be-all, end-all of videos, but like I said, there's some true wisdom to be found in it and it's at least worth a watch.

Yes, BB and I'll be more blunt. Some of the posts here even from vets just reek of an obvious lack of real perspective. You definitely need to be around other cultures and people to have that which most westerners lack.

Post: #21

My parents were hippies. I was born in the Fall, and soon after they bought 5 acres of land in the middle of Nowhere, Pennsylvania. We moved there in January in the dead of winter and lived in a tent. My Father told me how my face would turn blue at night and they would keep me sandwiched between them to keep me warm.

In the spring they bought an old school bus, gutted it out, ran electric and propane so we had decent shelter. Then it was a trailer, then two trailers they connected to each other.

They got divorced when I was about 3 and my Mom married a nice guy who owned part of a commune so we lived on that for a while. As a kid, it was fun because of the other kids there and it seemed we had a lot of freedom to go out and play on the land.

The people were into the communal spirit, etc, but even with all that I remember the jealousy, fighting, and all the dark stuff that lies beneath the surface of human beings whether they are living in a small village or an exclusive co-op on Park Ave.

Eventually they left the commune for the "small" city life and entered into society doing normal type jobs. Why did they leave the commune? My guess is they didn't see it as the answer anymore. Living there probably brought about new types of negativity and leaving it for a regular life seemed like the answer.

They did keep in contact with all their hippie-friends of course and I have to say, from what I've seen, those free-loving hippies were no better, no happier, no more fulfilled than anyone else I've ever met.

That's the point I'm trying to make. Whether you flee to a big city, or the country, one can't escape the questions that chase every man.

Who am I?
Who are the others?
What is my relation to them? What is their relation to me?
What is my purpose?
What is the meaning of it all?
Why am I not happy?
What do I need to be happy?

How can I be the One?
How can I have Being?
How can I feel like a Real person?
How can I be Free?

Every person's life and everything they do is an unconscious effort to answer these types of questions. And every answer we try brings about some new type of suffering or negativity, which then brings us back to the question.

It can be downright maddening at times to see it all unfold in your life. How there is really no escape from the questions, that life is a Mission Impossible and no matter what you do the negative and suffering is right around the corner waiting for you with a big smile. You get a real sense of what Hamlet must've felt like when he contemplated, "To be of not to be?", realizing there is no escape.

However, in the video we heard Pu-Pun talk about how he in fact did escape from Alcatraz and the law never caught up with him again. Well, that makes for a great story that certainly appeals to every modern-western worker. In other words, it sells.

Well, good for him, but how are those pesky questions doing?

He doesn't talk about those. I'm not sure if he's even aware they were the driving force for both him going to the city and then leaving it. The effort to have being. To feel free and like a real person.

What's the current status? No new negatives? Life is now easy-peasy and he's finally happy now and forever?

Hmmmm....I don't buy it. Like when a guy tells me he's found the perfect girl and they are going to get married and live happily ever after. Well, let's check back in 5 years and see how that's going.

Another thing that irks me and maybe others here as well, are that these types of stories made for western viewers are really promoting the feminine view as the answer (communal/communism/socialism/welfare/given) against the masculine one (individual/capitalism/earned). Aside from TED making money, that's the agenda.

I do agree possessions, or rather, our attachment to them bring about suffering. Every time I move I have to suffer the packing and cost of moving them. Getting rid of it all will certainly free me of that specific negativity, but it won't free me of the question that drove me to acquire them to begin with. Unless I have some insight into what that is, the question remains and I will just find a new, temporal answer.

Post: #22

(10-11-2015 12:00 AM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  After watching this prick for a minute, I had a desire to punch him in the face.

Then he'll find out how easy and rational life is.

He's just a little to smug, too happy, to content, too sickly saccharine. Such people irritate me. They see life as a Hallmark card, rather than the kaleidescope of passion that it truly is.

The upward progress of man, and the great achievements of history, have been marked by passion, blood, rage, love, hatred, violence, conquest, and the ecstasy of zeal.

Give me powerful, honest emotions! Give me intensity in its sincerest form, though it be at times violent and destructive!

Because sometimes we have to smash the old things, to make room for the new ones. Even ourselves.

And this was what I meant. We are dealing with moral truths here. No man of any consequence wants, or seeks, an "easy life."

Slash with your knives, jab with your bayonets, and keep the lead flying down range.

This is most of life. This is the moral truth, the quintessence of the glorious struggle that we were born for.


P.S.: I'm still your dog of war, AB...

   

Post: #23

(10-11-2015 11:43 AM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  

(10-11-2015 12:00 AM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  After watching this prick for a minute, I had a desire to punch him in the face.

Then he'll find out how easy and rational life is.

He's just a little to smug, too happy, to content, too sickly saccharine. Such people irritate me. They see life as a Hallmark card, rather than the kaleidescope of passion that it truly is.

The upward progress of man, and the great achievements of history, have been marked by passion, blood, rage, love, hatred, violence, conquest, and the ecstasy of zeal.

Give me powerful, honest emotions! Give me intensity in its sincerest form, though it be at times violent and destructive!

Because sometimes we have to smash the old things, to make room for the new ones. Even ourselves.

And this was what I meant. We are dealing with moral truths here.

I agree with that Thai guy, but I also agree with QC.

Post: #24

(10-11-2015 02:38 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  I didn't say the video itself was truth revealed or that I agreed with everything he says or everything about his lifestyle. I said there was some true wisdom in it. Mainly in the simplicity of what it takes to be happy and how we often go so far away from what we really want in a misguided attempt to achieve it.

That's all well and good, but he's just repeating a dumbed-down version of western psychological concepts of how dysfunctional behavioural patterns lead to the feared, not desired, outcome. Concepts that have been formalised and refined for a good 120 years or more, but already existed as folk wisdom across multiple cultures for thousands of years before it.

Even the 'it doesn't take much to be happy' mantra is in Eastern philosophy:

Quote:"Without going out the door, know the world
Without peering out the window, see the Heavenly Tao
The further one goes
The less one knows"

Yiddish Folklore:

Quote:A man complains about his small house being full of children and desires to move to a much bigger home, and the Rabbi tells him to take all his farm animals into the house, then each day he's allowed to remove one of them. Once the animals have all been removed: "Thank you Rabbi! Now they're all gone, I've never known such peace!"

Christian and European folklore all have tales like this.

Even Western Pop Culture:

Quote:"...it's that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard; because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with."

However, my own feelings don't match folk wisdom. I have observed that the most immature, dysfunctional and stagnant minds are those belonging to people who are the most comfortable. This idleness is where truly poisonous, toxic ideas in society spring from. A desire to hang onto one's own comfort is why so many people are too terrified to speak out against toxic ideas.

Whilst I understand State Control, and to some degree I know I can choose to be happy, I readily embrace challenge and adversity, because it tests my masculinity, and successfully overcoming them deepens me as a man. When I'm pushed beyond my comfort zone, I'm utterly-alive: my mind and body is on fire. I'm at risk of my house being burned to the ground completely, and even if it is, and I think all is lost, I find I clear the rubble and discover the foundation is stronger than I thought, and can easily rebuild my house bigger and better.

It can be a physical challenge: how heavy a weight can I lift? If I spar with this bigger guy, will I stand tall, or will I fall? If I go on this endurance ride, will I measure up? It can be a mental challenge: is there a pattern here that I can predict outcomes to give myself an advantage? This song needs a string arrangement: can I write a valid one with no formal training? I'm offered an acting role: can I convincingly become another character?

If something is easy, it holds little interest for me. Hell, what's easier than being dead? Why do you exist? Sitting on the couch, bingewatching show after show on Netflix is easy. Why possess a mind? Why possess a body?

TL; DR version: When does championing comfort become simply mentally-justifying a deep-seated fear of the challenge of the unknown that may reveal deeper knowledge of oneself?

I could ask: If the speaker is so goddamn happy with what he has, why is he giving this Ted talk, stumping for financial investment? :eyeroll:

Post: #25

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the life expectancy curve for Thailand. I knew that it would be generally increasing, of course, but the extent and consistency of the actual increase exceeded my expectations:



In other words, a mere 50 years ago the average Thai lived to be about 55; and now he or she lives to be about 75, and there is no obvious slowing down; you can see that in a decade Thai life expectancy will basically equal that of a developed Western country.

So when this supposed organic farming sage goes to a sleazy SWPL-sponsored "TED talk" and slanders the very idea of learning and progress before foolish and comfortable white folk (he says that all engineering schools teach is "how to destroy" and all agriculture schools teach is "how to poison"), it's not a bad idea to look at a curve like that and contemplate the full extent of the stupidity and ingratitude involved. Amid all this endless "destruction" and nefarious "poisoning" his countrymen are somehow living far longer and (necessarily) far healthier and therefore far happier lives than ever before. I guess the destroyers and poisoners are really failing quite miserably at their task.

Again. Generations and generations of men have slaved -- that word is no exaggeration -- to make the wondrous devices that allow this would-be wise man travel thousands of miles in great ease and comfort, to have access to a technology that allows him to spread his ideas far and wide, and to do this in the knowledge that skillful and well-equipped physicians will attend to his health if needed, and that nutritious and delicious food grown through the miracle of modern agriculture will be always available to him wherever he goes. These same devices have enabled his countrymen to come out of their backward and dirt-poor villages and enjoy a life that (whatever its difficulties) is demonstrably longer, healthier, and better protected than any they had ever known.

Given all these indisputable realities, it is notable that what passes for "wisdom" to the foolish and thoughtless SWPL who attend such a talk is the ingrate whining of a man who looks askance at the wondrous gifts that he and his society have been given because "life was more fun when he was a child before TV came". When a grown man can argue with a straight face that the irresponsibility and thoughtlessness of childhood are a standard by which all life, which is truly a struggle, is to be judged -- then such a man is a fool at best, and a sleazy confidence man at worst, most likely some unsavory mixture of both.

Finally, I'd like to address this:

(10-11-2015 09:12 AM)Cobra Wrote:  Some of the posts here even from vets just reek of an obvious lack of real perspective. You definitely need to be around other cultures and people to have that which most westerners lack.

Cobra, I don't know what this unique "perspective" is that most westerners supposedly lack. But I do know that if I were an educated Thai, or belonged to some other country that had been given such an enormous bounty through the labors of another civilization, my main perspective would be one of loving gratitude and admiration for those labors; and if I were to travel to a western country with a message, that message would start with a simple "thank you"; and it might involve a warning for westerners to appreciate what they have, and not to squander their great inheritance of enlightenment and progress.

A writer you might be interested in reading, Cobra, is a fellow Indian (by provenance), V.S. Naipaul -- an excellent writer and a clear thinker who was throughout his life exercised by these very ideas. He traveled widely around the world and he always marveled at the simple and intractable ingratitude of so many people who take the achievements and the material gains of western civilization utterly for granted, use and enjoy them at all times, and then whine about the least difficulty while refusing to do the hard work of building a functioning society. He wrote very perceptively about Islamic countries and their failings, and particularly about India -- indeed, he noted that the Indian educated classes were increasingly able to transcend their limitations and that that country was embarking on a good and fruitful path. And he was always obsessed with the ease with which things -- particularly in Africa where he spent a great deal of time -- can "go back to bush", how rapidly laziness, ingratitude, and neglect can lead reversals of civilization in places where it had just begun on to take hold. I think you might find Naipaul's perspective on these matters highly instructive.