Hello, fellow-sufferer.
There are pieces of this video I want to remember because they're going to help me become a better person, so I listened to it a few times and transcribed the audio for members of the community here. I thought you might like it. They are some very interesting ideas to consider.
[ What if this world is actually one giant prison? When a 19th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer observed the amount of pain we experience during our lifetimes, he conclude it's not happiness and pleasure we are after, but a reduction of the ongoing suffering that is an inherent part of existence.
When looking through the grim lens of Schopenhauer's philosophy, as he compares this world to a prison, or, more specifically, a penitentiary, we start to see astounding similarities. As is the case with prison, no one in general chooses to be here. We can't leave until our sentence ends. Or, unless, we end it ourselves.
We are limited by the walls of time, closing in on us, as each day brings us closer to death. And within the confines of our limitations, we generally experience a stream of suffering, tragedy, worry, and misery. We desperately go from one pleasure to another just to experience temporary relief from pain. In the process, the organisms that inhabit the earth - driven by what Schopenhauer calls a "will to live" - feed on each other in an attempt to survive, just so they can prolong their miserable lives a bit longer.
Like prison gangs, the species of the world are entangled in a continual war for dominance: eat or be eaten seems to be Nature's order when we look at plants as well as certain animals which only serve as food for other animals, who, themselves, succumb to the destructive presence of human beings. Humanity, in turn, while exploiting its own members and draining its natural habitat of resources falls prey to some kind of disease, or disaster.
When we remove the veil of ignorance and behold the harsh reality we live in, we might start to question the idea that, "This world is the successful work of an all-wise, all-good, all-powerful being." For Schopenhauer's view of the world is one of agony, devoid of divine grace, and it has much more in common with a penal colony than with the creation of a benevolent deity.
Now, seeing the world as a prison sounds like a recipe for personal misery. Why not adopt a more positive, more hopeful perspective? Why look at it
... keep reading on reddit ➡"Just as the beautiful bodily form can be seen to the best advantage with the lightest clothing, or even no clothing at all, and thus a very handsome man, if at the same time he had taste and could follow it, would prefer to walk about almost naked, clothed only after the manner of the ancients; so will every fine mind rich in ideas express itself always in the most natural, candid, and simple way, concerned if it be possible to communicate its thoughts to others, and thus to relieve the loneliness that one is bound to feel in a world such as this. Conversely, poverty of mind, confusion and perversity of thought will clothe themselves in the most far-fetched expressions and obscure forms of speech, in order to cloak in difficult and pompous phrases small, trifling, insipid, or commonplace ideas. It is like the man who lacks the majesty of beauty, and wishes to make up for this deficiency by clothing; he attempts to cover up the insignificance or ugliness of his person under barbaric finery, tinsel, feathers, ruffles, cuffs, and mantles. Thus many an author, if compelled to translate his pompous and obscure book into its little clear content, would be as embarrassed as that man would be if he were to go about naked".
- The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1 (1966), book III, § 47 (translated by E. F. J. Payne).
I thought I would post this as the media is shifting gears on how they paint GME investors and I haven't seen this on here in a while. Schopenhauer's framework does not work 1:1 on GME (but it definitely does work for NFT adoption) as we live in a system where the side who controls the forums of discussion have interests which conflict with discovering the truth, i.e. we are not in an academic setting. But this quote still provides a general playbook of how data-driven decision making is undermined when it conflicts with entrenched interests.
There is one simple truth at the heart of this entire thesis: there is an enormous, unclosed short position against GME. They are doing everything in their power to make us forget, doubt, or over-complicate this simple fact.
Also, the media and the financial institutions who they pimp themselves out to are going to call GME a "meme stock" forever because the moment they permit it to acquire any kind of legitimacy (think Blue chip grandeur) it is game over for them as the half-ass golf-playing advisors and risk-averse boomers flood in.
Highly recommend this series of scriptures by Arthur Schopenhauer. The title is pretty self- explanatory and defines the principles of what makes a man, woman or any human-being happy in this world. I find this to be very reassuring and interesting as it relates to the one thing we all talk about on this page -- our personalities (goes to show we are on the right track since we are all trying to better who we are!) Give it a read if you're feeling down and out. It really helped bring me back to "center" when I was feeling extremely overwhelmed by life.
Here is the link:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10741/10741-h/10741-h.htm
Let me know what you think.
Edit: One of my favorite lines that really reminded me of our INFJ brains:
"The wise man will, above all, strive after freedom from pain and annoyance, quiet and leisure, consequently a tranquil, modest life, with as few encounters as may be; and so, after a little experience of his so-called fellowmen, he will elect to live in retirement, or even, if he is a man of great intellect, in solitude."
叔本华早年在英国和法国接受教育，能够流利使用英语、意大利语、西班牙语等多种欧洲语言和拉丁语等古代语言。他最初被迫选择经商以继承父业，在父亲死后他才得以进入大学。1809年他进入哥廷根大学最初攻读医学，但后来把兴趣转移到了哲学。1811年时，他在柏林学习了一段时间，并在那时起对费希特和施莱尔马赫产生了浓厚的兴趣。他以《论充足理由律的四重根》获得了博士学位。歌德对此文非常赞赏，同时发现了叔本华的悲观主义倾向，告诫说：如果你爱自己的价值，那就给世界更多的价值吧。叔本华将柏拉图奉若神明，视康德为一个奇迹，对这两人的思想相当崇敬。但厌恶后来费希特、黑格尔代表的思辨哲学。
1814年至1819年间，在理智的孤独中完成了他的代表作品《作为意志和表象的世界》，这部作品受到了印度哲学的影响，被认为是首部将东西方思想融合的作品，但发表后无人问津。叔本华这么说他的这本书：“如果不是我配不上这个时代，那就是这个时代配不上我。”但凭这部作品他获得了柏林大学编外教授的资格，在这里的一件著名的事情是他选择与自己认为是沽名钓誉的诡辩家的黑格尔同一时间授课。但黑格尔当时正处于他声名的顶峰，叔本华自然没能成功，很快他的班上就只剩下两三个人，最后一个也不剩了。
1831年8月25日，柏林爆发大型霍乱，叔本华本来打算与当时的爱人一同离开柏林，后来对方以照顾家人为由拒绝了他，二人最终分道扬镳，叔本华独自逃离柏林。同年11月14日黑格尔因霍乱死于柏林。
1833年在大学受挫之后，他移居法兰克福，并在那儿渡过了最后的27年。
1837年，他首度指出康德《纯粹理性批判》一书第一版和第二版之间的重大差异。之后他出版了多种著述，1841年出版了《论意志的自由》和《论道德的基础》两篇论文的合集，第一篇是挪威皇家科学院的有奖征文；第二篇是丹麦科学院的有奖征文，于是他郑重的说明，第一篇论文获科学院褒奖，第二篇未获科学院褒奖，在之后的书中他一再对丹麦科学院冷嘲热讽，在他成名后，丹麦科学院也成了一时间的笑柄。但这本书也几乎无人问津。1844年，在他坚持下，《作为意志和表象的世界》出了第二版。第一版此时已早已绝版，且未能引起评论家和学术界丝毫兴趣，第二版的购者结果也寥寥无几。1851年，他完成了对《作为意志和表象的世界》的补充与说明，结果就是这篇以格言体写成的《附录与补遗》使他获得了声誉，使他瞬间成了名人。有人写了《叔本华大辞典》和《叔本华全集》，有人评论说他是具有世界意义的思想家。
1859年，《作为意志和表象的世界》的第三版引起轰动，叔本华称“全欧洲都知道这本书”，他在第三版序言中写道：“当这本书第一版问世时，我才30岁，看到第三版时却不能早于72岁。总算我在彼德拉克的的名句中找到了安慰：‘谁要是走了一整天，傍晚走到了，那也该满足了。’”叔本华在最后的十年终于得到了声望，但仍然过着独居的生活，陪伴他的只有数只贵宾犬，其中，以梵文“Atman”（意为“灵魂”）命名的一只最为人熟悉。1860年，叔本华因肺炎恶化去世，他在遗言中说：“希望爱好我哲学的人，能不偏不倚地，独立自主地理解我的哲学。”
叔本华脾气火爆，对人类深恶痛绝，对其他动物却很有爱心。他曾因为疯狂的发型、过时的衣着、坐在路边的长椅上对着自己养的小狗痛骂人性的丑恶而被路人嘲笑他有精神病。他尤其讨厌愚昧的人和噪音制造者（见〈论噪音〉），甚至还曾因为噪音问题而跟一位四十七岁的邻居女裁缝争执，将她推下楼，导致对方的手臂终身伤残，叔本华被一状告上法庭，双方对簿公堂长达五年，最终法官判该名女裁缝胜诉，先处叔本华罚金三百个塔勒，并勒令叔本华每年必须支付她六十个塔勒，季缴。二十年后，该名女裁缝终于死了，叔本华在其账本上记下： “老妇逝，重负释”（Obit anus, abit onus）。
在叔本华的论女性中也可以看出他对女性的态度。他认为女性“只是冀求恬静，平稳地度其一生。”“既愚蠢又浅显——一言以蔽之，她们的思想是介于成人和小孩之间”“不理性”互相仇视”“总事事陷入主观”。
“Junghuhn saw an immense field entirely covered with skeletons, and took it to be a battlefield. However they were nothing but skeletons of large turtles, five feet long, three feet broad, and of equal height. These turtles come this way from the sea, in order to lay their eggs, and are then seized by wild dogs (canis rutilans); with their united strength, these dogs lay them on their backs, tear open their lower armour, the small scales of the belly, and devour them alive. But then a tiger often pounces on the dogs. Now all this misery is repeated thousands and thousands of times, year in, year out. For this then, are these turtles born. For what offence must they suffer this agony? What is the point of the whole scene of horror? The only answer is that the will-to-live [the world-will] thus objectifies itself.” - Arthur Schopenhauer
I think crypto tracks this pretty closely when you look at the four year cycle peaks.
>First, it is ridiculed.
From Bitcoin’s inception until 2013, it made a bunch of early adopters fabulously wealthy. It’s heavy usage in the drug trade on Silk Road gave the media plenty of firepower to ridicule it as a scam.
>Second, it is violently opposed.
Moving into 2017 with a blow off top, the crypto market turned a lot of heads. The size and scale of crypto was reaching a point where it could not be simply ignored by traditional finance, so it was attacked as a bubble. Tulip mania.
>Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
This latest cycle peak (2021, in progress) is finding traditional financial institutions and banks buying in. Companies that were writing hit pieces less than a year ago are now offering crypto services to clients. They’re releasing reports on which cryptos are likely to see adoption and increases for various technical reasons. They’re speculating on which country is the next to adopt Bitcoin as a national currency.
I think it’s pretty clear we’re actively moving from Stage 2 to Stage 3.
I'm relatively new to reading philosophy. I've read Meditations, and a few others but one man thats particularly stood out to me is Arthur Schopenhauer. I've been looking in to him a little, but I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction when it comes to understanding... I've read a small amount in to metaphysics, and it seems he's quite heavy in that regard, though I could be wrong.
"In art, especially in poetry, that true mirror of the real nature of the world and
of life, we also find evidence of the fact that all happiness is only of a negative,
not a positive nature, and that for this reason it cannot be lasting satisfaction and
gratification, but always delivers us only from a pain or want that must be
followed either by a new pain or by languor, empty longing, and boredom. Every
epic or dramatic poem can always present to us only a strife, an effort, and a
struggle for happiness, never enduring and complete happiness itself. It conducts
its heroes to their goal through a thousand difficulties and dangers; as soon as the
goal is reached, it quickly lets the curtain fall. For there would be nothing left for
it but to show that the glittering goal, in which the hero imagined he could find
happiness, had merely mocked him, and that he was no better after its attainment
than before. Since a genuine, lasting happiness is not possible, it cannot be a
subject of art".
- Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (1859), Volume I, Book IV, § 58.
I recently came across this quite by the famous Arthur Schopenhauer:
"The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy; and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom".
I was wondering what he meant by "abandonment to boredom" in context. I just dont understand what hes getting at with it worded as it is.
Recently I've been interested in the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. What is your opinion on him?
What do marxists think about Schopenhauer's metaphysics? And about irrationalist philosophy in general?
We are close.
