Conversation

Replying to
What makes supposedly Great Men great is that they are unreasonably effective and extraordinary in a narrow domain or two, but run into exactly the same FOBO problems outside, and flail and struggle and fail in thoroughly undignified and ungodlike ways that destroys the illusion
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What makes supposedly Great Principles great is that they are unreasonably effective and extraordinary in a narrow domain or two, but fail spectacularly when naively overextended to Universal Truth status without lots of ifs and buts and compromises.
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What kinda works is mediocre people who recognize they’re mediocre working with rules and laws they recognize as janky work-in-progress hacks that are at best imperfect heuristics for a time and place. Muddling through, committed to the infinite game of simply continuing to play.
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This is why the Woke vs NRx battle, which has dominated my corner of social media for a decade now is so damn silly. Great People above Great Principles or Great Principles Above Everybody are both equally wishful fantasies born of FOBO… that there are easy answers.
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Even the fact that NRxies (and their non-western equivalents like Hindutva types in India or Juche in North Korea) are usually ethnonationalists with genetic privileging of a Chosen People, while Wokies are in principle about everybody being Chosen makes no difference. Why?
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In both cases the actual principle of Chosenness is the same: acceptance of Greatness, denial of the existence of mediocrity and ordinariness (let alone statistically tautological dominance of it), and violent repression of behaviors in themselves and others that trigger FOBO.
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We have now wandered very far from should-Elon-buy-twitter, but we’re still circling the same broad question: should the ordinary be reduced to abject helplessness, in thrall to apparent greatness? Or should the ordinary be let alone to simply do it’s best to continue existing?
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I stan weaponized mediocrity wielded by the unchosen, who shrug off FOBO and simply half-ass life one day at a time, trying to live to half-ass another day, making do without religions of greatness, accepting that they’ll die some day, at which point it’s not their game anymore
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I guess I’ve been on this rant all morning because Twitter has been one of the few places left where it’s still okay to be ordinary. It’s a haven for mediocrity that FOBOists used to hate and avoid. 🤔
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In fact I invented the term FOBO in an old thread about people going off waldenponding to do Great Deeds. In that thread I recommended that people shouldn’t waldenpond. I hereby reverse the recommendation. If you have FOBO get off twitter. Go be great, chosen ones🤣
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Replying to
God DAMN you on fire today son, I don't agree with /everything/ of you said (which I say mostly cuz I only skimmed for now) but GOD FUCKING DAMN IT 🔥🔥🔥
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