it's not anyone's "fault" for falling into such despair, but I think we could all be part of creating a culture that's protective against it — a better social safety net is part of the answer, but without a visceral hope/optimism accompanying it, it's not sufficient
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Replying to @webdevMason @bronzebarbarian
my current thinking is that a balanced structure of practical activity and consciously maintained delusion is how this is addressed; the problem is it would appear to be impossible to propagate this idea while propagating good judgment about what delusions to have along with it
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what do you mean by “consciously maintained delusion”? what’s the delusion here?
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"i am going to be rich and famous someday" "i am better than other people because i was born special" "i could have succeeded, but others sabotaged me" "the system is persecuting me to keep me from telling people the truth" "i am important because God loves me"
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I can’t speak for
@webdevMason but I don’t think people need those delusions to succeed. I think all they need is “I *can* be rich/famous/successful/etc. if I try my best”... they don’t need certainty re: the future.1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @mattdiamond @chaosprime and
In fact, certainty (in the form of “I am going to fail”) is part of the problem!
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"success" isn't the question
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Sorry, misunderstood you. What is the question, then?
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Chaos Retweeted Chaos
how to address thishttps://twitter.com/chaosprime/status/1142084737558880256 …
Chaos added,
Chaos @chaosprime"man is a social animal" sounds all fluffy bunnies but what it means is that there are deep structures in your brain that try to kill you if your perception of your social status is too low. in Dunbar-number-sized social groups most people could clear this bar. most now can'tShow this thread1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
I see. Yeah, I think I still disagree re: the nature of the social status thing. It also doesn’t fit with my experience of people who claim that they would love nothing more than to be left alone with their books or their model trains or whatever... how do they fit into this?
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I think for a lot of people, these claims are a side effect of despair + a lack of understanding of their own situation (easy to lack when born into a dysfunctional culture) but some % really do have minds that vary in this way: they have the mastery drive, it's just less social
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Replying to @webdevMason @mattdiamond and
Reading books or building model trains is virtually never done in some arbitrary way; the mastery drive is pretty apparent in ever more complex mechanical/logistical train systems or an ever more interesting/complex set of models for the life of the mind to inhabit
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where one misses the boat is if one proceeds from the idea that it's one's actual social status that matters rather than the output of a black box that vaguely wants to evaluate social status but really just knows what it gets fed
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