What do you think when you think of “THE BETTER WORLD”?
Politics?
Technology?
You having more MONEY?
Everyone being happier?
Peak human achievement?
FAIRNESS?
Why I’m asking?
Because actually, we don’t think the same things, when we think “THE BETTER WORLD”
Many people unironically think the world is horrible, the world is burning. That there is VERY LITTLE HOPE
Then many people unironically think that the world will get better IF THE SAVE IT, and that they’ll do by sharing their insightful POLITICAL OPINION on Twitter or at a family table, and electing their favourite political leader, whose the “only hope”
Then some observe that TECHNOLOGY is what brought the most people out of poverty, extended duration and quality of life
Then some think that the “BETTER WORLD” has LITTLE to do with “the world” — and EVERYTHING to do with YOU AND I, and how we treat each others
Who is right?
Everyone and no one
ALL of those matter
To not be cognisant of ALL of them — is to be ignorant, is to NOT REALLY understand this “better world” problem
Because ALL of those problems are real
Of course what typically happens we pick ONE of those, or maybe two at best,
And that fills the hole in us,
To answer the “betterment of humanity” problem,
Often to answer the “meaning” problem, or at least to complete it, beyond whatever insignificant bullshit is going on in your life already
To answer MORALITY problem, to convince us that we’re good and moral and valuable human beings, and maybe even worth living (and yet we still die)
And of course, in picking ONLY one of them, and losing sight of the other ingredients — you lose sight of the reality of “better world”
Sometimes you still manage to contribute
And sometimes you hinder things, or even set them back
Furthermore,
Once you DO CHOOSE to care about something,
You’re also committing to be AFFECTED by it, emotionally
Which is yet another key determinant of WHAT you consider “betterment of the world”
Perhaps you care about money and business. There’s a chance that this will colour what you believe is better for the world
Perhaps you care about your friends, and your friends think they care about the planet, think this is the crux of the “better world” problem.
Perhaps you’re used to power, and power you attained with your merit, and perhaps you’re used to seeing POWER as merit, and perhaps you want more power, “power to make a change”,
Perhaps you have had experience transforming your life with will and determination — and you view the WORLD as one in need of such WILFUL TRANSFORMATION
AND perhaps you’re used to world POSITIVELY surprising you, positive changes happening in the world — and THIS is what made you care, made you await the further positive changes with anticipation, and perhaps this also makes you DISAPPOINTED when the world no longer surprises you so positively, perhaps even surprises you negatively
See?
The fact that “BETTER WORLD” is such a COMPLEX, multidimensional problem,
the fact that it’s open to INTERPRETATION,
and finally the fact that you are more likely to inform your VIEWS by your own EXPERIENCES and EMOTIONS,
is what results in most of us being very CONFUSED as to WHAT IS THE BETTER WORLD, and unable to AGREE on much common ground
What I have always been recommending was to place the most WEIGHT on that which you DO IMPACT yourself
And view THAT as the foundation of the “better world”
And I still hold by it.
Society is a collection of individuals
Furthermore your individual impact can be the most REAL, the most MEASURABLE and CONCRETE,
I’m referring to that which you DO EVERY DAY
What you “once did” and world rewarded you for it — all that is but a single chance occurrence, of now debatable value
But that which you WILLED TODAY — and then brought FORTH, with your own hands — is REAL
AND as we expand our purview,
Beyond ourselves, toward our family,
our social circle,
our local society,
our state, our nation,
our political sphere,
our world
it must be understood that our ability to DETERMINE what is true with certainty, it progressively decreases,
our ability to EXPLAIN, UNDERSTAND, it progressively decreases,
our IMPACT likewise decreases, no matter how much we like to pretend to have impact. Just because everyone knows your face — doesn’t mean you actually impacted their reality in the slightest.
And thus as our degree of influence decreases,
So should our attachment
And again I will mention: when you’re really busy LIVING AMAZING LIFE and making it BETTER for yourself and those around you — there’s really little time and energy to OVEREXCITE yourself with what some CUNT in a suit have said
But when your life have grown stale and predictable and unexciting — suddenly you think the world matters so much, and it matters so much if it’s red or blue, individual or collective, this or that
This is not to say that some people genuinely can’t have their greatest IMPACT at the higher levels of hierarchy, at the greater scale
Although ironically their situation presents even more incentive to peek their head OUT of their actual purview, and pretend they are even bigger and more impactful than they actually are
Indeed,
The more attachment you place to something you don’t control, something that’s beyond you and your actual life — the more DELUDED you become, and INSUFFERABLE too. And miserable
I say “attachment”
For you CAN be profoundly informed and opinionated on abstract matters that you don’t personally impact
And INDEED, ironically, typically the degree of attachment does not correlate well with degree of insight.
It may correlate with the amount of bullshit you can spawn on the subject. But it of course doesn’t correlate with clarity,
Not unlike historically our fear of death wasn’t the best context to then consider if god exists and will give us eternal life
And indeed, some people see it,
Or ideological brainwashing,
Or even remember themselves having for some time been a little bit overexcited by some ultimately trifling matter,
And they want no piece of that
Which hopefully refocuses them on what truly matters: that which they can truly do, and do better, and improve
And finally, I shall repeat, the emotion plays the role then too,
You might have trained yourself to ignore DRAMA of the world and undue stress it causes,
Ignore the “better world”, or “worse world” problem,
Focus on your own “better world”,
But when the world IS INDEED doing very well, in your view,
This is a temptation to be dragged back in,
To enjoy the world WINNING, enjoy the good news,
Except,
Then the world disappoints again
But now you have became attached again
So now you’re back to square one: MISERABLE because of something you don’t even control, and don’t even know if it ACTUALLY matters at all
Let’s remind ourselves again:
Your ATTACHMENT should decrease the more REMOVED it is from your influence
This includes your perceived influence (e.g. your BS on social media, or your dumb interview) — which in reality could be utterly insignificant, 5 minutes of fame, 5 minutes of noise coming out of your cunt mouth
The “GREAT NEWS” should also be received stoicly — lest you develop an attachment, a dependency
Tech breakthrough? GREAT. Now let’s wait until it actually lands in your hands
A promising political development? GREAT. Let’s CELEBRATE… but 10 years from now, when it came to bear fruit.
Etc.
And in general, in all aspects of your life, you’re likely way too attached
The best tip is to just shut the fuck up. Stop thinking so much, judging so much, having so many opinions, and thinking your so serious.
Go have some fun. REAL fun, not fake fun. Entertainment is for losers
Then go pick single thing in your life you want to IMPROVE — and go improve it.
Then see if you’re so excited about what mr president has said
OH and one last time,
Doesn’t mean you can’t be informed
Although for most of you — probably you really shouldn’t.
Probably you really shouldn’t have a clue about stuff that has little impact on you — BEFORE you are an expert on that which MATTERS in your life
But you can choose to be informed
But it must come with least attachment
And NEWS should not be consumed at all, basically, UNLESS they impact you right here right now,
Read “news” once a month, a nice digest of what ACTUALLY HAPPENED, and what actual consequences were
Oh and I said “probably”, “probably shouldn’t”,
And that you should focus there where you have the highest impact,
But before you accuse me of escapism — let me repeat:
Perhaps you’re the one destined to work at greater scale, or at higher rungs of the hierarchy,
Or even, perhaps, right now your modest voice, modest action, modest initiative as JUST ONE OF THE MANY — perhaps just this time this is the “highest impact thing” that you can do
But perhaps not
And perhaps it STILL doesn’t warrant attachment
Oh and also: MAKE PREDICTIONS
Opinions are just noise.
Make predictions. Write them down. Check them over time
If they aren’t accurate — then perhaps you’re not made for it
Which means you showing interest in those matters is utterly pointless. It’s like reading a book in Chinese, without knowing Chinese. You’re getting less than 1% of substance, you’re just admiring the weird signs, with 0 comprehension
Oh and one last bad news,
YES, the world can totally GET WORSE
OR far better
I’m bringing attention to it to pre-bunk the notion that the reason we should CARE LESS about that which we barely impact — is that the world is INEVITABLY BECOMING BETTER
It’s probably not
We REGRESSED as civilisation MANY-A-TIMES
And guess what — it still changes nothing
When your house burns and you can’t do shit about it — it’s time to relax
And even if you try to put out fire — it’s still time to relax. You may get lucky, but most likely you won’t. ACCEPT the outcome. Let the chips fall where they may
Finally,
Most of us confuse CARE and DILIGENCE and genuine desire to DO THINGS WELL and do GOOD THINGS…
…with excitation, emotionality, DRAMA, handwaving, seriousness, and ANTAGONISM
It’s again: because most of us know little about true improvement, true betterment of anything
The PROFESSIONAL executes calmly and efficiently
He doesn’t wave his hands, he doesn’t shout, and there’s no explosions in the background
He is intense — but it’s the intensity of focus — not intensity of chaos
Don’t confuse emotionality and attachment and drama — with morality and progress
This is YET another reason why you should just chill the fuck out — and go do something useful in your actual life. Fuck your politics