On a Daily practical basis, what is best way to not get discouraged by an insane world?

[jfgroom]

I'm new to this forum (and forums in general) so If I'm posting in the wrong place, just let me know. This area seemed like a good general starting point. My question is fairly broad, and is this: What are the best techniques which Objectivists (or any reasonable people) use to not be overwhelmed by the general insanity one comes across on a daily basis in the news? For instance, today I read that a former jailed banker is going to paid $104 million by the IRS for informing on his former employer, a Swiss bank. I find this sort of thing very discouraging, as I (and millions like me) make great efforts to make an honest living through constructive work - and usually an not rewarded for it.

In a broader sense, the question is, on a day to day basis, beyond reading a great novel like Fountainhead or Atlas, how do good people continue to find the motivation to do good work in a society where good is ignored and evil (or frivolous or whatever) is so richly rewarded?

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

[Brant Gaede]

I'm new to this forum (and forums in general) so If I'm posting in the wrong place, just let me know. This area seemed like a good general starting point. My question is fairly broad, and is this: What are the best techniques which Objectivists (or any reasonable people) use to not be overwhelmed by the general insanity one comes across on a daily basis in the news? For instance, today I read that a former jailed banker is going to paid $104 million by the IRS for informing on his former employer, a Swiss bank. I find this sort of thing very discouraging, as I (and millions like me) make great efforts to make an honest living through constructive work - and usually an not rewarded for it.

In a broader sense, the question is, on a day to day basis, beyond reading a great novel like Fountainhead or Atlas, how do good people continue to find the motivation to do good work in a society where good is ignored and evil (or frivolous or whatever) is so richly rewarded?

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

There are seven billion people in the world. You need to be self-oriented, not world oriented. It's hard enough to actually help even one other person--and there's an art to that--much less a bunch of people. The population of the United States is less than 1/20th of the world's. Don't let negative emotions like fear, anger, disgust and envy consume you. Be thankful for what you have and make plans for what you want to achieve. Life at best is a series of calculated risks and living means bumping into things that hurt--or things that bump into you that hurt. To live and learn you have to live. The less you read newspapers and watch TV news, the more time you'll actually have to live you life. The pursuit of happiness has a moral and selfish context.

--Brant

refuse to be a victim

[Robert Campbell]

jfgroom,

My advice is to do what you enjoy, to the greatest extent possible.

And when you attend to the news, focus on the good things that are happening.

Such as the brand new results of

http://genome.ucsc.edu/ENCODE/

which are just starting to shake up our knowledge of human genetics.

Robert Campbell

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

jfgroom,

Welcome to OL.

Here's one thing that helps. Realize that your brain comes prewired for negativity.

That might sound like a platitude, but think about it. Nobody forces anyone to watch the news, yet most of what you see is negative and fearful. The reason is that if most of it were positive, people would switch the channel. It's a physical brain thing.

But realize that this is in your subconscious. And you can push your subconscious in a positive direction. There's a lot of self-help material around that is focused on techniques to do precisely that.

But what about the world? Isn't it going to hell in a hand-basket?

 

Actually it isn't. The human species is one of the most successful biological species on earth. And, look around you at all that stuff you can get and use. Then, think about this. The average lifespan keeps getting longer and longer. I could go on and on about how good it actually is and I would be right.

 

But when you turn on the news...

 

Well the news is wrong. If the world actually were going to hell in a hand-basket, it would look more like a scene out of Grapes of Wrath than the current shopping malls, big cars and iPads here in the USA.

 

Here is a little food for the soul. Peter Diamandis and his guys are doing things like space travel with capitalism, not government. And their whole philosophy is that we live in a world of unprecedented abundance. When I get the blues, I always go back to these guys for a reality-based emotional course correction.

 

And there's a quirky bonus. It's funny how the beginning of the talk by Diamandis seems like it was made specifically to answer to your question here.

 

 

I hope you like this as much as I do.

 

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

I'm new to this forum (and forums in general) so If I'm posting in the wrong place, just let me know. This area seemed like a good general starting point. My question is fairly broad, and is this: What are the best techniques which Objectivists (or any reasonable people) use to not be overwhelmed by the general insanity one comes across on a daily basis in the news? For instance, today I read that a former jailed banker is going to paid $104 million by the IRS for informing on his former employer, a Swiss bank. I find this sort of thing very discouraging, as I (and millions like me) make great efforts to make an honest living through constructive work - and usually an not rewarded for it.

In a broader sense, the question is, on a day to day basis, beyond reading a great novel like Fountainhead or Atlas, how do good people continue to find the motivation to do good work in a society where good is ignored and evil (or frivolous or whatever) is so richly rewarded?

Thanks for your thoughts on this.

Repeat to yourself. "This too, shall pass"

Ba'al Chatzaf

[PDS]

I truly believe the key is detachment.

This doesn't mean "not caring." Practicing detachment is largely the difference between preferring outcomes to being attached to outcomes.

Being attached to outcomes is the source of resistence. Resistence is the source of suffering. Reduce attachment and you reduce suffering. QED, more or less.

[caroljane]

I truly believe the key is detachment.

This doesn't mean "not caring." Practicing detachment is largely the difference between preferring outcomes to being attached to outcomes.

Being attached to outcomes is the source of resistence. Resistence is the source of suffering. Reduce attachment and you reduce suffering. QED, more or less.

I truly believe the key is detachment.

This doesn't mean "not caring." Practicing detachment is largely the difference between preferring outcomes to being attached to outcomes.

Being attached to outcomes is the source of resistence. Resistence is the source of suffering. Reduce attachment and you reduce suffering. QED, more or less.

Sounds fatalistic. I like it.

[PDS]

I truly believe the key is detachment.

This doesn't mean "not caring." Practicing detachment is largely the difference between preferring outcomes to being attached to outcomes.

Being attached to outcomes is the source of resistence. Resistence is the source of suffering. Reduce attachment and you reduce suffering. QED, more or less.

I truly believe the key is detachment.

This doesn't mean "not caring." Practicing detachment is largely the difference between preferring outcomes to being attached to outcomes.

Being attached to outcomes is the source of resistence. Resistence is the source of suffering. Reduce attachment and you reduce suffering. QED, more or less.

Sounds fatalistic. I like it.

Especially when you say it twice.

[caroljane]

I did my best to bring about a single=post outcome. But I was not attached to it.

[syrakusos]

MSK: Thanks for the link to Peter Diamandis in #4. I enjoyed it and sent it on to my daughter.

When I read The Future and It's Enemies by Reason editor, Virginia Postrel, it completed my mental re-evaluation of libertarian millennarianism. Atlas Shrugged gave us strong arguments to want the end of the world. We are not alone. She considered together both the left wing ecologists and the right wing survivalists. The anti-debt anti-globalists are the current expression of the anti-industrial revolution. I see the invention of debt as integral to civilization.

[jts]

What the 773H kind of Klingon warriors are you all? Take a lesson from Alex Jones. Don't be fooled by what Alex Jones looks like; he has Klingon blood in him.

A Klingon proverb: when you are sad, act.

The most glorious thing a Klingon warrior can do is die in battle. Maybe today is a good day to die.

2 minutes

47 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw_TdyYJJTw

6 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uObdZ7I4nVU

[syrakusos]

Death is the absence of values. Nothing proceeds from nothing. A glorious death is a contradiction in terms. jts gives the ultimate expression of Power versus Market, of the Conservative versus the Capitalist. Slavery? Read about Pasion, the Greek slave banker who became a millionaire and bought his freedom.

"Give me Liberty or give me Death!" were the words of a great orator who in the entire course of the American Revolution came nowhere near death. Patrick Henry did not serve in the army or the militia. He let other people do that for him.

When asked if she would die for her ideas, Ayn Rand replied that she would live for them, which is harder.

[BaalChatzaf]

I truly believe the key is detachment.

This doesn't mean "not caring." Practicing detachment is largely the difference between preferring outcomes to being attached to outcomes.

Being attached to outcomes is the source of resistence. Resistence is the source of suffering. Reduce attachment and you reduce suffering. QED, more or less.

This sounds very Buddhist.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[PDS]

I truly believe the key is detachment.

This doesn't mean "not caring." Practicing detachment is largely the difference between preferring outcomes to being attached to outcomes.

Being attached to outcomes is the source of resistence. Resistence is the source of suffering. Reduce attachment and you reduce suffering. QED, more or less.

This sounds very Buddhist.

Ba'al Chatzaf

I confess to having watched a lot of Kung Fu episodes growing up.