My recent vent art cartoons, or rather the consequences of posting them, have got me thinking quite a bit, examining my own faults and flaws. I stand by the things I said and drew, they're an expression of personal feelings at the time they were drawn, never an attempt to persuade or influence others but just a raw vent. Anyway, last night I saw this:
I know it's nearly half an hour in runtime but I genuinely, sincerely recommend listening to it. It certainly has had an effect on me.
So, with this submission I want to write a few things, but instead of just venting I want to have a genuine attempt at saying something positive and meaningful. For those of you who have been following my work and ranty bullshit over the years, I'm sure you've noticed a radical change in my politics in the past year. It has been a rapid change indeed and it happened over the course of a few days in real time; a culmination of watching the lectures and speeches of a professor named Jordan B. Peterson for a few weeks. The essential realization was my previous lack of any focus on personal responsibility, that my left wing politics had fostered in me a general despair at the state of society. I saw the western world as a largely broken thing, full of prejudice, religious iniquities and injustice. Needless to say, this view has a way of making one feel that humanity is doomed and if it doesn't get guided by more enlightened values soon, then we're completely buggered.
Not only is this assessment of humanity abysmal and defeatist, it's also categorically wrong.
I've been in the habit of writing huge essays over the years, haha, so instead I want to keep this short with a simple message, something to get one thinking. It starts with one word: Jews. The Jewish people have been mistreated and abused, and a minority, in essentially every place they have ever lived before the founding of Israel. If one had to pick a group of people as poster children for the victims of oppression, Jews would be an example all could easily relate to. If we take our attention away from the antisemitic crimes and prejudices committed against the Jews for a moment, just think about what they have done as a group. Jewish people have stuck together, helped each other, formed strong families and have succeeded economically everywhere they have ever lived. The Nazis could only put a stop to Jewish success with genocide. What is the Jewish story without the basic recognition that their successes despite all the evils they have endured is a testament to the power of the human spirit? The point I'm getting at here is that even if society were set up for you to fail, that shouldn't stop you. What good is teaching children that society is an oppressive shithole with their failure in mind? Is defeatism and lamentation a net benefit to individuals or groups? There is another time and place for making the case that our western societies are NOT oppressive shitholes, which I'll probably bloviate about sooner or later, but here I want to make another point.
If you live life alone it will be all the harder, we need each other, family and loved ones, to succeed. We're not supposed to 'make it' by ourselves and historically and generally nobody does. Life is a cooperative effort. If you ever feel like the world is crushing you and your future is decimated, remember the Jews. Think of the Chinese. Think of the power of getting together, making responsible and sensible decisions with and towards others. You're not fucked, you're young and the vast majority of wealthy people around the world are wealthy because they worked for it for over 40 years.
Finding reasons to come togther seems to be harder then pulling them apart. It's always easier to destroy then create after all.
It doesn't have to be a singular commited relationship, being able to work and trust others like co workers, neighbors, even costumer and patron are relationships that need tending and effort to build up over time.
Even the stranger is a chance to engage in a positive exchange that can put something constructive into motion.
Finding reasons to come togther seems to be harder then pulling them apart. It's always easier to d
Interesting. Why did this not appear in my new submissions queue? No bans or blocks against this submisison are in place, upon either end. WTF, IB? "We're not supposed to 'make it' by ourselves and historically and generally nobody does." Libertarians and Randians need to be reminded of this. "There is another time and place for making the case that our western societies are NOT oppressive shitholes..." Western, First World societies are the best things Mankind has come up with in current recorded history. But there is room for improvement. There is ALWAYS room for improvement. And regressing back to a fantasy of an idealized past is NOT the way to do it. "The essential realization was my previous lack of any focus on personal responsibility, that my left wing politics had fostered in me a general despair at the state of society." The problem is that, as exemplified here in America, conservative/right wing values impart no more a sense of personal responsibility than any leftist philosophy does. Indeed, whenever any GOPer who is busted for improper doings, immediately blames everyone else and declares themselves the victim (a frequent recourse that even Trump does not hesitate to apply), we mockingly refer to them as a member of the Party Of Personal Responsibility. The Jews, the Romani, the Irish, the several American native tribes; examples of the resiliency of the human being are to be found far and wide. "I saw the western world as a largely broken thing, full of prejudice, religious iniquities and injustice." This IS a failure of vision. All the world is like this, and it always has been. So many of the social commentaries of the Biblical prophets can still be so fully applied, today, it is entirely depressing. But then, as an American I once thought that the only real slavery was white-on-black, American-on-African. Life has very thoroughly corrected of this ill-informed view. It's also interesting that so many conservative types also view the Western world as "broken", because it does not work they way THEY think it should. "You're not fucked, you're young and the vast majority of wealthy people around the world are wealthy because they worked for it for over 40 years." I've come to understand that the worship or regard of the materially wealthy is a misguided cult, promoted by those individuals for their own advancement. The Protestant Work Ethic is a profane fraud obviously.
Interesting. Why did this not appear in my new submissions queue? No bans or blocks against this sub
Lots of good stuff in that half hour vid - stuff I wish everyone I see berating people who think something different to themselves could see - because the number of people I see who simply insult people who think different to them, is getting to epidemic levels. If they want me or others to see what they see? Like this guy says, do they seriously think calling me an idiot will help change my mind and join them in supporting their side? Or do they want to revel in the division between themselves and others. Cos division has helped so much! .... no. It's coming together - unity of communities which get people through difficult times. If someone is insulting you about whichever way you voted for the EU referendum - maybe they don't realise how important it really is to make good of any outcome, regardless as to how they originally were positioned? Surely it would be beneficial for us to unite and make whatever future we can, be the best it can be, rather than getting bogged down in pathetic squabbles. Hope? There can be hope always. But maybe the political factions in the Uk (and elsewhere) should start preaching it in unity, rather than forever trying to frame each other in horrifying scenarios which are entirely hypothetical and based on worst of all worst case senarios to try frighten people into disliking those positions. The news sensationalises to try to engage you with what they are telling you - sensationalising in ways to make you think the worse of anything that happens in order to invoke stress and worry, rather than simply reporting facts.
As you say - there are many many people who should watch that speech. Some of us already lived by what it's saying - but it's always nice to see someone stand up and say things how they are.
Lots of good stuff in that half hour vid - stuff I wish everyone I see berating people who think som
I want to say that it's a very dishonest comparison. The Jewish population is still recovering from the Holocaust, and they didn't just grin and bear it until the Nazis got bored. It took the combined efforts of America, Russia (who did some of the same shit themselves and the rest of non-subjugated Europe to stop it, and only after most of them were provoked into war, themselves.
That seems to be the theme of this era: dishonesty, both accidental and intentional.
As Socks up there says, the right wing, combined with Libertarians and Randians like Paul Ryan, like to promote this philosophy that everyone is an island and in absolute control of everything that happens to them, good or bad. I don't need to tell you that's not the case; I can point to my own past for that, let alone the entire collective of human history to disprove that.
The Randian philosophy was picked up in the past half-century by the ultra-rich who wanted something to vindicate their greed and malice, and it came in the form of a sociopathic woman who idolized a child murderer. She believed in her later years that wealth equaled morality, regardless of how it was obtained, and that poor people were the absolute scum of the human gene pool, and this was all reflected in Atlas Shrugged, her magnum faeces. If you are a wealthy person who has a superiority complex, that sort of "philosophy" is quite appealing, and that's what was promoted by the right wing since the 70s, with increasing volume every passing year.
The GOP likes to call themselves the party of personal responsibility, but it's again a dishonest portrayal, not just of themselves, but also and especially of the opposite parties. It goes without saying that everyone decent believes in personal responsibility, regardless of party affiliation (though how responsible you are of what you do or what happens to you is another story - read above), but by claiming themselves to be the party of personal responsibility indirectly implies that the OTHER parties... aren't. Combined with claiming to be the supposedly pro-life and pro-God party, that's the game that's being played here. They're calling themselves all these things to imply that the other parties out there are not for personal responsibility, are not pro-life, and are not religious (perhaps even Satanic), and all that they have associated with those things they claim to be or not be.
The terrible irony is that the right wing has morphed themselves into a platform that is absolutely hypocritical. If you actually read the Bible, for example (for a moment ignoring any inconsistencies, in which there are a LOT of them), Jesus is a massive ultra-leftist hippie who told people to, among other things, help the poor and needy. If the Republicans were actually following Jesus' teachings, we'd already have a universal healthcare system, and not some "healthcare bill" in name only that would artificially inflate prices to astronomical levels while decreasing healthcare as a thinly veiled tax break for the people who don't need it in the slightest. (c)
I want to say that it's a very dishonest comparison. The Jewish population is still recovering from
The supposedly pro-life, pro-personal responsibility, pro-God party ends up being the party that fights against the interests they claim to hold by encouraging predatory, for-profit systems that change the rules to screw people over (like college tuition, the policing and prison systems, the tax system, the minimum wage laws, the voting system, the healthcare system, and the general US infrastructure that ranks at a D+; and that's all I can remember at the moment!) for the benefit of a very few. They attack organizations like Planned Parenthood, which helps keep down infant mortality rates (which they claim to be so concerned about) and make it increasingly difficult for people to start families or even keep their job if an employee is planning a baby. When it comes to personal responsibility... well, I only really have to point to the Entropy's latest actions to show how much they actually think about that.
Supposedly we're the richest and most advanced country in human history, but a massive portion of the people have been brainwashed into this idea that any form of progress comes at considerable sacrifice to someone else, that you can't give equal rights to blacks and minorities without taking them away from white people, that life for one person means death for another, and that it takes an ungodly amount of effort to make even the slightest bit of progress at considerable cost and sacrifice to everyone and everything. That, ultimately, is a lie perpetuated to further promote stagnation and allow the very few to continue to hoard all their wealth while changing the rules to benefit them more so they can hoard even more.
The country hasn't fallen, but it has definitely remained stagnant for several decades, despite all our technological achievements, but we don't want to because so many people have bought into the lies, even when they themselves are suffering at the lack of progress, at the lack of a minimum wage increase, the continued reliance on coal and oil, the crumbling infrastructure, and our shitty, time-consuming tax system, just to name a few things. The people who are truly defeatist here are the ones who believe in perpetuating this failing system and claim it to be absolutely perfect when so many other developed countries are thriving off of better ones. I shudder to imagine how far behind we are because of all the bad ideas we've had become law.
The supposedly pro-life, pro-personal responsibility, pro-God party ends up being the party that fig
It's not dishonest to point out that Jewish people are highly successful, with more than a third of all nobel prizes for science and a higher average IQ than the wider US population. It's saying that a certain way of living, not an ethnicity, is conducive to a higher chance of success. Working together as a family is easier than going it alone and the people who hold those values, whether they be Jewish, Chinese, Indian, Nigerian or white etc, you will do better than an individual trying to make it on their own.
It's not dishonest to point out that Jewish people are highly successful, with more than a third of
Good video, also nice to see a shift in your perspective. You really can't just stop having opinions, and ceasing to express them may feel like self-censorship. But it's good to see a positive message for once. You almost forget what it's like in this age where everyone seems more focused on who's the biggest victim and who's not getting enough benefits from society. Taking personal responsibility and toughing it out through hard times is so important, and I'd hate to see that disappear when everyone thinks that an easy ride is something this monumental concept of society owes them.
Good video, also nice to see a shift in your perspective. You really can't just stop having opinions
You raise an interesting point. And one I tend to forget from time to time. Yeah, my life turned out to be nothing like I thought it was going to. By many of the widely accepted social customs, I'm an utter failure. Yet some good friends are convinced it's only a matter of time before I'm a published author, and I've been on-line with a friend who is as witty and clever as I am, for twenty years now. So there has been a great deal of good with the bad.
You raise an interesting point. And one I tend to forget from time to time. Yeah, my life turned out
