Is your world view more negative compared to the past?

[Luke]

I follow a wide range of people online, from brass-tacks entrepreneurs to full-blown metaphysical spiritualists. Across the whole spectrum, they're worried or uncertain in the least about the general "vibe" and direction we're headed.

Do you think your outlook has changed dramatically since several years ago? Pre-pandemic?

[Ronald RayGun]

This is an interesting question for me. I've been struggling mightily with a severe mental illness since I was 19. This past year has been one hell of a tide-change. Got my meds straight and I'm all of a sudden able to do a small amount of what you regulars get to experience. So this may be a very selfish perspective, but I'm Mr. Blue Sky even on my worst day. Sure, suck still sucks, but I can cope.

[motherjuggs&speed]

There are a number of components to one's outlook, including

An assessment of the situation
Philosophy, i.e. glass half full, etc.
Emotional state
Physical state
Brain state. This is different from emotions, more on this below.
What the person thinks it makes sense to think., meaning what attitude will help me deal with this
The mood/outlook of other people

These affect each other so it's hard to isolate one unless something is really clear and specific, and even then it's often influenced by the others. For example, my tendency toward negativity is way worse when I'm tired or hot and especially both, like when I burned everyone down when my air conditioning was out. Our brains lie to us sometimes and we also lie to ourselves, knowingly or not. We can also program ourselves, for good or ill.

Mental health affects all of this as well. When I was little my default state was one of happiness. Take a moment to wipe the coffee off your screen. Was this my natural state? Partly yes, but also it was driven by brain injury from the savage beatings I took and also by some other brain factors. My family also drank a lot of iced tea so my mood was elevated by caffeine as well. So I could claim that my outlook was based on an attribute of personality, or philosophy, or maybe it was driven by other components of my body and environment.

All of us have gone insane. We were thrust overnight into a police state after 9/11 and a worse one two years ago. Our outlook should be grim, especially given what we now know about the people around us. Some of these things were true before but we're more aware of them now. Some of them are new. We now have swatting, doxxing, twitter mobs and a hundred other things that didn't exist until recently, and we still have mobs, riots, and the iron heel of the oligarchy that gets worse every day. This affects our outlook and it should. We're stressed, depressed and anxious, partly because we see the situation and partly because our physical, mental, emotional and behavioral states have been distorted by media and our environment.

And we do it to ourselves as well. I made myself way worse with my online activity. More unhappy, more defeated, more depressed, less optimistic. I didn't clearly see how much damage I was doing to myself. All of us have poisoned ourselves to some degree. The government/media complex deranges us and we lash out at each other and ourselves. Which is what they want.

Where I live people are really hostile and it's gotten way worse since 2019, and worse still in the last two months or so. There was an outbreak of community spirit around here, in my apartment complex at least, but that seems to be gone and an ugly suspicion has taken its place. There is more hostility almost by the day.

I used to think old people were sour and negative because they were old. Partly that's true but partly it's due to experience. They've seen so much of the worst of people, including those close to them. It's hard to believe in anything any more.

[Gene]

I follow a wide range of people online, from brass-tacks entrepreneurs to full-blown metaphysical spiritualists. Across the whole spectrum, they're worried or uncertain in the least about the general "vibe" and direction we're headed.

Do you think your outlook has changed dramatically since several years ago? Pre-pandemic?

I feel better when I eat more Kim Chi. I prefer the white Kim Chi.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10 ... 50249/full

https://parkinsonsdisease.net/living/fe ... tal-health


Big Picture? The US has to adjust to being an ordinary country. Some people are not taking this well.

Some US people will want to keep their privileges by ripping off other US people. They want their high lives at someone else's expense - guaranteed benefit pensions, sinecures, and so on. The Party is almost over for them.


Eat more Kim Chi. Pray more. Mind your own business. Avoid dramatic people, and reject your own drama.

Associate with good people and be good to them. Ask them for nothing. Give to them.

Work. Work more. Work is its own reward.

[vern]

[nafod]

I’m pretty pessimistic at the moment. Due to structural elements of how we elect people along with some sketchy efforts to suppress votes, we are going to have a minority rule nation it looks like. The minority is going to use its power to divorce itself from having to get a majority of people to support it. That is anti-democratic, and will lead to eventual upheaval.

Also pessimistic about the climate and CO2. The double whammy of rising and changing temps and ocean acidification. Will cause upheaval.

Just got back from a two week trip from PA to Montana then Denver then home. Managed to avoid talking politics the whole way. It was nice. Also experienced 90 degree temps in Glacier National park, which was aberrant and concerning.

[nafod]

Work. Work more. Work is its own reward.

Good advice. If you can achieve mastery in…anything it will be a life well lived.

[lenny]

In the 1960s I was a university student who thought we'd change the world for the better. I was really naive.
It would be great to have a young body, but I'm glad I'm not a young person today. I won't live to see the worst of it.

[Bram]

I believe that brilliant and caring people all over the world are working hard at creating a brighter future.

And I think the vast majority of people have good hearts. I think we'll be okay.

[Luke]

Great responses.

Associate with good people and be good to them. Ask them for nothing. Give to them.

Work. Work more. Work is its own reward.

I think with the mounting onslaught of everything, I just have gone into that kaizen mode but have also lost a lot of ambition I once had. I just want to be peaceful vs. wheelin' dealin' son of a gun.

I

All of us have gone insane. We were thrust overnight into a police state after 9/11 and a worse one two years ago. Our outlook should be grim, especially given what we now know about the people around us. Some of these things were true before but we're more aware of them now. Some of them are new. We now have swatting, doxxing, twitter mobs and a hundred other things that didn't exist until recently, and we still have mobs, riots, and the iron heel of the oligarchy that gets worse every day. This affects our outlook and it should. We're stressed, depressed and anxious, partly because we see the situation and partly because our physical, mental, emotional and behavioral states have been distorted by media and our environment.

Hell yeah. AI too is concerning. There are people stealing other people's IP to train machines to outperform people, it's grim. Some conspiracy theorists say 1999 was the last true yeah, kinda can relate!

Also experienced 90 degree temps in Glacier National park, which was aberrant and concerning.

This is the worst. The David Attenborough work on it is alarming. It does go through my head a lot.

In the 1960s I was a university student who thought we'd change the world for the better. I was really naive.
It would be great to have a young body, but I'm glad I'm not a young person today. I won't live to see the worst of it.

There is some comfort in death haha. I wonder how the young uns will get out of it.

This is an interesting question for me. I've been struggling mightily with a severe mental illness since I was 19. This past year has been one hell of a tide-change. Got my meds straight and I'm all of a sudden able to do a small amount of what you regulars get to experience. So this may be a very selfish perspective, but I'm Mr. Blue Sky even on my worst day. Sure, suck still sucks, but I can cope.

One thing I have learnt with age is day-to-day brain chemistry is so ordinary, but so important.

I believe that brilliant and caring people all over the world are working hard at creating a brighter future.

And I think the vast majority of people have good hearts. I think we'll be okay.

Hope you're right man.

[Alfred_E._Neuman]

Work. Work more. Work is its own reward.

Good advice. If you can achieve mastery in…anything it will be a life well lived.

I agree. You've got to find a way of applying mind and body toward some form of entropy fighting.
My family on my mom's side is riddled with deep depression and anxiety. Many of them are borderline agoraphobic due to their general terror of existence. I've always fought it myself, and through sheer willpower and having a supportive wife I've managed to carve out a pretty good existence. But I've still got the general sense of foreboding dread even when the masses don't seem to be gearing up to destroy civilization. Lately it's gotten much worse.
I've always had British Sports Cars in my life. In HS me and my best friend both had a Triumph TR6. We cut our grease monkey teeth keeping those thing running on teenage budgets. After college I restored a '54 Triumph TR2. My daily driver when I was dating my wife was a '58 TR3 with overdrive. A solid old original survivor that ran like a freight train. Macon to Savannah GA on I-16 at 100mph in overdrive 4th!!!! I restored that car right before we moved across the country. Sold it and have regretted it since.
Now I've been a Mercedes tech for 8 years, and have moved into our parts department. We have a huge new building and it's time to me to rectify the lack of British Sports Car in my life. I'm thinking either an MGA (because I think they're just about the prettiest car ever made) or an early TR3. I want a fairly rough one so I can build exactly what I want and not worry about preserving some perfect original specimen.
So my plan to beat back depression and my generally dour outlook on our near future is to apply myself to beating back entropy in my little corner of the cosmos. If I'm lucky, me and some friends from work will have the adventure of getting our hands dirty from some ancient British rust rather than German oil leaks. If I'm extremely lucky, I'll end up with a great "new" sports car to take my wife on adventures up in the mountains in a couple of years.
Either way, I'll have a bubble of everything good in a bay in our shop on the weekends. Time spent moving a project forward is time not spent on the couch and time not spent doom scrolling news that I cannot effect anyway.

[motherjuggs&speed]

I agree. You've got to find a way of applying mind and body toward some form of entropy fighting.
My family on my mom's side is riddled with deep depression and anxiety. Many of them are borderline agoraphobic due to their general terror of existence.

The problem with the abyss is that it doesn't just suck to be there. It also causes me to do more harm to myself and to those close to me. And then there's the waste. Of opportunities, of time, of life. And it causes my mind to turn on itself and leads me to darker places than I thought I could go to. I'm not sure I can or even should think or feel differently about a lot of things but time spent writing my essays or stories is time I'm not spending in the mud and slime of depression, rumination, and despair. On a good day I'll have created something. On days I don't come up with anything I'll have at least done maintenance instead of letting the jungle grow over the temple.

[Gene]

I’m pretty pessimistic at the moment. Due to structural elements of how we elect people along with some sketchy efforts to suppress votes, we are going to have a minority rule nation it looks like. The minority is going to use its power to divorce itself from having to get a majority of people to support it. That is anti-democratic, and will lead to eventual upheaval.

While I see Ballot Boxes and ballot harvesting as an opportunity to allow a Woke minority to impose its sickness onto the rest of us.

I want everyone to have their say and their vote. Long lines to vote in urban areas are unjust. I would not hesitate to pay more taxes to expand the number of polling places, especially in poor urban areas. Casting a vote should be as convenient as buying a lottery ticket or a bottle of water.

Everyone gets a dye mark. One person one vote.

I believe that both parties steal elections in the primaries. I was involved with the Ron Paul campaign in 2008. I met people who got stuck on the bus at the 2008 GOP convention. The Republicans repeatedly screwed Ron Paul supporters in favor of phony conservative Mitt Romney in 2012.

https://qz.com/685831/the-republican-cr ... upporters/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... u-tyrants/

I talked with Sanders supporters who got screwed over in 2016 with long primary lines and the "super delegates". They, at least, said that they were bitter at Hillary's crooked behavior.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cas ... -are-angry

The system is not working right. Adding opportunities to stuff the ballot box is not the answer. Adding more polling places and ensuring "One person, one vote" to me is the answer.

[Gene]

Also pessimistic about the climate and CO2. The double whammy of rising and changing temps and ocean acidification. Will cause upheaval.

I work on the periphery of nuclear power. I am seeing a much wider interest in nuclear power in 2022 than in many years. Almost as much as before Fukushima. Thanks to State level Green Energy bills existing power plants are soliciting upgrades. These upgrades have allowed the US nuke fleet to continue to give a lot of power while losing sites.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuc ... dustry.php

More exciting is the future......

China has built a new molten salt reactor, a thorium breeder. Just 2 megawatts. Later versions could be scaled up.

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Arti ... r-start-up

The reactor will have limited breeding capacity and some "online reprocessing".

The US conducted a breeding experiment with Thorium at Shippingport. They had more fissile material at the end of the campaign than at the start.

https://atomicinsights.com/light-water- ... en-system/


In regular news...

Vogtle 3 has been approved to load fuel. The first US based gigawatt nuke reactor in our generation, hopefully after Vogtle 4 the first of many.


China is working with fast breeder reactors. These turn uranium into plutonium, which can be turned into fuel for power generation while making nuclear power.

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-chi ... SL1N2ME1U8

Here's the word on how to make bomb grade plutonium.... don't know if this device can do it.

http://www.ccnr.org/plute.html

A few bits of progress in Fusion. People in the US spend more on pet care than on fusion research. Priorities...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00391-1

https://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-fusion ... ls-1727538

[Gene]

I agree. You've got to find a way of applying mind and body toward some form of entropy fighting.
My family on my mom's side is riddled with deep depression and anxiety. Many of them are borderline agoraphobic due to their general terror of existence.

The problem with the abyss is that it doesn't just suck to be there. It also causes me to do more harm to myself and to those close to me. And then there's the waste. Of opportunities, of time, of life. And it causes my mind to turn on itself and leads me to darker places than I thought I could go to. I'm not sure I can or even should think or feel differently about a lot of things but time spent writing my essays or stories is time I'm not spending in the mud and slime of depression, rumination, and despair. On a good day I'll have created something. On days I don't come up with anything I'll have at least done maintenance instead of letting the jungle grow over the temple.

I'm focus on what I can influence. I can control my diet and exercise. I can control what I read and expose myself to each day. I can avoid Woke people of all sorts and smash any Woke impulses of my own.

I can focus more on work at what benefits my career. I can do enough for what doesn't matter much. For what doesn't matter, like Woke emails? I politely ignore them.

I don't need mastery.... simple basic competence will do. Mastery is saved for prized skills and actions. One has to prioritize.

I can't do a thing about the War in Ukraine, the Punch and Judy cum Studio Wrestling that is US politics, the amoral wretches who run the US business and banking community, their minders and our protectors who are too self absorbed to know that they're being manipulated too.

Too much introspection can lead to one ruminating. You start to get into a habit of grinding on and on, moving past things that you can control, making things seem worse and worse. Things acquire more importance than they deserve than if you viewed them as you would look at a stranger's problems.

What is this "abyss"? Can things be bad? Sure. Most of the time things are kind of bad with respect to something else.


These days I'd rather fold my socks, change the oil in my car, read some history, walk a few miles or work on my Russian or Spanish than worry. It's not easy to say or to do, but getting there is worth the trip.

[lenny]

I'm an American citizen who hasn't lived there for over 25 years with a very very different perspective than I once had. I thought about moving our family back and did a lot of research and was in shock over what I discovered. The country has a very large debt and owes China a fortune.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/i ... -bonds.asp

When I was a child, the interstate highway system was being built. Now, the highways, bridges, electric lines etc. needs trillions of dollars in improvements.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/engin ... e-news.htm

The richest under President Eisenhower paid a tax rate of 91 percent. Now, they gripe about paying about a third as much.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2 ... senhower-/

The super rich in the early 20th century like Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller invested in their communities.
https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/ ... ndrew.html
They may not have been the most honest business people in the world, but they cared a lot more than most of the super rich today who have enormous political influence. Money has always corrupted politics, but it's a lot worse in America today.
https://longnow.org/seminars/02012/jan/ ... n-stop-it/
I heard Jerry Brown, twice governor in California, say while his sister was running for California's governor that they should auction off the office to the highest bidder. It's worse with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_ ... sociations.

My daughter contracted a 3 out of a million cancer in 2002 at the age of 11. The government of Israel must have spent a million dollars on her treatment. Never were we threatened with having our health insurance cut off or our rates raised. My wife was given a six month leave of absence from her job to be in the hospital with her. At that time, I read about American parents who thought they had good health insurance whose children had cancer and went bankrupt. You can't imagine the horror in the children's cancer ward unless you've spent time there. Children died including a baby. One teenage girl had been there for five years and was waiting for transplants. There was a Palestinian girl in our daughter's room for a while with the same cancer. The Palestinian doctors had misdiagnosed her completely, and said she had growing pains. By the time a biopsy was done and sent to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem, the cancer had spread to her pelvis, a death sentence. The Israeli tax payer spent a fortune on her treatment with no reimbursement. I can't imagine the hell of parents whose child had cancer and faced medical bankruptcy. Apparently, it's better now. One of the reasons we didn't move back to America was because I was afraid with a pre-existing condition our daughter would be refused followup examinations which she needs for the rest of her life.

I heard all kinds of horror stories about medical expenses in America during visits in the 2000s. One college educated woman complained that she didn't like the doctor her HMO gave her but couldn't change and complained, "What can we do?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Hadn't she taken 8th grade civics class and learned that people can organize, petition the government, and change their representatives? Maybe they stopped teaching it. What I saw while living in northern California in the early 90s was that there was a level of selfishness among a lot of people that blew my mind. A left wing talk show host in San Francisco said, "Why should I pay taxes for schools? I don't have kids." What about the people who willingly paid taxes for you motherfucker? I agree with Bram that most people are basically good, but unless there is global control of the super rich, the corporations, dictators and terrorists who are monsters we are in for very tough times. Hopefully it's not too late.

I have had mental illness for a good part of my life. I try to stay sane and be a decent human being. I meditate, do Chi Kung, surf, skateboard, practice krav maga, lift weights, do cardio, and a lot of mobility work. I take news fasts at times, am generally polite especially while driving in a country with too many terrible drivers, donate to charitable causes, and stay in touch with friends for over 50 years who are scattered all over the world, some of whom I may never see again. My closest ones are dead, as is my Tai Chi teacher, a wonderful human being. When I was young, I couldn't appreciate the goodness of some people. I do now. Live long enough, and your body breaks down. Everything is taken away: parents, friends, (your spouse if you don't die first,) and then your life. It's hard to believe how fast life has gone by.

Try to make a positive difference, no matter how small. Appreciate what's good while you can.

[Gene]

The richest under President Eisenhower paid a tax rate of 91 percent. Now, they gripe about paying about a third as much.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2 ... senhower-/

Well.... that rate only applied to income over a certain amount, after a bunch of tax deductions that are not legal today.

At least one group claims that the real "effective rate" was about 16.9 percent.

https://taxfoundation.org/taxes-on-the- ... %20Journal.