Why the world is a better place than before

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Kidicious

Case closed.

How long have we been tracking suicides statistically? Since the 1800s or so?

Having said that, it is possible that more people who are unhappy are taking their own lives. I'm not sure that proves there is more unhappiness overall. It may, or it may be that suicide has come to be viewed as an option, whereas an unhappy person 40k years ago wouldn't consider it. I don't know.

-Arrian

[Pekka]

ALso, this just in. Finns are supposedly the second most happy in the world (or Europe). It was in.. today's paper? Yeah, something like that. Still the suicide rates? Case definitely not closed. I mean, I figure many people here don't actually study or do science, because these conclusions are very unscientific.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Arrian


How long have we been tracking suicides statistically? Since the 1800s or so?

Having said that, it is possible that more people who are unhappy are taking their own lives. I'm not sure that proves there is more unhappiness overall. It may, or it may be that suicide has come to be viewed as an option, whereas an unhappy person 40k years ago wouldn't consider it. I don't know.

-Arrian

No Arrian. People commit suicide because they are mentally ill, not because they are bored. People are ****ed up in the head in the modern world because society is ****ed up.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Eli


Have you ever tried listening the birds chirping for more than an hour?

Talk to people? Your group consists of 30 people, 8 of them are children, 2 are senile old men. Their intellects and personalities are randomly distributed, and it's far from easy to move to another group.

In a random group of 30 people, you won't be forced to conform to the mean because you will not even be aware that something beyond the mean exists.

Look at yourself today. You're a commie or something ridiculous along those lines, right? What if your neighborhood becomes your entire world? In a moment, that aspect of your personality will disappear because you'll be the only commie there.

You want a nice intelligent conversation around the fire in the evening? Tough luck. All you get is jokes about how someone ****ed a goat.

I come to apolyton and read stupid threads about how someone ****ed a goat.

Have you listened to birds chirping for more than an hour, and wondered what they are saying?

Have you tracked an animal - read the stories that are written in the ground?

Sat under the stars and philosphized about the universe?

These are, some people would say, what seperates us from other animals. The things that generate our story telling, linguistic, and intellectual abilities, the things that create culture. And you're telling me that they are fundementally boring. You'd rather sit by yourself in a room, juggling meaningless numbers around in a computer game.

And why can't you do that today? Is it the corporations that pressure you? Or the TV adds that badly influence your fragile mind? Or maybe it's the fact that other people are idiots and are searching for happiness in Walmart?

I can do it today, and I do do it today. The question is, why can't you imagine it being a fulfilling existance?

People live superficial lives because the people are superficial, they always were and will always be. And moving to the Kalahari from New York won't change that.

Oh, I see... it's because you just a shallow, superficial person. I already knew that, of course, but it's nice to hear it from yourself.


I'm not saying you should move to the kalahari. I haven't said anyone should do anything. I simply said life was easier 40 thousand years ago, and the world was alot healthier too. If you're looking for my advice, though, I'd tell you to stay exactly where you are and examine the assumptions and motivations that exist behind your societies culture, and then create your own community, your own culture. A culture that is relevant to the place that you live in, and no where else. A society that is sustained by the place that you live in, and no where else.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Kidicious


No Arrian. People commit suicide because they are mentally ill, not because they are bored. People are ****ed up in the head in the modern world because society is ****ed up.

When did I say people commit suicide because they're bored???

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Arrian


When did I say people commit suicide because they're bored???

I took that as implied. Why would someone commit suicide in a primitive society?

[Arrian]

People commit suicide, presumably, because they're depressed. Because they don't have hope. Because, as you put it, they're mentally ill.

I said nothing about why a person would commit suicide in prehistoric times. I simply said that AFAIK, we only have data on suicides for the past ~200 years (if that), and that perhaps the increase in the rate isn't perfectly correlated with an increase in unhappiness.

Read what I wrote again, I think you'll get it.

-Arrian

[Pekka]

In primitive societies the suicides rates might have been lower because they were busy killing neighbouring tribes and eating them up for secret power

[Arrian]

Anyway, it's been fun, but I gotta drive home from my awful, meaningless job to my home so I can continue with my awful, meaningless, shallow life.

-Arrian

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Arrian
People commit suicide, presumably, because they're depressed. Because they don't have hope. Because, as you put it, they're mentally ill.

The question is why are they depressed, or probably why are they so depressed. Probably people have always been so depressed but I really think that modern society has made depressed people more depressed.

[Saras]

Life was so much better with kid on ignore.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Pekka
In primitive societies the suicides rates might have been lower because they were busy killing neighbouring tribes and eating them up for secret power

Ah war. Another thing that is much more common in a hierarchial society. And another cause of mental illness, suicide and unhappiness in general.

[Pekka]

Yeah, because if it wasn't hierarchial, it would be the rule of the strongest. I guess that's a hierarchy too.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by General Ludd



You socialize. You tell stories. You imagine. You love. You play games. You make funny noises. You laugh. You argue. You dance. You sing. You lay in the sun. You live.

stories? They're probably going to be stories that suck or that you've heard before several hundred times.

In any randomly selected group of 30 people how many do you honestly think will have a good enough gift at story telling to do a competant job of it?

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Pekka
Yeah, because if it wasn't hierarchial, it would be the rule of the strongest. I guess that's a hierarchy too.

It was not rule of the strongest. It was not rule at all.