The "I'm not doing so well" thread

[Jamesbike]

I begin to think I'm the only person on this thread who's noticed interconnected crises like the sixth mass extinction, climate change, and a lunatic economic system built on the premise of never-ending growth, with nowhere left to grow, and ramifications ensuing therefrom. I don't know whether to be happy or sad for people with so much personal shit to deal with that all this stuff is forced to the back of their consciousness.

Most of us have too much going on in our personal lives to worry about the macro issues you describe. There will always be the rich harbouring money offshore, and the poor going to to food banks etc. Most of us are somewhere in between. Happiness is being content with what we, have enjoying the relationships we have and living a peace with our neighbours...
Too many guys get hung up in the great reset or climate change etc that they kill thier mental health.

Cheers James

 

[2manyoranges]

..but the challenging thing is that the overall impact of human action - which is adding up to so much decline of species etc - includes the sum of small acts by all of us. That’s the dilemma - how much do I change what I do to make things good again…while Government action is important, ignoring this individual responsibility makes for an unrealistic alternative: that it’s for governments to sort all this out. Which they won’t. And aren’t.

 

[legrandefromage]

sometimes, I'm with this guy

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/real-life-scots-hermit-been-25415257

 

[KermitGKona88]

Shall I start passing out the Kool-aid Reverend Jones?

 

[kingbling]

When I was 16 I got kicked out of home for a few months I had a bedsit and a job subsequently lost my job and my room and found myself on the streets I spent 2 years living in a bin cupboard beneath a block of flats across the road from my parents house. That taught me some serious life lessons when you have nothing you have nothing to lose, what ifs are pointless for you may think you control your future and to some extent you can but you never know for certain. During my time of homelessness I became a criminal stealing from cars places of work (never burglary I still had some standards if you can call it that) but I did what I had to to survive, the people I hung about with who pretended to be my friends only incouraged my activities for their own personal gain. Only by getting caught and ending up in a bail hostel did I escape that life but not the drug dependency. Possessions are only rented and money can only be spent relationships are not forever as forever carries on we do not if you want to do something do it don't waste your energy thinking about doing it. Remember you entered this life with nothing and that is all you can take with you materially find peace in yourself even if it means taking a risk.
Today was a good day I shed a tear for a person's suffering today I was not angry

 

[Gtpulse]

sometimes, I'm with this guy

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/real-life-scots-hermit-been-25415257

I get this.

I don’t know if I can properly explain this in words…..sometimes if stuff isn’t making sense or the stress-ometer is getting to max level I imagine the scenario of living in a cabin in the wilderness as the acid test of what’s acceptable - i.e. if I removed myself and those who I couldn’t live without from the current situation to exist in that cabin in the woods situation, would everything be ok again. Generally the answer is yes and everything starts to make sense again and the stuff that was bugging/stressing me drops off and becomes less important. Only problem I foresee is my snoring.

 

[CassidyAce]

I begin to think I'm the only person on this thread who's noticed interconnected crises like the sixth mass extinction, climate change, and a lunatic economic system built on the premise of never-ending growth, with nowhere left to grow, and ramifications ensuing therefrom. I don't know whether to be happy or sad for people with so much personal shit to deal with that all this stuff is forced to the back of their consciousness.

You're not the only one to have noticed those interconnections but the personal problems others have mentioned are part of that web of interconnections too. The same social, cultural and economic systems that produce unsustainable development also cultivate mental health problems, debt problems, relationship problems and the marginalisation of the neuro-diverse. The same system that creates unsustainable use of resources also creates increased social isolation, which is a contributing factor in depression and suicide rates. The macro problems contribute to the personal problems.

However, if too many people are too busy with their personal problems, the macro problems are neglected and worsen, because our individual actions have wider consequences, whether that's through pollution or simply playing a supporting role in a dysfunctional social system. For that reason, I cannot agree that we should just try to be content with what we have and not worry too much about macro issues. The benign neglect of those issues is still neglect and others will suffer because of it.

Too much focus on the bigger picture risks being insensitive to individuals' suffering; too much focus on personal problems risks addressing symptoms rather than wider causes and, at worst, just being self-centred. Ideally, we will have due care for both.

In the wise words of Bill and Ted, 'Be excellent to each other!'

 

[torqueless]

I hate this planet at present......I want to get off

Yeah.. you know I can't help thinking it's a zero sum game, whack-a-mole, robbing Peter to pay Paul. If this biosphere has any purpose, it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that it's basically to produce suffering.

There are 9 billion plus known sites of suffering on this planet- and that's just the human suffering. You make an intervention here, and the suffering intensifies somewhere else. And of course many of our interventions aren't even effective at relieving the suffering they are aimed at, often intensifying that. The whole situation makes a mockery of human pretensions of agency, ethics, or right action.

What about the slug on my doorstep? I noticed it and spared it from ending up crushed to death under my shoe. What a compassionate person I am! Or is it more compassionate to just crush it, perhaps without even realising it's happened, and spare it or its progeny from falling victim to my neighbour's slug pellets tomorrow? If there is such a thing as joy or contentment for slugs, what is say 24 hours of it worth, on the planetary balance sheet? Should I be more concerned with the slug, literally on my doorstep, as opposed to say the homeless guy a mile down the road? Aware that any intervention in either case is just as likely to intensify suffering as to relieve it?

And if you say: "Forget about the slugs, concentrate on improving human situations," Isn't that precisely the
strategy that has led us to environmental degradation and climate armageddon? But who cares, because the world is just a factory for suffering anyway, and who wants to sustain that?

You want to restore the Mediterranean to ecological health so that you can continue to boil lobsters alive in perpetuity, and generations of lobsters can obligingly breed in optimal conditions to satisfy your appetites? Isn't that the all too apparent subtext behind all this 'save the planet' stuff, whether it be demos, documentaries or direct action?

I'm not expecting answers to these questions- the tip of an iceberg of questions.

 

[greencat]

I think humans have evolved to suffer because improving our lot to reduce suffering is one of the things that has made us such a successful species. Whether that's inventing sanitation or a slightly better brake lever....all contribute to a better lot in life.

Trouble is, we quickly become dissatisfied with each new improvement so look out for the next one...and the next one...and so on - and in some cases, it's not always clear if it is an improvement - especially on a macro scale. Looking through Amazon's warehouse of returned products and seeing the sheer variety of tat eg weird coloured phone cases for phones that are obsolete, is enough to depress anyone.

Leaving aside those of you who've experienced serious trauma, most of humanity's lot is far better than it was even a hundred years ago. Yes, it is unequal. Yes, it's not perfect. And yes, we haven't quite figured out how to get human needs (inc that for "progress") satisfied without putting our planetary life support systems at risk. But I'm hopeful we might.

I see suffering as largely a construct of our mind - a bug or feature of our operating system. But one that can be somewhat overcome through perceptual shifts. I see a slug and think "Hey, little guy. Have a good morning". My missus sees them as something to be feared and despised (she is the gardener of our household). Others see the slug's existence as a metaphor for all that is wrong in the world...

That's not to say I haven't had my own ups and downs....including some pretty serious life threatening ones Getting outside. Riding my bike. With some friends. Helps a lot.

 

[2manyoranges]

GreenC - ah the humble slug. A big metaphor for our relationship with nature….nicely put re ‘little fella’ versus ‘KILL!!!’

I ride along a tarmac cycle path in the morning - way out in the country - and a hundred large slugs make their slimy way over the path in the rising sun…I carefully ride between them all….lovely little fellas….