Zero sum is a victim. We should leave him alone.
I wish he could just go to a farm with baby sheep and sleep there with warm milk by his side. Poor guy. Humanity is so harsh on a guy like that.
Well, I was in NYC at times in the 80s. And it seemed rather colder, less social in any sense and less interesting.
Really?? hat surprises me. I must admit I was there for the first time in '93, when it certainly was a hell of of a lot more alive than in 2008, with is the last time I visited. I had alway figured the 80s to be like the early 90s but rawer. I really loved it in '93.
I don’t know what the balance point is, and I hate the disneyfication of New York.
I certainly don’t think that deep down we are all fluffy cuddlers.
Worse, I think the cuddler-wannabes or those that want everyone to be cuddlers are frequently bordering on sociopathy.
It is a logical result of being deliberately ignorant of human nature, and thus of ones own nature, and thus of ones actions, influences.
New York certainly does not appear more friendly now. Just more hypocritical, boring, expensive and emotionally flattened. It felt back in 2008 like everyone was on lithium.
But we are more complex than reptilian brain creatures that only know competition. I do think competition and part of our nature. I also think cooperation is. Probably why I have tended to love most team sports, though I do like individual sports also.
And not all I do in relation to another person is to get an edge over them. Enlightened self-interest would be enlightening only a part of me. Now the number of people I want to collaborate with is small. But it is a strong urge also. Whether in arts/music or any facet of life.
For me a team is essential to a lot of things, certainly friendship is one of the highest ranking values in my universe. I do think that, in order to establish a team or a friendship, all the members must have tested each other. You can’t form a meaningful bond just out of pure goodly cozy friendliness. You have to know each other, know how you respond to pain, insult and adversity, among other things. Otherwise you can’t know if you’re really a team.
It’s sometimes like humans get presented as, deep down, they are all Rasputin. that’s not what I find.
First I am not sure how many have a deep down. Then that deep down in those who have it, sure Rasputin is there, but so are other things.
I think Rasputin is like a baby sheep compared to modern liberal politicians. But of course, yes. We are much like animal predators, full of empathic depths for our own, willingness to sacrifice ourselves for them, we have “infinite goodness” if you will but only those of us that have fierce dispositions. Sheep wont fight for their offspring, prey-animals don’t generally display traits of nobility, but predators often do.
Of course in the meek and the ideologues of meekness, this causes severe cognitive dissonance. But its rather inevitable, as as to be truly good, a lot of passion is required, and passion never goes well for an animal that needs to be edgy and calculating all the time for fear of being eaten. Passion, thus nobility, generosity, goodness - all that is reserved for those that live on the offensive.