"Make your parents proud"

@JimboSaturn One would think this is common sense but then again common sense is not common 👌

@Annie13 Consensus is not in contention here. If you want to be alone in your world of personal attribution as an individual then you'll get your wish.

There is only survival. You said you agreed that life is existence and it has only one way to continue, well it doesn't continue without reproduction so that must be the one thing. Solitary enlightenment is a dead end.

@Jackaloftheazuresand We are an overpopulated earth so it's good not everyone reproduces, once we are dead it's over for us and it is irrelevant whether we reproduced as an individual or not. Life does not continue beyond death.
What brings fullfilment in your life? You reduce it to "survival" and all that seemingly ignoring the individual and the way societies work. What real life consequences should or does your approach have?

@Annie13 Overpopulation in our age is a myth so there's the first mistake. The second is confining ourselves to a single planet as if that's the only option. The phenomenon of life will though. Those who wish to cut themselves off from the tree are taking a premature extinction, likely as a pessimistic pursuit. It is in the best interest of every living thing that we all reproduce because we can't count on having enough time to recreate your unique strain again. When you die off by choice of being childless you are making the choice that could be hurting our entire survival. The lineage of life is worth continuing if you think your own life is worth anything since it is you and will proliferate you. You can't tell me that you like who you are if you don't want to leave more of you, maximize your happiness in all ways except the one that continues what you are. There is no consistency in that, no reasoning. Temporary things hold no grudges and have no loves because it's all indistinguishable dust. I have never met a single human who flows as water because once they do, they die. So every person must derive their sustained life from a tether, that tether is the thing we all share. All of us want life to continue and that is what I offer.

@HannibalAteMeOut I see what you mean but I don't think "making parents proud" and "unconditionally love" rhymes. If someone's parents love them unconditionally, pride isn't in their vocabulary. Unless they're proud because their child has managed to become happy.

@Queendragonfly yeah that's what I meant. It's a paradox but I believe the less a parent cares about pride, the more the children feel like they owe it to them. My parents have been good to me so I want to be good towards them too.

@HannibalAteMeOut Being kind is being good to them imo, making them proud is often about external achievements

@Mardrae They should just be proud that you're alive, but some parents realize that when it's too late. Their loss.

@Queendragonfly yeah, they’ve both been dead for 22 years, so maybe in our next life we’ll have a better relationship.

@pride49 Karma bit his ass. 😂

@SW-User Ugh I absolutely hate that sentence. As if we're back in year 1700.

@BackyardShaman Social status you mean?

@Queendragonfly sure

@SW-User My dad did.

@Queendragonfly Sorry to hear that. My mom's father also dealt her a bad deal, he was a very abusive alcoholic. But she never passed that onto me. She was and still is a good, caring, and supportive mother. I never met my father, my grandfather was the closest thing to a father I had.

Good parents should support and nurture their children's growth, not try to abuse them, destroy them, or control their future. That seems to be very hard to find these days though, many people just pass on abuse from generation to generation.

I am a single father, but I try to support my son and nurture his interests any way that I can.

@SW-User Thank you. I'm sorry you never met your father. But I'm glad your grandfather was there for you and gave you a good example of a father figure to pass on to your child.