The quest of the good life.

@Shadyglow Thank you for your post. You have given a lot of thought to it. I appreciate that and will comment on your observations.

What is SZ?

@Shadyglow
Can you please elaborate on this? The search for security and affection stems from trauma. Life is undeniably a deeply distressing and disturbing experience. I would say that this situation is a universal "human" condition.

@Shadyglow
I was not aware of this until you brought it up. I don't think I am schizophrenic.

The quest for the good life, in my opinion, has nothing to with the psyche. It is not about being good according to Jesus Christ.

The quest for the good life to F E Brown is not the topic of this discussion. Being religious, to him, is synonymous with being good. Regardless of the claim that religion causes wars, Christianity has brought a lot of relief from human suffering. Even if religious faith provides a false sense of hope, it has prevented people from suffering states of despair.

@sree251 I never thought you were SZ

But people like that seem to invariably get lost in the thick netting and go nowhere, and never shut up about it. Deluded.

@Shadyglow
No one is going anywhere. Some delusions are considered ok while others are not. Being the King of England or the Pope is as deluded as being in union with the Holy Spirit. What makes delusion legit is consensus, the meeting of deranged minds.

@sree251 I am a caretaker for a SZ guy and he has religious delusions and hears voices and I was lonely enough to take a free "companion" gig. Its one thing to joke about consensus of deranged minds (there isn't any true consensus if its based on true understanding...;) and another thing to SEE what happens when our humanity gets broken and the fallout infects all of us but we have to still be strong and act like anyone can truly care for another. NO DELUSION is ever "legit" and as far as mass governmental delusions (eg: darker/"native" peoples are evil so lets destroy them) the real danger is how too many people are simply brainwashed (by church school family mates media etc...) to play pawns to all this. Could mean the death of our world.

@Shadyglow
Sounds interesting. I would like that opportunity to observe. Thus far, I could only see thru the eyes of Erving Goffman and R. D. Laing. What specific learnings/insights have you gained thru being with this SZ guy?

I am digesting the rest of your post. There is a lot for me to unpack there.

@Shadyglow
What do you mean by "our humanity gets broken"? Please bear with me if I seek too many clarifications. It is all too easy to speak at cross purposes. I want to make sure that I am engaging you in this discussion at the same level.

@sree251 ummm... actually this is messed up because I left out a word, ie: (there isn't any true consensus if its based on true understanding...;) when I MEANT to say "there isn't any true consensus if its NOT based on true understanding...")

and the idea of humanity getting broken is about... we don't have to be SZ to feel like we're always DISCOURAGED from solidarity when it comes to organizing for meaningful and humane changes in our world. Its like nobody TRUSTS that. We are not imagining this. Solidarity is apparently "dangerous" when it comes to actually making a better world. Our economic system might not get so rich so fast if we organize peoples food coops (say) so food might actually be AFFORDABLE instead of us going hungry at the grocery store cause everything just costs too much and if we steal we could lose everything...

When was the last time we noticed really powerful and numerous organizations pushing for climate change remediation and GETTING it??? You can now understand what I'm driving at. As long as we sit isolated at our private screens never talking to or thinking about the people who also need to get hip to different issues, the "system" has broken us so completely we become NOTHING but isolated units of economic ONE-WAY-ism...the corporations demand and we the "consumers" simply give over and stay quiet because we are so fragmented into our own private worlds we scarcely notice there's a potential REAL community out there DYING from lack of attention/regard/appreciation.

The "system" is literally driving us insane, broken into obedient automatons with good manners who will DIE for the system as if it has become lord and master of our bloody UNIVERSE

and that makes me MAD AS HELL, in a healthy way of course. And a little more solidarity would go far so people could actually get proactive and do something to actually heal the screaming wounds in our sad broken "society". Wounds that could END THIS VERY PLANET. Many people wanna drop the "big one" now. Who thinks they could escape that though????? One would have to carry many social psychological and religious DELUSIONS to seriously believe its not such a big deal.

@Shadyglow
By "legit", I meant accepted and endorsed by society, the consensus worldview, and not perceived as delusional. For example, the right of the US President to assassinate people as necessary with drone strikes and special forces missions. Monkey see, monkey do. Now, 40,000 killed in Gaza raises nothing more than a murmur of protest because it has tacit US approval.

@Shadyglow
The link below is an argument against the "system" you seem to be referring to. Totalitarianism. This is the culture of nationalism, and it is alive and well here in America posing as a democracy. Mass psychosis. I was a victim of state propaganda. It is easy to go mad when one has company.


[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09maaUaRT4M]

@sree251 Its prolly 500000 now and a million desperately and overwhelmingly wounded (no healing available ever)

@sree251 I go mad when people want me to THINK I AM ALL ALONE HERE

@Shadyglow
We do have consensus on many things based on a common perception of those things. Perception is reality even if reality has nothing to do with the truth. The matter of what is true and what isn't is a matter of debate. And this is where politics comes in.

@Shadyglow @Shadyglow

Solidarity is an agreement of feeling or action especially among individuals with a common interest. It seems reasonable to expect this. After all, we are the only ones in existence and all by ourselves in the universe. Our survival and well-being have to be of common interest. And yet, we - as humanity - are fragmented broken up into separate pieces like a psychotic suffering from multi-personality disorder, a possessed soul torn apart by demons of a million difference faces of the left and the right, of the good and the evil.

@sree251 Its a healing thing to know sometimes someone really understands. Thank you. Means more than you know.

@Shadyglow
Believe me, I know. You are not alone. Alone in the sense of being cut off on your own to live and die alone.

One time, I was in crowded mall filled with people. A child was in tears looking frantically around for its mother amidst a sea of faces. It was lost among humanity! And so it is for all, each adrift and alone in a hostile reality.

@Shadyglow
True understanding. This is not possible except at the basic level; and by that, I mean at the visceral level of "dumb" animals. We have moved from that level to the conceptual where we see thru ideas of an intellectualized world.

I keep my life simple: basic bodily needs, and no emotional attachments. Can you do that?