mellownomad30 said:hey everyone
glad to see there are actually people here who want to get into a real discussion
@arna
you’re saying I should hit the books more, but look—I read plenty, I just don't find much joy in academic textbooks. Honestly, wouldn't you guys prefer debating someone who hasn't been "poisoned" by everyone else's preconceived notions and theories?
my brain tends to work in bursts, so putting together coherent, structured essays is a struggle for me. I’ve always found a direct, face-to-face conversation way easier to navigate
when I used the word "animals," I was mostly just poking the bear to see how people would react. what I’m actually getting at is why we all fight so hard to deny our own nature—why we insist we've somehow evolved past our ancestors when we really haven't
a buddy of mine once tried to argue that we aren't animals because we use tools. I just told him that chimpanzees use sticks to "fish" for ants, so that logic doesn't hold much water
I wasn't talking about my neighbors or anything local when I mentioned perception of surroundings; I meant anyone who isn't part of "us"
for instance: why hasn't anyone just told me to "stop talking nonsense" yet? instead, you're all asking polite questions. what was your actual gut reaction when you first saw my post?
ah, motives...
it's not about you telling me what your motives are; it's about you digging deeper into why you react the way you do. even I spend half my time lying to myself about why I do the things I do
The whole idea of "reading books" comes up here quite a bit, and I think you can look at it from two different angles. First off, there's the approach where you want someone "smarter" (the author, in this case) to just lay out how things work so you can soak it up and feel a little more enlightened—it's a mindset that really gets baked in through the American university system and carries on through a person's whole life if they lean into that kind of education. Then, there's the second angle: using someone else's perspective as raw material to test your own views against, which either enriches your own thinking or helps you realize the author is just talking nonsense.
Speaking of which, I was recently going through a book titled "and man being an animal" (if anyone's curious about the author, I'll dig it up later) and, honestly, it just didn't click for me. My own life experiences have actually reinforced my theories way more than any arguments presented in those pages ever could.
In my view, what really separates a human from a beast is our total inability to just enjoy the present moment and our current circumstances. Everything we build—concepts like "prosperity," "well-being," "the economy," "growth," or "competitiveness"—all stems from that restless nature.
From the time we're kids in school, we're taught that being satisfied with what you have is basically a failure; you always have to be chasing something better, higher, or faster just to find some semblance of happiness. If that's truly the ultimate goal of life, then it’s hardly surprising we're dealing with such a mess when it comes to the environment, how we treat one another, or all the various struggles we face...
It feels like humans have completely lost the ability to be grateful simply because we are alive. Other animals—they just exist. They eat, they sleep, they run... they just live. Meanwhile, humans are constantly running themselves ragged with worry, often ending up in a therapist's office because of it.