Being a lord of the meme, I have evolved beyond your puny physical realm, into a body of pure energy, with no weaknesses, well apart from star trek reruns and spin offs.........
I read Ero's post more as a philosophical outlook on leading a "good" life rather than dealing with specific people. In many ways I saw it as a way to consolidate the two competing world views I see most prominently expressed at the moment. The "right wing" look out for number one, build yourself up, you control your destiny, type of views. And the more "liberal" look out for other people, help those in need, everyone needs help at some point, type views. I've always found it hard to reconcile those two outlooks as I have elements of both (although more liberal leaning to be sure). And that kind of summed it up. I try not to be a "burden" to people or society. I work hard, I try to be polite and pleasant to be around, I try to solve problems "in house" before sharing them with others, I don't commit crimes, I try to be considerate to others. I try to move through life causing as few "problems" for other people as I can. In some way I see the phrase "a problem shared is a problem halved" as more like "a problem shared is now two people with a problem" so I'm reticent to share my problems unless I really have to. Other people have problems of their own and so I'm loath to give them any more things to worry about. But by the same token I also realise that we all need help from time to time and often that need is not in our power to control. We are not self determining autonomous "islands". We are all playing our own intersecting "choose your own adventure" story books but we are presented with wildly differing start points and totally different options are available as we turn the pages.
I'm not making a judgement call on an individual philosophy, and if it works for you, more power to you, 'Im just saying that would be a terrible thing to apply to a large group of people, who may already feel like they are a burden to people, or maybe they need to share there problems more, there's a reason men commit suicide at a far higher rate then the population average, our cultural around mental health is terrible. I can't remember who on MAP it was, but someone a few years ago made the great point that good individual advice is often the opposite to good systemic advice, telling people to not get drunk and walk down dark allays on their own is good individual advice, however if someone gets attacked doing the same, the police telling the victim that they won't charge their attacker because they had got drunk etc etc is terrible systemic advice. I often think about this.
I guess it's a good thing all this stuff recently discussed in this thread is fresh in my head. People I served with that worked directly with people in Afghanistan have been getting text messages from those people who are now trapped, asking for help. To put it bluntly I wasn't really tasked with helping "win hearts and minds." I'm kind of glad I wasn't. I have zero clue how I would react getting some texts pleading for help. Just knowing what some of the guys I served with are going through right now, the ones that did interact with the public every day, is enough to wreck me emotionally.
There's a new system out that claims it can help protect you from everything ranging from street violence to natural disasters. It claims nearly 100% success rate in multiple survival situations from Hurricane IHateYou to economic collapse. It's called "Making friends with other people and working together despite your differences." The same people are marketing a second system as well. It's a cheaper version and doesn't claim to do as much, but it focuses heavily on home invasion and street violence protection. They have a near 100% success rate in that area, and the system has also been shown to help assist with mental health as well. It's called "Getting and raising a dog correctly." What are ya'lls opinion on all this exciting new stuff coming out?
So true. Unfortunately, and this might be my prejudice showing, I think people who pay for "ultimate self-defence, kill any man" online videos might find the first option difficult.
We are all descendants of beta males who figured out that together they could take down the alpha male.
