I don’t understand how a man who has woken up, whose switch has got ON, who has reflected, call it whatever, can ever go upwards. where can he ever find a base to start build things up? once he got into this spiral of reflecting he will keep going deeper & deeper, down & down but won’t ever hit a bottom. so how can such a man ever go up on the ladder of success, or on any ladder that goes upwards for that matter? and yet there are so many intelligent people who only keep going up. surely they must have reflected. do they lie to themselves? are they afraid? or have they found some way of going up without needing a base?
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The answer is – you learn not to care about what you cannot control. An apathetic mindset is sometimes the only way to keep one going. Living a life of ‘anarchy’ only goes so far before one sees that very little of their concerns will ever be resolved in a method that they would find satisfactory. Pessimism, optimism, realism, idealism? Perhaps what is called for is a state of being somewhere outside these designations of thought processing.
Sometimes success requires that we descend in our own mind’s ladder, so that we may get a more relative view of what we are up against.
People who only climb the ladder of success have much further to fall, as their base takes on a heavier load, creating an even greater distance between practicality and a stable foundation.
By my observations, most “successful” people start out with a base, or arrive upon one rather early. Foundation is fundamentally important. Without it, you’re pretty much screwed, unless you’re one of the lucky ones who is lucky enough to flow into success naturally, due to circumstantial currents.
*usually start out with a base…
I can relate. I have been trapped in the downward spiral of my own mind for a long time. The few people still in contact with me wonder how I don’t get bored having no job and being home alone most of the time. I am always thinking, that’s how. Hours can go by.
I’m sure some people have deep thoughts but still manage to participate in the material world. I’m not exactly sure how, otherwise I would be too. They must just know how to get out of the maze in their own mind. Or how to cross certain wires and make the monster work in their favor instead of holding them back. They get to a point in thinking where they realize all of this life is an act but somehow they can still convince themselves to go out and do it.
I’d think they’re probably rare though. A large majority of people out in the world, and doing it successfully, probably don’t think very deeply. They see the world for what it is on the surface and have conditioned themselves to be a part of it. Then there are the intellectuals and deep thinkers all throughout history who were awkward, shut-ins, not financially successful, only respected for their minds most times after they’re already dead and their work is discovered.
It’s a select few who can think deeply about this life and then still go out and care about getting a promotion at work or some other meaningless thing. Maybe it’s just some unwavering sense of optimism. To go participate in the corporate world even after understanding how corrupt most of the systems are.
@spiritdying:
The answer is cognitive dissonance. They are holding mutually exclusive and/or incompatible beliefs to be simultaneously true. That’s the trick. My mind isn’t compatible with that trick.
An alternative answer is that lots of people have a sort of switch they can flip, and almost literally just turn off that which internally disrupts their functions.
If you have enough resources to reliably maintain comfort and distractions, this switch is much easier to flip, and can remain indefinitely effective. But there’s another paradox which requires subverting the origin of the paradox by beginning a positive feedback loop which can override and bypass it, or even nullify it entirely.
Or (i’m hypothesizing) they’re just fucking happy. Happiness is totally compatible with deep thought. I understand if you think it’s not, because i’m on your same side of the battle, but i won’t agree. There’s so much profound shit to be happy about in the world, and most of all, depression has not a more valid argument than happiness (in my opinion). I hope i start the debate.
Happiness is but an illusion, usually only experienced by the less-aware.
Happiness can be compatible with deep thought, but when they share the same host, it causes me to scrutinize the contents of those thoughts, and accuracy of that person’s perception; and i almost always see that it correlates with decreased awareness of the non-happy things.
It’s easy for a less aware person to believe they are thinking deeply, when they ponder shallow things. Reaching the bottom of a wading pool is vastly different from reaching the bottom of the abyss. One can reach the bottom of a wading pool without even being submerged.
I think it’s likely common that some less-aware and happy people, truly believe they are thinking deeply… but from my perspective, it seems they are simply impressed with themselves for finding the bottom of a wading pool.
I too think they somehow are able to compromise. maybe they are not stubbornly attached to truth and reality like us. i sometimes think this stubbornness is not philosophical but a psychological problem.
@benna i tend to agree with clevername. he may be thinking deeply but his thoughts will ultimately remain shallow, for they aren’t nourished by his own flesh and blood. but then i see jean paul sartre, a great existentialist, but who said he hasn’t experienced a single moment of despair in his own life! so he was both happy and thinking deeply.
Perfectly said: “this stubborness is not philosophical but a psychological problem”. I agree a hundred percent on that.
I understand what you both are saying. I think that happiness is easier in the less deep person, too. But taking the deep one, i think the choice is being made by a “psychological” decision, rather than a philosophical. We choose with our hearts, really, and not with our minds.
but now i see it from other side. happiness brings a lightness in one’s being. otherwise he will remain heavy with his seriousness. it actually can show certain simple doors that otherwise were shut from his eyes even though they were obvious.
@benna that’s true. i keep thinking about it, that how much of my world is irrational, controlled by this irrational heart. even behind decisions of mind are tendencies of heart. but when it comes to changing that, i find myself totally weak, helpless.
but if heart can control thoughts, can thoughts not control heart? i think they can. and here comes the test of one’s strongness. one who has more control over his thoughts or one who is more ‘present’ in his thoughts can actually control his heart.
Exactly!! Exactly.. (who has that strenght anyway?)
well, not me atleast..