[Old_Hat]

11/10

When I was very young, I went though a severe depression after my mother died. I climbed out of that step by step, and today, I feel utterly invincible.

Were you raised by Wolves? It's usually the absence of a Father figure that leads people to believe they can do anything.

[Varax]

Hence why you should embrace conservatism.

I prefer fascism as an antithesis to liberalism, thanks.

In the West, everyone is free to give their own lives meaning; yet almost no one has meaning in their lives.

I agree, in part.

Post-scarcity and transhumanism won't save you from the emptiness that has engulfed you.

...you're kidding, right? It's this type of attack of opportunity that makes me dislike this site at times and instantly regret sharing anything at all with you lot.

Anyway, I support the full advancement of civilization technologically, materially and spiritually. I don't think I said anything about pure materialism being sufficient for these purposes and I reject the atomism of liberal individualism. I have already begun to embrace spiritual fulfillment, "will to power", collectivism, etc. as a counter to such emptiness. Part of my support for transhumanism is allowing people to fulfill their potential and self-actualize themselves and I think this can be done along with spiritual development as well.

But I would appreciate it if you would not bring my past personal issues into such discussions like this, thank you.

[Saeko]

Were you raised by Wolves?

Well I certainly wasn't raised by sheep.

[Dagoth Ur]

I've never seen a communist in a fedora (those usually seem to be libertarians if they have any views), but it's funny a guy named old_hat would use an old hat as an insult.

You need to meet some actual communists instead of the loud hipsters at your coffee place.

[Old_Hat]

I prefer fascism as an antithesis to liberalism, thanks.

Since when are Fascists allowed in the Far-Left user group? If your ideology has gone full circle, don't you think you should resign?

...you're kidding, right? It's this type of attack of opportunity that makes me dislike this site at times and instantly regret sharing anything at all with you lot.

I wasn't demeaning you, as i believe what you described to be a common reaction to modern liberalism. You were implying that your "happiness level" was directly influenced by the current Zeitgeist. My comment was, therefore, in context and i would not have brought up your personal experience in another thread. I don't think i did anything wrong but it wasn't my intention to offend. I hope there is no ill feeling on your side because there has never been any on mine.

But I would appreciate it if you would not bring my past personal issues into such discussions like this, thank you.

This begs the question; why post a personal experience on an open forum if you don't want anyone to comment?

[RhetoricThug]

Giving numeral value to your current chemistry
You're always happy, how happy are you?
Subjective willpower and painting by number...

I personally feel like pie being stretched across our terrestrial globe, channeling between bipolar tectonic plates which break and shift as I cross East & West hemispheres of mind to & fro. Things I feel tend to be criss-crossed when I personally feel like pie. My right arm is directed by the almighty West, while my left arm serves Eastern orientation. Although, when you rate your personal happiness level to be pie- you realize pie is one abstract symbol with no meaning outside numeral scales of value. Abracadabra, your personal happiness level is weak-minded cosmopolitan junk, not one single level of complex human emotion can be painted & revealed by number.

You PoFo Punks!

How happy are you now.... now.... NOW..... NOW.... NOW... NOW?

Here is a snippet of my happiness level journal. I encourage all of you to keep one

1-14-15: 13:00 hours, HL: 5.6 14:00, HL: 6.3 15:00, HL: 8.7 Average HL: 6.8 (I really appreciated the apple I had for lunch)
1-15-15: 14:00 hours, HL: 7.3 15:00, HL: 5.3 16:00, HL: 3.4 Average HL: 5.3 (Overripe is my apple during lunch)
1-16-15: 13:00 hours, HL:4.8 14:00, HL: 5.4 15:00, HL: 9.9 Average HL: 6.7 (Fresh apple for my stomach today)
1-17-15: 13:00 hours, HL 8.5 14:00, HL: 6.4 15:00, HL: 8.9 Average HL: 7.9 (Two people gave me their apples when I forgot my apple)

I'll keep you guys updated via this incredibly fruitless thread.

Were you raised by Wolves? It's usually the absence of a Father figure that leads people to believe they can do anything.

[SolarCross]

9/10

Many years ago I used to be unhappy about all sorts of things. Then about 12 years ago I went to a Vipassana meditation centre for a 10 day retreat. It's quite a powerful meditation technique, allegedly the same one Siddartha Gautama developed to achieve enlightenment. It was a turning point for me, now nothing worries me and I never get upset. I am Rudyard Kipling's IF:

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

[Drlee]

Communists in developed countries are nothing but fedora wearing hispters who want to stay at home and jerk off rather than work for a living.

I am a conservative capitalist but in defense of my communist friends, I have never heard one of them talking about anything resembling the welfare state you seem to be imagining.

I am happy. 8-10. I would not want to rate it any higher because I want to be optimistic about the future.

[mikema63]

Happiness, real happiness, isn't about the things you have or the job you do. I find it's as much a state of mind as anything else.

I've met people in the depths of poverty who were happier than rich people I've known. A few good people around you and you can be happy if you let yourself. People are just too busy worrying about the money they don't have, or the things they don't have, or the stuff their neighbor has to be happy.

Of course this doesn't include mental illness like depression.

[Brother of Karl]

So Mike, I see you've been reading Camus. Do his teachings have anything to do with what you're talking about right now?

[fuser]

5/10

*drinks*

8/10

*hangover*

4/10

aftermath

5/10

[jessupjonesjnr87]

8 in the morning 7 in the evening. I don't have much to get upset about aside from pondering the ever impending mortality of myself and the family. This has become an increasing worry since the sands of time seem to have gone from passing with a slight trickle to a relentless torrent.

[Political Interest]

When I was little and before the age of any real responsibilities, probably 8/10.

Now it is around 3/10. The reason for this is quite simple and if this problem was resolved I would probably be at 6/10.

2014 has not been a very good year at all.

I do not believe I will ever achieve 10/10. This is mostly because I made a series of very bad choices starting from when I was sixteen years old. I believe these choices defined a lot of what happened later in my life and I have many regrets. Often I feel like my real self has gradually been lost since the age of sixteen when I started making the bad choices. My memory of life before I started making such mistakes is that everything was "normal" and that things generally were happy, went very well etc. When I look back to those days it feels as though it was all a dream. It leaves me stuck in a permanent nostalgia. It simply feels as though there have been many wasted years and that I destroyed my life, threw it all away. I isolated myself from my friends, lost most of them and made my family miserable. The problem is that there is no way to correct any of this because it is so far on and any chance I had to do so was gone years ago.

Sometimes I wonder if things could have been different if I had chosen another path, if possibly the "normal" happy times could have continued. That is a question to which I will never have an answer.

The past is gone, what is done is done.

[Orestes]

8 in the morning 7 in the evening. I don't have much to get upset about aside from pondering the ever impending mortality of myself and the family. This has become an increasing worry since the sands of time seem to have gone from passing with a slight trickle to a relentless torrent.

I know that feel, man, I know that feel. Still remember when in elementary school a year seemed like a whole epoch to roll through and now it's more and more like a blip.

[mikema63]

So Mike, I see you've been reading Camus. Do his teachings have anything to do with what you're talking about right now?

Nah, I read Sartre and Heidegger before Camus, but besides that I've mainly just been a very laid back type of person since I got out of high-school. I was really really unhappy until I got out of high-school and learned to just stop worrying about shit.

[Noob]

5-7, doesn't deviate much. Hard to excite and hard to sadden. Apparently incredibly laid back and stolid because I tend not to place importance on what I see as life's trivial matters and I learnt long ago to give a shit only selectively, and because I don't walk around with a permanent grin on my face. Chasing happiness is in itself futile and pathetic goal, but I think that taking joy in life's small things is the key to being of good mood. I also don't trust that people who claim constant happiness are telling the truth.

I think there are times for many of us where we get a little lost in ourselves, but that really ought not to go on for years on end whatever someone's circumstances. You either fight that or it consumes you.