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Look at the drugs we use. Except for pharmaceutical poison, there are essentially only two drugs that Western civilization tolerates: Caffeine from Monday to Friday to energize you enough to make you a productive member of society, and alcohol from Friday to Monday to keep you too stupid to figure out the prison that you are living in.
(Bill Hicks)
In addition to these specific fears, I noted one other change: the world seemed precarious. It had lost, for me, its hominess: danger seemed everywhere. The nature of reality had shifted, as I experienced what Heidegger called "uncanniness" (unheimlich) -- the experience of "not being at home in the world," which he considered (and I can attest to it) a typical consequence of death awareness. (Irvin Yalom, "Existential psychotherapy")
It’s not easy to live every moment wholly aware of death. It’s like trying to stare the sun in the face: you can stand only so much of it. Because we cannot live frozen in fear, we generate methods to soften death’s terror. We project ourselves into the future through our children; we grow rich, famous, ever larger; we develop compulsive protective rituals; or we embrace an impregnable belief in an ultimate rescuer.
Some people—supremely confident in their immunity—live heroically, often without regard for others or for their own safety. Still others attempt to transcend the painful separateness of death by way of merger—with a loved one, a cause, a community, a Divine Being. Death anxiety is the mother of all religions, which, in one way or another, attempt to temper the anguish of our finitude. God, as formulated transculturally, not only softens the pain of mortality through some vision of everlasting life but also palliates fearful isolation by offering an eternal presence, and provides a clear blueprint for living a meaningful life.
But despite the staunchest, most venerable defenses, we can never completely subdue death anxiety: it is always there, lurking in some hidden ravine of the mind. Perhaps, as Plato says, we cannot lie to the deepest part of ourselves. (Irvin D. Yalom, "Staring at the Sun")
Consciousness is nature's nightmare. (Emil Cioran)
(Woody image from blackestdespondency.tumblr.com)
Suffering makes you live time in detail, moment after moment. Which is to say that it exists for you: over the others, the ones who don't suffer, time flows, so that they don't live in time, in fact they never have. (Emil Cioran)
- Dying sucks butt! How do you living beings cope with mortality?
- Violent outbursts.
- General sluttiness.
- Thanks to denial, I'm immortal.
...
- Inspector 5 gave me his blessing! How could he bring me into this world knowing I will die?
- So you wish you were never born maybe?
- Yes, anything less than immortality is a complete waste of time! (Futurama, Season 6, Episode 6)
And so the endless cycle of life comes to an end - meaningless and grim. Why did they live and why did they die? No reason. . . . For in the end, nature is horrific and teaches us nothing. (Futurama, Season 7 Episode 13)
More posts from this category: Life as a gift quote and some more pessimismHostility towards childfree (my vlog)
Irina |
23-08-2013
Great quote! Thanks for adding) |
daniel
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23-08-2013
It is curious how demotivational quotes seem to me sometimes more realistic and motivating, unlike many motivational quotes, which seem just a bunch of sweet lies. Truth is real motivation.
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Irina |
23-08-2013
For me they're certainly more motivational than popular lies. I wouldn't say truth itself is motivational, but the fact that other people have seen and acknowledged it too may be as close to motivational as it gets :) |
daniel
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23-08-2013
Yes, I agree. Actually, I was regretting that last sentence on my comment because I have watched this video right afterwards. Worth watching, 2:50. Truth may be horrible sometimes, but anyway, I prefer to know the truth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjN28GraSPQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UU2ZDAoIMGP3m9tAgnniNEYw |
Irina |
24-08-2013
Damn, that old fuck keeps having children. This isn't the worst that can happen though. There are much more horrific stories. (( |
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24-08-2013
I don't if it is demotivational "per se" but this quote by Schopenhaur is one of my absolute favorites. It's long but it's worth reading :
“Now if we have so far convinced ourselves apriori by the most universal considerations, by investigation of the first, elementary features of human life, that such a life, by whole tendency and disposition, is not capable of any true bliss or happiness, but is essentially suffering in many forms and a tragic state in every way, we might now awaken in this conviction much more vividly within us, if, by proceeding more aposteriori, we turned to more definite instances, brought pictures to the imagination, and described by examples the unspeakable misery presented by experience and history, wherever we look, and whatever avenue we explore? But perhaps at the end of his life, no man, be he sincere and at the same time in possession of his faculties, will ever wish to go through it again. Rather than this, he will much prefer to choose complete non-existence. The essential purport of the world-famous Hamlet monologue is, in condensed form, that our state of existence is so wretched, that non-existence would decided be preferable to it…. If we were to conduct the most hardened and callous optimist through hospitals, infirmaries, operating theaters, through prisons, torture chambers, and slave-hovels, over battlefields and to places of execution; if we were to open him all the dark abodes of misery, where it shuns the gaze of cold curiosity, and finally were to allow him to glance into the dungeon of Ugolino where prisoners starved to death, he too would certainly see in the end what kind of a best of all possible worlds this is. For whence did Dante get the material for his hell, if not from this actual world of ours? And indeed he made a downright hell of it. On the other hand, when he came to the task of describing heaven and its delights, he had an insuperable difficulty before him, just because our world affords absolutely no material for anything of the kind? For the rest I cannot here withhold the statement that optimism, where it is not merely the thoughtless talk of those who harbor nothing but words under their shallow foreheads, seems to me not merely an absurd, but also a really wicked, way of thinking, a bitter mockery of the unspeakable suffering of mankind.” |
Irina |
24-08-2013
Brilliant. Especially the part "If we were to conduct the most hardened and callous optimist through hospitals, infirmaries, operating theaters, through prisons, torture chambers, and slave-hovels, over battlefields and to places of execution; if we were to open him all the dark abodes of misery, where it shuns the gaze of cold curiosity, and finally were to allow him to glance into the dungeon of Ugolino where prisoners starved to death, he too would certainly see in the end what kind of a best of all possible worlds this is. For whence did Dante get the material for his hell, if not from this actual world of ours? And indeed he made a downright hell of it. On the other hand, when he came to the task of describing heaven and its delights, he had an insuperable difficulty before him, just because our world affords absolutely no material for anything of the kind?" The reason many people view life as a great thing is because they select and store only the positive images of it, to the best of their ability, of course. Everyone will remember some of their pains and sorrows. But at least they won't pay attention and bother themselves with the misery of others, not directly related to them, with the misery of animals - in captivity and in the wild. "Why concentrating on something horrible that you can't change, right?" This may be true as a personal get-thru-the-day strategy but at least one has to derive some conclusions from the horrible reality one choses to ignore. That rational conclusion is: do not impose this life on anybody else. Then go ahead and skew your perception to suit your selfish needs. |
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24-08-2013
Agreed. Petter Wessel Zapffe and Thomas Ligotti call that "selection", "limiting the contents of consciousness". The truth is that without limiting the contents of our consciousness, we wouldn't be able to take it, life that is.
Btw, I strongly recommend Ligotti's "The Conspiracy Against The Human Race" in case you haven't read it yet |
Irina |
24-08-2013
I have read the conspiracy!)) Yep, "limiting the contents of consciousness". Although some claim they don't, that they're aware of the horrors yet value 'the beauty' or whatever - more. I kind of doubt that. One girl once told me 'I am sorry animals have to suffer but I just like meat more than animals.' Well, at least that's honest. Although I doubt she really has the vivid images of animal torture in her head when thinking that. And the image of juicy tasty steak was vivid, the pleasure associated with it was vivid. Who in their right mind will put some sort of beauty before the suffering of a human being? Well, this woman, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnoQ8F_CUfE Apparently being in a concentration camp and losing her husband there taught her 'to be thankful for everything'. This is supposed to be 'wisdom'? 'I like the smiles?' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5VTkQKgxkY |
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24-08-2013
That first video was really interesting. And I'm glad that she seems to be so happy. I hope she really is as happy as she sems. But the fact that we have to "look for beauty" says everything already. Looking for beauty is simply a coping mechanism and if you see beauty everywhere, you're not thinking it trough.
It reminds me of those people who say "Look at nature, it's so beautiful ! It's wonderful." Well, nature might be pleasing to the eye but if you know what really goes on in nature, then it becomes the ugliest thing ever. Just think of all the animals that get eaten by other animals. And the "lucky ones" who don't get eaten or killed by other animals (or by us, humans) live their lives in constant fear, constant trepidation. Now think of all the animals that ever existed, all the sentient beings that suffered. Nature is truly ugly unfortunately. The other day I was watching a documentary about polar bears and it was really sad. They showed polar bears desperately trying to find food while at the same time trying to protect their cubs. They lived in a constant state of extreme anxiety. And as the polar bear was doing this, they put a little circus-like music in the background as if the whole situation was comical. That's how desensitized people are. And on top of that, polar bears usually die of starvation because when they get older, they become slower, less agile and so forth and eventually just stop being able to find food. And just yesterday I read a quote that completely echoes my feelings: “A film about wild animals: endless cruelty in every latitude, “Nature”, a torturer of genius, steeped in herself and her work, exults which good reason: there is not a moment when what is alive fails to tremble, to make others tremble. Pity is a strange luxury only the most perfidious and the fiercest creature could invent, out of a need to punish and torture itself, out of ferocity, still.” - Emil Cioran "Apparently being in a concentration camp and losing her husband there taught her 'to be thankful for everything'." Well, in a way I'm happy that she is the way she is because if she wasn't "thankful for everything", if she actually faced everything that happened, she would go insane. But, just because I'm happy that she has such an optimistic attitude, doesn't mean she isn't delusional. Anyway, end of rant |
Irina |
24-08-2013
Well, in a way I'm happy that she is the way she is because if she wasn't "thankful for everything", if she actually faced everything that happened, she would go insane. But, just because I'm happy that she has such an optimistic attitude, doesn't mean she isn't delusional. But now many people see her as an icon for how to live your life (in the comments under the video). Distort the reality to feel good is perceived to be the deepest wisdom. Sure, she became a delusional life-worshipper perhaps not to go insane. Same way some people become religious after some personal tragedy. You'd think they'd be more atheistic than ever, thinking what kind of god would permit this to happen, but no, you see them praising the lord. Because that helps them pull thru and avoid living in constant fear of what else life may do to them for no reason at all, when they least expect it. Helps them believe the horror happened for a reason, is part of some mysterious plan and some day there will be prizes given and wounds healed. "The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim." (Gustav Le Bon, from ”The Crowd”) Damn, poor bears. But it's like that all around the wildlife. Seen this clip? 'a harmony of overwhelming and collective murder'
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25-08-2013
That quote "It's not easy to live every moment wholly aware of death." is great. That Woody Allen quote is I think from Love and Death. A great Allen movie. My favourite of his is Stardust Memories.
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Irina |
25-08-2013
Yeah, Irvin Yalom quote. I just can't force myself to read his novels (because I've always hated fiction, don't have the patience for it), but the straight-to-the point non-fiction is great. I do however want to force myself to read 'When Nietzsche Wept'. Here are some quotes from it: “Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you'll always find despair.” “It is wrong to bear children out of need, wrong to use a child to alleviate loneliness, wrong to provide purpose in life by reproducing another copy of oneself. It is wrong also to seek immortality by spewing one's germ into the future as though sperm contains your consciousness!” I believe I've only seen one movie with Woody Allen..."Whatever works". Will try those you mentioned one of these days)) |
martin
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26-08-2013
For everyone here interested in deliberately getting depressed, there's a compilation of pessimistic citations:
Alan R. Pratt: The Dark Side. Thoughts on the futility of life from the ancient greeks to the present. It's no longer in print and a bit on the expensive side (32 Euro on Amazon for a used one), but I found the money to be well spent. |
Irina |
26-08-2013
Damn, thats an interesting book! Only the delivery to my country would cost another 25 bucks.(( although i can find a used copy for just $18. i really prefer reading from my kindle than from paperbooks. |
Adam
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26-08-2013
"Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a fever-dream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain; a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats,humiliations, and despairs--the heaviest curse devisable by divine ingenuity; but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man's best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free."
- Mark Twain Death is the only thing we can be optimistic about. I have gotten through many nights by telling myself "you are going to die, and you will be dead for eons after this petty shit is done with." But at the same time, I can't have the vigor to endure life when I have given up on it. So it's a catch 22. I have to wind myself up when I need to write a paper or do an assignment and I need to wind myself down when I am petrified with misery. I guess the pendulem will swing back and forth for the rest of my life until I've finally had enough. It is sad that we suffer so much simply by existing. And I think there can be no other way. If life ever evolves, it will evolve by the same principles, correct? I'm only a layman in biology, so I could be wrong. But it just doesn't seem worth it. People are addicted to life, and fear death religiously. Religion is not losing its hold in the Western World. Rather, people are converting from Christianity to Life Worship. I just have to shrug, and say that no one will suffer forever so it isn't all that bad in a cosmic way. |
Irina |
26-08-2013
indeed. Christianity teaches to place utmost importance on the afterlife and forget the earthly pleasures. But today, where earthly pleasures are relatively easily attainable, people no longer need to justify life's suffering with illusory afterlife when more immediate fun and relaxation is available. consumerism. self-actualisaton. in the end, it's all about feing good in this life. |
"Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing". - Macbeth