It's sort a chicken and an egg story... I could have said something in the vein of what you said in another context.
But I think I've enjoyed and witnessed a fair amount of priviledge in my lifetime. Going from childhood friends who's parents were filthy rich (we're talking 80's and 90's TV money, the big bucks, presumably 8 figures or very close to that at some point in time) to making a high school diploma in some pilot education project, imagine 60 teenagers in a remote village, and, I kid you not, no presence obligation at school, we organised our own living spaces renting in the village, you can imagine the rest. I know it sounds like my usual exagerated BS at first glance somewhere between humblebrag and compulsive liar... "Yeah sure buddy, you this, you that, you sure look like it hah."
I understand what I look like, but I am adament I had the opportunity to collect some perspectives in my life. We weren't wealthy, I'm not, I've known 4-5 months in my life where my mom was like "yup whats in the fridge needs to last us we don't have any money until next week or so" or where she borrowed like 50 bucks from me. Never really lived abject poverty, but other than I think I've seen a fair amount of the spectrum.[/size]
We can certainly argue, that in all the cases where I have witnessed an increase in options (short-hand for abundance and freedom) fail to cause an increase in self-actualisation, there were some vague historical debts (usually trauma, not allways our own ones) in the background, dragging people back down. And it is also fair to say that all that is anecdotal anyway. I can only judge myself and the people I've known and/or know (when do you ever know somebody blabla)... But I think the anecdote of
one, proves the existence of
some.
If scarcity were to dissappear tomorrow that would be a giant milestone for all of us (and a huge personal relief ^^). But the world wouldn't heal by itself, nature maybe, society not. Like I used to say at 17, "the annoying thing about our life is that we actually have to go through all of it ourselves, it cannot be delegated" (mild obligatory cringe at past me). Take my word for it not every thickskulled [stereotype] is gonna become a paragon of virtue if you just let them, hell I was a pathetic larva when I was the most free and the least pestered by scarcity, I barely got out of bed. It takes daily effort to not revert to that state eventhough it's not sustainable and I can't actually afford to, nor is it fulfilling.
The grind that most people call their routine is like a an unmovable obstacle, not litterally but still pragmatically. But take all those problems away with the snap of a finger, and you're still left with a mountain of reflection/meditation/personal-growth to do, that each of us gets the chance to fail at individually, let alone as a society. Going back to non-reflected obsessive compulsive behaviour, basically addictions, not necessarily substance related, a person can addict to anything. Give everybody ∞ amount of everything, some folks will still want to have, or at least say they have a bigger ∞... And those are just the kind of surface levels things that can allready manifest in kindergarden age, fully developped humans have all sorts of fancies and fetishes.
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Topic: The Big Random Questions Thread (Read 17099 times)