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"Even when we take the conservative political philosophy at face value, though, we should note what it implies: that sense of futility, that feeling that you ca

"Even when we take the conservative political philosophy at face value, though, we should note what it implies: that sense of futility, that feeling that you can’t do anything to substantially change the world, you’re stuck with it as it is. This is the way things are, and if your life sucks, it probably sucks out of necessity or because of your own personal failings. As Ben Shapiro puts it, “in a free country, if you fail, it’s probably your own fault.” Once we have freedom, whatever happens next is the natural order of things, and if you try to change it, you’ll be trying to muddle with things that cannot be changed, and you’ll end up destroying freedom. ... I hate it on a gut level, and my hatred is probably because I have spent much of my life thinking that the battle for my self-confidence and happiness was also necessarily a battle against this type of thinking. What type of thinking, exactly? The type that sounds like this: If you’re sad it’s because you’re weak, if you’re poor it’s because you’re stupid, if you’re marginalized it’s because you’re culturally dysfunctional, if you’re being screwed over you shouldn’t have signed the contract, if you did something horrible it’s because you’re evil, if you don’t understand it’s because you haven’t paid attention, if you’re angry it’s because you’re resentful, if you’re sentimental it’s because you’re not a Man." - Nathan Robinson, "Why Hopelessness is Conservative" -- https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/05/why-hopelessness-is-conservative https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/05/why-hopelessness-is-c...

TangoTrotFox 8y ago
I'm definitely not saying anything is the 'natural order of things'. Far from it I'm saying that what people will become is a product of decisions yet to be made. And you are the master of those decisions. Make bad decisions and you will probably not see good outcomes. But at the same time make good decisions and you probably will. Think about this. Imagine the amount of time you will spend over the next 5 years on social media. Instead of doing that dedicate it to learning [x]. With the time allocations of most of us, you would be an expert on [x] by the end of those 5 years. The one and only thing separating you from that achievement is self discipline. It's really quite remarkable if you really consider what this means. I've coached chess for years and the one thing I've found is that who achieves and who fails has very little to do with who is smart or who's dumb. It invariably comes down to what happens when a person runs into a bumpy streak, which happens to everybody at some - even world champions. One group of people will decide well they just must not be smart enough, or somehow weren't born with the ability to play, or maybe they're just too old. And the other group will grit their teeth and continue pushing forward. Not all of those that push forward will succeed, but many will. However, exactly 0 of those that resign themselves to outside forces will ever achieve success - the resignation to those outside forces becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

TangoTrotFox 8y ago

I'm definitely not saying anything is the 'natural order of things'. Far from it I'm saying that what people will become is a product of decisions yet to be made. And you are the master of those decisions. Make bad decisions and you will probably not see good outcomes. But at the same time make good decisions and you probably will. Think about this. Imagine the amount of time you will spend over the next 5 years on social media. Instead of doing that dedicate it to learning [x]. With the time allocations of most of us, you would be an expert on [x] by the end of those 5 years. The one and only thing separating you from that achievement is self discipline. It's really quite remarkable if you really consider what this means. I've coached chess for years and the one thing I've found is that who achieves and who fails has very little to do with who is smart or who's dumb. It invariably comes down to what happens when a person runs into a bumpy streak, which happens to everybody at some - even world champions. One group of people will decide well they just must not be smart enough, or somehow weren't born with the ability to play, or maybe they're just too old. And the other group will grit their teeth and continue pushing forward. Not all of those that push forward will succeed, but many will. However, exactly 0 of those that resign themselves to outside forces will ever achieve success - the resignation to those outside forces becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.