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Paul, you're only 41. I'm a lot older than you. I've spent 40 years trying to fix this broken down rotted house and things have only gotten worse in that time p

Paul, you're only 41. I'm a lot older than you. I've spent 40 years trying to fix this broken down rotted house and things have only gotten worse in that time period no matter how much effort is put into it. It's a delusion to think this can be fixed using the method of repairs because the repair method has been the way it has been done for a century now and things continue to fall apart and many repairs lead to worsening the fundamental underlying problems, or not addressing them. The house needs to be rebuilt from scratch. It won't be though. For the young, I recommend resettlement in a more sane region. For the old, hope that collapse doesn't happen and wipe out savings and impoverishment. For those in between, nothing really. They are stuck with their car and unable to move to a new one so they hold on to the hope that the next car repair is somehow going to be the last one and the car will at last work as if new and functional. When a wiser older person cautions a younger one, offering life or career perspective, they always respond by contemptuously telling that wiser older person they are a moron and should piss off because "adults are working here". It's how things are and how they have been. Everyone has to learn their lessons on their own, and in the end recognize their personal failures only when it is far too late, and at that point they try to warn the next generations, and are called old fools. The cycle of life, which is based on delusions and cult adherance.

scottlegrand2 7y ago
I don't know how old you are but I'm a lot older than 41 as well. I am also stymied by the increasing tribalism in this country and I don't feel like a member of either major tribe. But I will admit there's a fine line between a wise elder and a crazy uncle at Thanksgiving. You sound like you started as the former but you're drifting towards the latter if you think you are entitled to respect simply because of your age. My own frustration is that most of our so-called challenging problems have relatively simple solutions, but one or more of the above tribes will block those solutions so we go nowhere fast. That said, the world is a lot better than it was a hundred years ago. And if we ever collectively get our heads out of our butts and own our bipartisan $h!+, we can fix this. But I'm personally betting that won't happen until we get a moment of clarity delivered to us from China or India. And I'm not sure I'll still be above ground by then.
- droithomme 7y ago
  > if you think you are entitled to respect simply because of your age I'm glad you qualified that with if. When I said I was older the point was that "I too once stood where you stand now and said these same things." Not only do I not think I am entitled to respect, I know for a fact I won't get it no matter what. That's why I said this dynamic is the cycle of life. Solomon commented on the phenomenon as well. Each generation is committed to learning their own lessons and knows for a fact that they know better than all that have come before. I would go insane if I thought offering advice would do any good. That is part of why the problems can not be solved. Everyone knows best and that their solution is going to work, and everyone that tried to fix the rotted house before simply didn't know what they were doing. The problem is not that the house is rotted, it can't be, because then how could we justify keeping it. Therefore the problem is not that it is rotted. Let's check in in 20 years and see how all the various proposed costly repairs have worked out. It will be great to be proven wrong and see that restored house standing proud, working just as well as a brand new one using modern materials, and the repairs all done and delivered at a lower cost than building anew. Alternatively those "OK boomer" chanting people will now be hearing "OK millennial" directed at themselves from a new generation that is convinced their own proposed repairs to the nearly totally collapsed rotted wreck will be the ones to restore the house to glory and the only problem was that the millennials and the boomers didn't know how to repair it properly, not that it was rotted.
  - scottlegrand2 7y ago
    Forget 20 years, go out 50-100 years. Given a prior where we haven't annihilated the top of the food chain to give the planet a new shot at intelligent life... We will have solved artificial intelligence and that's a game changer. It will create an age of limitless wealth. But what I wonder about is whether our hindbrains will insist on maintaining inequality in an age where everything is cheap and plentiful. And what will the AIs make of us? Who cares about health care if there's cheap immortality? That's the best healthcare of them all. But will we make it generally available or will we try to attach artificial value to it as an entitlement? And that's because once people stop dying from natural causes we're going to have a population problem. That means we're going to have to get off world. That also means that climate change becomes irrelevant because if we can terraform Mars etc, then tweaking the climate of the Earth is trivial. The one true god that has delivered on all of its promises is science and I don't think it's done delivering the good stuff. But it's also a wrathful and vengeful god in the wrong hands. But even then, I'd rather live in the above future then in a future where we continue all of our petty squabbles over which nation state is the best. That's creating misery worldwide. We could end hunger and homelessness today for pennies on the dollar. But we refuse to do so in favor of a huge military and prison industrial complex. All that's doing for us IMO is giving other countries a chance to leapfrog us mid-21st century. So I'd suggest you do as I am doing. Fight your own mortality to your dying breath and try to make a difference between now and your probably inevitable dirt nap because it might not be inevitable because we're heading for one hell of a phase transition (no singularity required).
searine 7y ago
>I'm a lot older than you. This isn't an argument. Age has nothing to do with wisdom. >I've spent 40 years trying to fix this broken down rotted house and things have only gotten worse in The thing is, we still have a functioning system. It does not function well, but it works at its most fundamental level. Large institutions have tremendous inertia. Things don't change until the basic functions are exposed as not working. Once the lie is laid bare and the delusion lifts things sort themselves out quickly. That levee break moment is what makes change, and it usually happens with a whimper not a roar. >The house needs to be rebuilt from scratch. This is just catastrophizing. >When a wiser older person cautions a younger one ok boomer
rimliu 7y ago
With age comes wisdom. But sometimes age comes alone.
pnutjam 7y ago
"Burn it down" is not a solution. You've lived a life of privilege, in a privileged time and now that it's not going your way you want to end it? Life goes on and it will improve. Incremental improvement is light years better then war and famine. Too many people are willing to block any improvement because it takes a dollar out of their pocket, when the alternative is destroying much more of their wealth.

scottlegrand2 7y ago

I don't know how old you are but I'm a lot older than 41 as well. I am also stymied by the increasing tribalism in this country and I don't feel like a member of either major tribe. But I will admit there's a fine line between a wise elder and a crazy uncle at Thanksgiving. You sound like you started as the former but you're drifting towards the latter if you think you are entitled to respect simply because of your age. My own frustration is that most of our so-called challenging problems have relatively simple solutions, but one or more of the above tribes will block those solutions so we go nowhere fast. That said, the world is a lot better than it was a hundred years ago. And if we ever collectively get our heads out of our butts and own our bipartisan $h!+, we can fix this. But I'm personally betting that won't happen until we get a moment of clarity delivered to us from China or India. And I'm not sure I'll still be above ground by then.

droithomme 7y ago
> if you think you are entitled to respect simply because of your age I'm glad you qualified that with if. When I said I was older the point was that "I too once stood where you stand now and said these same things." Not only do I not think I am entitled to respect, I know for a fact I won't get it no matter what. That's why I said this dynamic is the cycle of life. Solomon commented on the phenomenon as well. Each generation is committed to learning their own lessons and knows for a fact that they know better than all that have come before. I would go insane if I thought offering advice would do any good. That is part of why the problems can not be solved. Everyone knows best and that their solution is going to work, and everyone that tried to fix the rotted house before simply didn't know what they were doing. The problem is not that the house is rotted, it can't be, because then how could we justify keeping it. Therefore the problem is not that it is rotted. Let's check in in 20 years and see how all the various proposed costly repairs have worked out. It will be great to be proven wrong and see that restored house standing proud, working just as well as a brand new one using modern materials, and the repairs all done and delivered at a lower cost than building anew. Alternatively those "OK boomer" chanting people will now be hearing "OK millennial" directed at themselves from a new generation that is convinced their own proposed repairs to the nearly totally collapsed rotted wreck will be the ones to restore the house to glory and the only problem was that the millennials and the boomers didn't know how to repair it properly, not that it was rotted.
- scottlegrand2 7y ago
  Forget 20 years, go out 50-100 years. Given a prior where we haven't annihilated the top of the food chain to give the planet a new shot at intelligent life... We will have solved artificial intelligence and that's a game changer. It will create an age of limitless wealth. But what I wonder about is whether our hindbrains will insist on maintaining inequality in an age where everything is cheap and plentiful. And what will the AIs make of us? Who cares about health care if there's cheap immortality? That's the best healthcare of them all. But will we make it generally available or will we try to attach artificial value to it as an entitlement? And that's because once people stop dying from natural causes we're going to have a population problem. That means we're going to have to get off world. That also means that climate change becomes irrelevant because if we can terraform Mars etc, then tweaking the climate of the Earth is trivial. The one true god that has delivered on all of its promises is science and I don't think it's done delivering the good stuff. But it's also a wrathful and vengeful god in the wrong hands. But even then, I'd rather live in the above future then in a future where we continue all of our petty squabbles over which nation state is the best. That's creating misery worldwide. We could end hunger and homelessness today for pennies on the dollar. But we refuse to do so in favor of a huge military and prison industrial complex. All that's doing for us IMO is giving other countries a chance to leapfrog us mid-21st century. So I'd suggest you do as I am doing. Fight your own mortality to your dying breath and try to make a difference between now and your probably inevitable dirt nap because it might not be inevitable because we're heading for one hell of a phase transition (no singularity required).

searine 7y ago

>I'm a lot older than you. This isn't an argument. Age has nothing to do with wisdom. >I've spent 40 years trying to fix this broken down rotted house and things have only gotten worse in The thing is, we still have a functioning system. It does not function well, but it works at its most fundamental level. Large institutions have tremendous inertia. Things don't change until the basic functions are exposed as not working. Once the lie is laid bare and the delusion lifts things sort themselves out quickly. That levee break moment is what makes change, and it usually happens with a whimper not a roar. >The house needs to be rebuilt from scratch. This is just catastrophizing. >When a wiser older person cautions a younger one ok boomer

rimliu 7y ago

With age comes wisdom. But sometimes age comes alone.

pnutjam 7y ago

"Burn it down" is not a solution. You've lived a life of privilege, in a privileged time and now that it's not going your way you want to end it? Life goes on and it will improve. Incremental improvement is light years better then war and famine. Too many people are willing to block any improvement because it takes a dollar out of their pocket, when the alternative is destroying much more of their wealth.