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Ask HN: I am losing hope in humanity. What should I do?

• joeberon 4y ago
  The only way I've found is to invest in a religious practise, in my case zazen
• emteycz 4y ago
  Why do you attribute the bad things to people/entities who have nothing to do with them? The corporations making profit paid taxes on that profit - taxes that your government could've used to do something about the bad stuff. Corporations are not here to solve world hunger or climate change, that's what governments are for - and governments won't exist nor function without profitable corporations and otherwise healthy economy.
  • mdp2021 4y ago
    Not really - externalities remain a personal responsibility (including the "sheerly juridical person").
    • emteycz 4y ago
      What externalities? Whose personal responsibility? What is a programmer from Microsoft personally responsible for?
      • mdp2021 4y ago
        You mention «the bad stuff»; an instance is the typical of the externalities: pollution. The polluter, "juridical person", is responsible for it. «Paying taxes» in general to allow "having somebody else fix it" is not a responsibility relief - it is not the payment of a specific service. The mentioned «programmer», "person matching individual", is responsible for his actions as well - though it is not clear how such mention of the «programmer» fits the context. If with the original post you wanted to stress that "things are not as clear-cut as it seems (and it's best to refine one's views instead of prematurely embracing position and emotion)": I would surely agree - that's what I also noted in my earlier post.
  • dragonwriter 4y ago
    > Corporations are not here to solve world hunger or climate change, that's what governments are for Corporations are creations of government, if they don't serve a public purpose they should not be permitted to exist.
    • emteycz 4y ago
      They serve a public purpose - it's something people (citizens = voters) can use to shield themselves from economic bullshit ruining their lives by limiting their financial exposure. I don't really see the value in having millions of entities working on a goal such as changing the course of climate change in their own (and thus inefficient) way. I think it's much better to let these entities focus on what they do best, and then take money from them, and use it to further these goals in a much more optimal way.
      • dragonwriter 4y ago
        > it's something people (citizens = voters) can use to shield themselves from economic bullshit ruining their lives by limiting their financial exposure. That “financial bullshit” is specifically “liability for unlawful harms to other people caused by actions undertaken for the benefit of those granted the special protection”. If the laws providing liability are bullshit, they ought to be eliminated.
        • emteycz 4y ago
          That's not the bullshit I was speaking of. :-)
• nickmyersdt 4y ago
  You are focusing too much on things that are external to you and do not directly affect you. Life has always been hard for most people most of the time. There is nothing about the premise of existence that promises it will be easy or comfortable. The past 50-80 years have been incredible in terms of advancement, poverty (lowest ever globally), health. Turn off the news, get off social media. These things are not designed to give you a balanced perspective. They are designed to drive advertising revenue. Go and live. If you want to feel better about the world, go and do something that improves the lives of others.
• pwdisswordfish9 4y ago
  Once you stop reading HN comments, your opinion of humanity should improve.
  • eatonphil 4y ago
    Some news sites like The Atlantic seem to be perpetually really negative. I used to think it was a good site and I do think the writers are smart. But more recently every time I visit the front page it really just feels like it's designed to make me feel outraged. Certainly there are things to feel outraged about. But with some news sites it feels commercially manipulative.
  • mdp2021 4y ago
    Could you kindly avoid perversely proving your point. [:grin:] On the one hand, ignorance of reality by avoidance just postpones the problem; on the other, there is sufficient difference here, and from a public of comparatively discreet selection (potentially actually quite high), to show that "losing faith about humanity" is a statistical and stochastic phenomenon - facts do not show only "pure doom".
• codingdave 4y ago
  At the risk of sounding overly simplistic... spend less time focused on humanity, and more time focused on humans. I find that spending time with people, getting to know them as individuals, lets you appreciate the value each one of us has. We're almost all pretty decent people who happen to get caught in bad patterns when we get together in larger groups especially because there are a few bad eggs who spoil the mix. The more you appreciate us all as individuals, the more you can separate our societal flaws out as problems we need to solve without writing off humanity along with the problems.
  • adhesive_wombat 4y ago
    > more time focused on humans And remember that whenever you're "being connected with" by a company (and some people), it's not an even deal: they're attempting to co-opt your mental capacity for their own ends. If you imagine every corporate message you see, from adverts to tweets to emails are from an acquaintance deeply into an MLM scheme who wants to talk, you won't be far from the mark.
• Buttons840 4y ago
  Do your best to live your own morals and beliefs, the rest is not for you to worry about. Worrying will not help and makes your life worse. Avoid unproductive worry, but if you want to actually participate in organized efforts to improve things, that's good. Accept that there are only one or two problems you will be able to focus on, ignore the rest. If God exists, presumably all will work out as he wills. If not, nothing matters beyond enjoying an ethically lived life, so enjoy life, be ethical, and know you've done your part for others. Stop consuming media that draws your attention to things you are doing nothing about. If you participate in organized efforts to improve things, then you may consume some related media to inform your efforts. Seriously, just push the off button. This will not hinder your ability to vote or support worthy causes. A limited amount of research before voting or taking on a new project is enough. You don't need to look at that stuff every day.
  • captn3m0 4y ago
    Feynman had something similar: https://www.futilitycloset.com/2014/04/06/unquote-406/amp/ https://www.futilitycloset.com/2014/04/06/unquote-406/amp/ “[John] von Neumann gave me an interesting idea: that you don’t have to be responsible for the world that you’re in. So I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of von Neumann’s advice. It’s made me a very happy man ever since. But it was von Neumann who put the seed in that grew into my active irresponsibility!” — Richard Feynman
  • s1artibartfast 4y ago
    Related serenity prayer. "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference" Even as an atheist, the sentiment is crucial for navigating a complex world full of both beauty and horror.
    • AnimalMuppet 4y ago
      If you are responsible for fixing everything, you know you're not big enough, and it's hopeless. If you have no power to change anything, you're helpless and it's also hopeless, but for the opposite reason. In between, there's a balance. Do the best you can to help with what you can. Let the rest go - you can't fix it, so you can't try to carry the responsibility for it. As a theist, I'm trying to find and maintain the same balance as s1artibartfast. Especially "wisdom to know the difference"...
• Mikeb85 4y ago
  There's always been social issues, wars, famines, etc... And yet somehow the world is better than it's ever been. Things will keep getting better...
  • polotics 4y ago
    Hahaha Mike the logic on display in this comment would indeed make one despair. To the post original author: the temporary boon of cheap oil to burn has reached its end, the century will cleanse all excesses, and what's left of humanity will be wiser and kinder.
    • Mikeb85 4y ago
      And what's wrong with my logic? It's been demonstrated over the course of at least 6000 years of written record. We've always managed to come up with solutions to our problems.
      • polotics 4y ago
        Nassim Taleb uses the story of the one-year-old goose, so content that the nice humans have always and ever allowed her to get bigger and bigger. Then Thanksgiving happens. Over the hundreds of thousands of years of its actual existence, humanity has seen massive setbacks, inclusive of a moment when no more than a few thousands of us were alive, it was 70'000 years ago, it's in our genes. It is also very possible that there were previous periods with written records. We just don't have those.
• daggersandscars 4y ago
  In addition to the other comments: find something you enjoy doing and do it. I find I'm more able to look past the things I cannot change, if only for a while, if I regularly do something I like.
• hprotagonist 4y ago
  ‘Yes, that’s so,’ said Sam. ‘And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into? ’‘I wonder,’ said Frodo. ‘But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.’‘No, sir, of course not. Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and yet he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger than ours. But that’s a long tale, of course, and goes on past the happiness and into grief and beyond it – and the Silmaril went on and came to Eärendil. And why, sir, I never thought of that before! We’ve got – you’ve got some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end? ’ ‘No, they never end as tales,’ said Frodo. ‘But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.’‘And then we can have some rest and some sleep,’ said Sam. He laughed grimly. ‘And I mean just that, Mr. Frodo. I mean plain ordinary rest, and sleep, and waking up to a morning’s work in the garden. I’m afraid that’s all I’m hoping for all the time. All the big important plans are not for my sort. Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, or course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: “Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring! “ And they’ll say: “Yes, that’s one of my favourite stories. Frodo was very brave. wasn’t he, dad?” “Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits, and that’s saying a lot.”’ ‘It’s saying a lot too much,’ said Frodo, and he laughed, a long clear laugh from his heart. Such a sound had not been heard in those places since Sauron came to Middle-earth. To Sam suddenly it seemed as if all the stones were listening and the tall rocks leaning over them. But Frodo did not heed them; he laughed again. ‘Why, Sam,’ he said, ‘to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. “I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad? “ ’‘Now, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam, ‘you shouldn’t make fun. I was serious. ’‘So was I,’ said Frodo, ‘and so I am. We’re going on a bit too fast. You and I, Sam, are still stuck in the worst places of the story, and it is all too likely that some will say at this point: “Shut the book now, dad; we don’t want to read any more.” ’‘Maybe,’ said Sam, ‘but I wouldn’t be one to say that. Things done and over and made into part of the great tales are different. Why, even Gollum might be good in a tale, better than he is to have by you, anyway. And he used to like tales himself once, by his own account. I wonder if he thinks he’s the hero or the villain?
• strangattractor 4y ago
  Take control of the things in your life you can actually control. Except that there are things in this world totally out of your control. Stay away from too much social media. It is designed to give you that impression of the world. Suggested Read "A guide to the Good Life" by William Irvine
• thebradbain 4y ago
  I have many of the same thoughts. Personally, I’m very lucky/fortunate/happy: great family and friends, in a longterm relationship, a stacked social calendar, good job and generous pay, a home I like in a city I love, and the luxury of financial security. Even still, I can’t help that think the world is falling apart at the seams, or at least heading in that direction. It sounds bleak, but I really have absolutely no faith in elected politicians, billionaires, corporations, the media, our system of democracy, really anything institutional. This isn’t based on some political ideology or a pendulum swinging to the right/left, or some “both sides”/“run to the center” plea (Maybe controversially, I think the “center” is only good at maintaining the status quo, and I think the status quo is not sustainable). I’m only in my 20s, I am more than personally fulfilled, yet I can’t shake that feeling that everything in the world is going to collapse spectacularly. No matter who advocates for change, it seems modern society has adapted to either selectively sideline it or co-opt it, with no real change in either direction (see: healthcare in the US for an example; both sides dislike the current system completely, which itself was a compromise around keeping the existing private system, and we’re still in the same mess with even less political will to fix it). My opinion is that polarization is not a “cause” of all of this. It’s a symptom. Nothing is changing and most everyone is unhappy with the way things are. What I’ve found helpful is making peace with that, in the same way that life itself is temporary. We’re only here for a short time, and so are our institutions. It’s still not a solution, and I still fear for the future, but accepting there’s only so much I can control ( / aspire to control) has helped. It doesn’t feel so much like “giving up” so much as “being practical”, or so I’ve convinced myself. But hey, if/when the world gets even worse or outright collapses, at least I won’t be too shocked.
• robonerd 4y ago
  If you want to find inner peace, you'll need to accept that your expectations for society were never realistic in the first place. Corporate media promotes feel-good optimism because there is a lot of money to be made in making people feel better for an hour or two. But unbridled optimism only sets you up for depression when reality sinks in. If you want to be happy, you need to either keep yourself blissfully ignorant (too late for that, you've already perceived too much), or you'll need to make peace with the shittyness of the world. Focus on improving whatever is in your power to improve, and don't dwell on that which you can't change.
• eixiepia 4y ago
  Begin to practice Stoicism. You will always be miserable if your happiness depends on external factors. Humans in general will never change their ways, just learn to accept this fact.
• digisign 4y ago
  Turn off the TV and phone, semi-permanently, take a hike in the sunshine. Others explained why well.
  • hotpotamus 4y ago
    As someone who recently lived through a weather disaster (possibly as a result of climate change), I'll say that you can stick your head in the sand as much as you want, but when the power goes out and the supply lines shut down, shit gets real pretty quick.
    • digisign 4y ago
      Ha, "stick your head in the sand." You know there's middle ground between making yourself sick with worry and your description, but I'm sure you knew that.
• codegeek 4y ago
  There is truth in most of what you wrote BUT it is not new. Go back in any era and you can almost find similar issues. You mentioned inflation. Do you know what the inflation was like in 1970s/80s in the US ? "War..famines". Again, go back and you can find many examples of these over the last few decades. In fact, I would argue that we have less wars now in general (Can you imagine surviving during the era of World Wars?). I think it is mostly the fact that we have all our basic needs met and now we can think about the problems in the world. I am in a similar situation where I want to do something for others and best way to start small and help others with whatever you can. Volunteer for causes that you care about and go from there. There is a lot of joy in helping others and we sometimes just forget that as we are so tied up in our own little bubbles.
  • RhysU 4y ago
    I periodically hum a verse of "We Didn't Start the Fire" when today feels crazy. That song is effective for me because those are events one learns about independently but, absent the song, I would never have thought of them unfolding before my eyes. Don't forget the line towards the end: "But when we are gone / It will still burn on and on...".
  • PheonixPharts 4y ago
    > BUT it is not new. This is a gross misunderstanding of the issues we are facing, especially with regard to climate change. This is not just "bad things have always been happening", but change on the level the planet has not see in literally millions of years https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/All_palaeotemps.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/All_pala... Just one quick example: look at lake Mead right now http://mead.uslakes.info/level.asp http://mead.uslakes.info/level.asp We are already having energy issues in the US and we're looking at a near term future where there is not enough water to run the Hoover dam. This is already impacting people in the US and it will get worse. Within our life time we will very likely see an ice-free arctic. The blue ocean event will have major impacts on weather patterns and we currently can't really predict exactly how this will pan out, but there is a lot of extreme risk here. Complex systems, such as our climate and our economy are remarkably resilient. Just like the human body, a lot of unexpected change can happen and it can still function shockingly well. However there are limits and once things start to breakdown the escalate quickly. What we're seeing know is just a tiny, tiny preview of what's to come. Let's ignore climate. We are still part of the 6th largest mass extinction event in the history of life on this planet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction Let's ignore the biosphere. First of all your examples of "it's happened before" are all in the last century, a blink of an eye on species level time scale. While you are correct that there has always been war, and plenty of examples of extremely destructive war, we are a very close to potential global nuclear war. The "this is fine" meme dominates HN thinking, but this is largely because the HN crowd cannot accept the existential terror that is involved in facing these issues. In the long run I still hold that this deep denial is more psychologically harmful that working towards acceptance.
• PhaedrusV 4y ago
  Read "12 Rules for life" by Jordan Peterson; helping with that is what it's about.
• fuzzfactor 4y ago
  >I am losing hope in humanity. Don't worry, there's always somebody who's lost much more than you.
• shashurup 4y ago
  I believe there are good movements to look at - VHEMT, Misanthropic division etc. While not all of it are real they may bring you some peace and appeasement. Frustration is a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs.
  • shashurup 4y ago
    I'm afraid I should have been a bit more explicit. Try to look at the humanity not as if it is something good, unique etc. that happens to the universe which is doomed to progress, prosperity and all the good things. It might not be necessarily that way, a contre - it may be a despicable anomaly doomed to extinction bringing everything around with it.
• c22 4y ago
  I lost my faith in humanity decades ago, but I'm still here, so I might as well do what I can and try to have fun. If you look around there are a lot of good things that happen and there are good people trying to execute good ideas. A lot of our problems are really communication problems so the trend towards more pervasive communication through technology may be our best hope, even though it comes with some discomfort (and some growing pains). And compared to most humans that lived before us we can basically enjoy life on easy mode, so be thankful for the unique times we live in. If reincarnation is a thing I figure I must have done something spectacular in a previous life to be rewarded with this incarnation. I may not have faith in humanity, but I do have faith in evolution. I see progress as driven by energy and our earth as a giant battery that humans found a way to tap. This discovery has led to great gains and placed us in the perch of privilege we now enjoy, but as the battery runs low we will certainly experience the harsh effects of deprivation. We will have to make changes in the way we live while the battery recharges, and before it is charged again we will have gone. But someone will come after us and the game of life will progress.
• incomingpain 4y ago
  >Is losing faith/hope in humanity something others experience as well? Generally considered the 'doomer' political circle. No proper political alignment, often seen as purple or populist. Also not necessarily a pessimistic world view. >s it due to the way i perceive things (i.e. my entourage)? Most likely yes, but can be independently derived. >Am I in a bubble and I don't see it? How do I get out? Should I be in a bubble to keep my sanity? How do I build those filters? Everyone is in a bubble. Imagine a venn diagram of things you know and things you dont know. That's your bubble. Being in a bubble isn't inherently bad. Being in an echo chamber is bad and the probability you are in an echo chamber is very high. To evaluate if you're in an echo chamber, pretend to say something you dont agree with inside your echo chamber just see how it's reacted to. "climate change is false for X reason" >- climate change or how society/corporations/governments are destroying the environment and/or are barely doing anything. All I think about sometimes is how we'll begin to see famines spreading across poor countries until it's all too late... Yet Elon buying Twitter is still in the news till this day. Climate change is often the first one in the doomer field lately. Take extinction rebellion for example, or the maya calendar or y2k doomers. They are all climate change now. Their climate change echo chamber is quite problematic. All this 10 years left or various ultimatums are absurd. They've been saying it'll be 10 years for decades. We're on take 5 or so. In reality climate change is never going to properly threaten human life. We are going to do what is right at the right time and it'll be solved. We have probably 30-40 years to solve this problem without any major controversy. >- social inequality is rising year on year. inflation is a killer for poor families that are barely making ends meet. Yet most corporations are announcing lots of profits and they barely give a sh*t about their workers. Totally a problem. Will inflation lead to mass death or something? No. Social inequality is a problem that is really hard to solve. It derives heavily from the ability to take of debt. "credit score" disallows the peasants from taking on debt and therefore end up missing out on a force multiplier that leads to social inequality. How do you fix this? Given poor people debt? We saw how that worked out after glass-steagal repeal. No society in history has ever had a system that eliminated social inequality and frankly I don't think there ever will be for quite some time. If someone got into fights in high school, got their 51% and gets blackout drunk every day after their mcjob. Their outcome in society must be less than a doctor who did all the extra work to be qualified to be a doctor and saves lives. It builds an incentive system to build people into doctors and not mcjobs. >- workers: all I hear is there's a shortage of workers. shortage, shortage, shortage. But they rarely talk about salaries and wages being so low. This actually has to social equality measures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#/media/File:US_Labor_Force_Participation_Rate_by_gender.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#/media/File:US_La... In the 1950s before equality ~85% of men were employed. 35% of women. Overall about 60% of society were employed. Today men are around 65% and women are 55%. Yet still around 60% in total. So what happened was we displaced useless men into homelessness and took useful women and told them not to have babies. Which happened within a generation. Birthrates in 1950 compared to 1980 is night a day bad. Tons of benefits from doing this. We have a more productive and more useful population. Egalitarianism was tremendously successful and the few countries that dont do this today are harming themselves. But what did that do? It produced more workers in supply but total jobs more or less stayed the same. Demand didnt change. Simply supply vs demand. Workers are going to be paid less. We do have some consequences to deal with... but absolutely nobody is considering going back. There's great news here for workers and it's just starting now. It's the worker shortage of 2030. It's set it stone. Come 2030 the world war 2 countries are going to be hurting bigtime. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux1GxExRUUY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux1GxExRUUY >- billionaires: ugh, enough about these megalomaniacs. When warren buffet became a millionaire, it wasn't the same as a millionaire today. Owning a 2bed 1 bath in toronto is worth over a million and you're a millionaire. Inflation over time. In maybe 100 years inflation will make everyone billionaires. Billionaires existing is not really a thing anyone. It's not like Bezos literally has a billion $ in the bank account. He owns things that sum up to maybe being worth billions. He has no actual way of consuming those billions. So in reality it's not a problem at all. He contributed tons to society and people rewarded him. The last thing you want to do is punish or stop this. Amassing wealth and being unable to every spend it means everyone is more wealthy than if they hadnt. Removing billionaires, you deincentivize anyone else to do useful things in your society. You basically kill your own society. >- media: it's feeding people rubbish all the time. All. The. Time. Big time. In reality they've been lying to us forever. We are just catching them now. Not really something that changed to affect your losing hope in humanity. If anything we're about to fix this. >- corruption: it's so wide spread, people have become desensitized. war... famines... I could go on... Check out this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w The world is amazing. Things are great, there's no more third world countries. That video is 15 years old. I read his book. Things have actually improved significantly since that video. Poverty worldwide is being redefined because it's getting better and better. Practically the whole world is getting connected to the internet allowing them access to unlimited knowledge. Places like Africa who don't care about patents can steal every single idea from the patent system. They are rapidly building up their societies. This huge increase in development is going to raise everyone to today's standards in the west. Meanwhile the west is on the verge of 1 big thing. The end of scarcity. You might have say $50,000 in your bank account right now. In the end of scarcity world that $50,000 produces every good you ever need. Solves every service you ever need the rest of your life. You get to do things that can't be programatically done. That's an ideal world. The future looks amazing.
• abnry 4y ago
  Read more history and read less news.
  • mdp2021 4y ago
    Finally, an encouragement to dodge "the news" that rejects the idea of avoidance! Some could have suggested: "less news and more analysis". Problem: history is far from encouraging for people diffident on humanity. :) In fact, I was tempted to write some work about "Progressive history". This is, on the contrary, encouraging.
• amriksohata 4y ago
  In Hinduism this is called the age of Kali Yuga (the last 5000 years)
• thom 4y ago
  Log off, go for a walk in the sun.
• haunter 4y ago
  Stop thinking about thing that you can't change
• thebeardisred 4y ago
  Welcome to the club. Recently someone responded to me with "O.K. Doomer".
• nixcraft 4y ago
  This one is my personal favourite poem for a troubled time[1][2]: GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. [1] Video version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaVaF6TkSUU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaVaF6TkSUU (highly recommended due to voice) [2]Text version - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata
  • youniverse 4y ago
    Thanks for sharing this beautiful work!
• recuter 4y ago
  > All I think about sometimes is how we'll begin to see famines spreading across poor countries Begin to see? I think I've found you problem. Life is not a Disney movie. Imagine, as a thought exercise, you are living in the Middle Ages and are just now realizing it. Now, go tilt at them windmills.
• mikewarot 4y ago
  You're giving power to those thoughts, you need to stop. Focus on the stuff you can do, at the local level. Join a maker space, reading group, poetry slam, photography forum, whatever. Local action, local attention. Focus on the things you can help make better. PS: I'm 58... it's always been like this, yet we find ways. Look at how fast electrification of transport is moving now. Renewables are growing at a rate that I wouldn't have thought possible in my youth. Soon, the focus will shift from weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, and into, "What can we do with all this cheap energy to make life better?".
  • raptorraver 4y ago
    This is the correct answer. Focus on helping people around you. Also stop reading the news if they cause anxiety.
  • realreality 4y ago
    > Soon, the focus will shift from weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, and into, "What can we do with all this cheap energy to make life better?". That's not going to happen. People basically don't understand where energy comes from, or what's entailed with an "energy transition". See this lecture for a good overview: https://jancovici.com/en/video/can-we-save-energy-jobs-and-growth-at-the-same-time/ https://jancovici.com/en/video/can-we-save-energy-jobs-and-g...
    • s1artibartfast 4y ago
      There will be a glut solar and wind power in the middle of the day and in the summers long before we transition from fossil fuels. What to do with all the cheap energy is already a challenge in some places to the extent they have to pay people to use it.
  • webmaven 4y ago
    > Soon, the focus will shift from weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, and into, "What can we do with all this cheap energy to make life better?". If what you mean is "what do we do with off-peak power generation" then yes, there will be some of that, to the extent that we don't: a) fill the need for baseload generation with some form of nuclear power b) find ways to radically improve the efficiency of transmission and storage of excess power But I suspect that for the most part, what will happen is some nuclear, some overbuilding of renewable capacity, soaking up some of the excess with storage (battery, gravity, heat) and transmission inefficiencies, giving local/regional off-peak rate discounts, and simply wasting whatever is left over. Off-peak power discounts might end up prompting additional industrial and compute utilization, but that's dependent on additional infrastructure investment (that by definition will be largely idle during peak power use) so the discount has to be pretty steep to make it worthwhile.
• rayiner 4y ago
  Go live in Bangladesh for awhile. When my dad was growing up in a Bangladeshi village, 1 in 4 children died before age 5. (Even then, he remembers a happy childhood!) Today it's 1 in 40, about the same as the U.S. was in 1970. People in America are "losing hope in humanity" because of things like the impact of climate change in Bangladesh. But folks in Bangladesh know that the 15% of GDP that's at risk under an RCP 4.5 scenario (https://www.reuters.com/world/climate-change-putting-4-global-gdp-risk-new-study-estimates-2022-04-27 https://www.reuters.com/world/climate-change-putting-4-globa...) is actually only a few years of growth, compared to the immense strides the country has made over the last few decades. I'm quite partial to this prayer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer > God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. It was popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous, but I think it conveys an important truth about reconciling yourself to the human condition.
  • chrismeller 4y ago
    I completely agree with this. You’ve got first world (worse, American) problems. Spending a while in another country (even some of the poor EU ones) will completely set your compass back to true north.
  • jamal-kumar 4y ago
    I thought I was a depressed misanthrope until I left North America Nine years later it's been the best decision of my life to get a foothold in a place where people cringe when I explain to them what a 'furbaby' is. It's the banality of people's lack of perspective out there, and total deference to weird shit like not continuing your family in lieu of a dog which lives like ten years and then sadposting about mental health on social media when it realistically dies which got to me the most. The predictability of people's depression whenever festival season was over and they came down hard at once off of drug binges, and then september sadposting... like yeah ok not my culture anymore It's just the whole approach to mental health out there in general isn't "go get some sun, get exercise, learn how to make yourself some good healthy food and maybe get laid when you're healthy enough to be attractive. Put on a happy face in hard times anyways". It's eating massive amounts of antidepressants and then all the metabolites are detectable in ocean outfall being studied as a potential pollutant and nobody sees anything wrong with this. It's the contrast between being the most privileged people on the planet who have everything and live in the nicest countries killing themselves the most and foisting all that misery on other people, versus people who have very little and still appreciate stuff like their family. Great to step out of that and realize people with materially less stuff are happier somehow.
• rendall 4y ago
  The world as a whole is better than it has ever been, by nearly every measure. Life expectancy, poverty, child mortality, preventable illness; access to water, food, shelter; deaths from war, genocide; governmental corruption - all of these are trending better for people today than ever in the past. The world, as bad as it seems, is getting better all the time. As to your health and your outlook, make sure you have the physicals covered: eat well, sleep well, get regular checkups, stay active, curb or quit tobacco and alcohol. Have the emotional side covered too: stay social, indulge the creative outlets, keep in touch with family and people who love you. And avoid media that trades on gloom and doom scrolling. We are primed to see the negative, so you have to actively seek out the positive, to counter that bias.
  • derbOac 4y ago
    So I don't want to take too much away from what you're saying, because I think it's important to have reality checks from time to time, and you're right. At the same time, there's a numbers game that can be played with this. For example, worldwide refugee status has exploded over the last few decades. People don't become displaced because things are going great. Life expectancy has increased worldwide, but in some places like the US, it's started to decrease again, and birthrate is now below replacement rate. Do we even need to cite environmental statistics? Sure, they're maybe better in the US than in the early 70s but in terms of global effects they're probably worse than in the early 70s. It also seems strange to be talking about genocide given what's going on in Ukraine and other places in the world lately. Things like life expectancy and child mortality are strange too. They were in the better direction circa 1930s-40s and that didn't stop WWII. Sure, things are better than that now but my point is that these discussions are a bit difficult because we as a society don't have a good handle on statistics that matter. As much as I get annoyed with Taleb, I think he has a point that sometimes these kinds of political discussions have a flavor of "look things are great if you just accept my model of the world," ignoring whether the model is correct. I wouldn't say I've lost my faith in humanity; what I would say is that I've been surprised good and bad over the course of my life by how good and bad people can be in general. I also think that it's easy to forget that as good as one person's experience of life has been, so too can someone else's experience be equally bad. Average experiences are somewhat meaningless at some level; I don't think a good life makes a bad life acceptable.
• kstenerud 4y ago
  This is the normal course of events for a country that controls the reserve currency. What you're witnessing is the tail end of the American cycle, where inequality grows until the country destabilizes internally, and another up-and-comer takes the throne. It's happened again and again, with the British, the Dutch, the Portuguese, etc etc. https://seekingalpha.com/article/2447275-world-reserve-currencies-what-happened-during-previous-periods-of-transition https://seekingalpha.com/article/2447275-world-reserve-curre...
• sillysaurusx 4y ago
  I’ll echo a sibling comment: you’re reading way too much news. Every one of the things you mention are headline news. Weirdly, I have a different recommendation. Try to find an online game you like, and then devote yourself to it. I came out of my dota 2 years with a few more friends and few less points of anxiety.
  • lma21 4y ago
    That reminds me of my runescape days 15 years ago. The number of friends I made from that game was a huge help! Not only we became friends in game, but i got to know these friends IRL, i’m still in contact with a few of them. I even met them in person. Some have kids now, others still play the game and invite me to go PKing (raiding). Gaming communities are great really.
• cammil 4y ago
  These are problems created by concepts. Drop concepts, ideally. Or change your concepts if that is easier.
• chrismeller 4y ago
  See a therapist.
• Ourgon 4y ago
  Drop Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok, NYT, WaPo, Fox and all those other creators of permanent anxiety. Take up farming, buy a plot of land and build your own house, create something. Realise that: - the climate has always been changing and it always will but humans and most other species survived. It takes an extinction level event to make a big dent in the biosphere - social inequality is far less now than it has been in earlier times when people often lived or died at the whim of some aristocrat - there is no shortage of workers, only a shortage of people who want to do a given job for a given reward - there have always been 'billionaires' and there will always be since having a lot of resources makes it easier to gain more resources. Some billionaires do interesting things with their resources, others lie on them like Smaug. As long as there are enough resources left for the non-billionaires I don't care about them other than doing my best to not feed them if I can - the media is rubbish. Don't criticise the media, be the media. Corporate media doesn't bite the hand that feeds it so just avoid them (see above). - corruption is everywhere and has always been, it is not for nothing that Utopia was named so - it does not exist. Just like I try not to feed the billionaires I try not to feed corrupt institutions, occasionally breaking a law or two instead of giving in to their demands. That means they have a stick to hit me with if and when they want but knowing that they always will be able to find that stick means it doesn't make any difference to me
• abridgett 4y ago
  What's worked for me: - Try and become a child again (when I didn't have these worries/frustration). Concentrate on what's in my control. Don't worry about things outside my control. - Stop reading the news. A family crisis after the shit-show that was 2016 clarified what _actually_ affected me. - Stoicism. "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius (recommended many times on HN) helped. That what he wrote 2000 years ago is so relevant today made this stick. - Appreciating how fortunate I am (good job, health, life). I'm mostly happy, I try and act this way. Cut myself off when I'm going off on a rant. "Thinking happy thoughts" in other words, it's not nice for anyone else listening to doom-and-gloom. This also helps with the next topic: - Friends. Putting in some effort with (not yet friends) at work, on walks, meetup etc - sometimes you end up with a few more friends. - Distraction. Keeping busy with other things. Preferably creative or in-the-moment things. You aren't going to fix the worlds problems. By _all_ means help and do your part, however getting angry and upset is only going to make you unhappy. e.g. with all war in Ukraine, yes it's horrific. Perhaps you are in a position to help - offering a home, help or financial support? Sympathy and understanding for people you know who might be affected, reach out to them.
• tamaharbor 4y ago
  Social media has exposed humanity. Humanity has not changed.
• mdp2021 4y ago
  You are just _partially_ waking up - but partially, so you do not really see things as they really are; you cannot judge through inadequate knowledge and instruments: you should therefore keep those judgemental impressions you are experiencing with distance, doubt and reserve. Of course the situation is far from the ideal. The earlier you burst those numerous (to some uncountable) illusions, the better it will be for your objectivity and the less you will be scorched by experience - just drop prejudice, do not fall in an opposite one. It is a duty of yours, in case you live in a democratic system, to reserve part of your time to study and try to understand those issue-rich contexts. This will increasingly protect you from rush judgement. In a way, it will help you see why those others («humanity») have difficulties apparent in their statements and actions in grasping the matter. The human system is very far from perfect, as an understatement. That is the space in a very gross description: now study its details and laws and hunt for the solutions, as you should. Do not dream, outside some luxury moments in leisure. And on the emotional side, you are supposed to let what you "see" orient you, not affect you - you are in the field, not at the theater.
• davidfactorial 4y ago
  Go off into the woods, literally or not. I went back to my parents house for a year and that's how long it took to overcome my burnout. Life is finally starting to feel exciting again. I'm now exploring spirituality outside of religion for the first time. It's helped greatly with the anxiety and existential dread.
  • HKH2 4y ago
    That didn't work so well for Ted Kaczynski.
• t-3 4y ago
  The problem was always placing importance on other people in the first place. You don't need to care about them or their problems. We are born into this world, we aren't responsible for it. As long as you can live with yourself, just ignore the bullshit, because there's nothing at all you can do.
• Geee 4y ago
  Bitcoin is hope. It sounds weird, but it's actually the solution to all of these problems. The corruption of centrally governed monetary systems corrupts all incentives in the world. For example, if people are more conservative about consumption, it would lead to prices falling, i.e. CPI deflation. However, central banks have a mandate to keep inflation at 2%. They fix this by issuing more money, and lending it to those who consume more. This causes both climate catastrophe and wealth inequality, and is against the free will of people, who want to limit consumption to save the planet. Because of this, it's literally impossible to solve the climate crisis under the current monetary system. Workers, billionaires, media, corruption.. It's all there to support the same fallacy of overconsumption and overproduction. It all starts from central banks. Poor people lose and billionaires who are close to banks win. This system is fundamentally broken. We all vote for more of it, because of our own incentives. Bitcoin is the hard stop to this madness.
  • andirk 4y ago
    I agree that bitcoin solves a lot of the issues of corruption in governments by democratizing the currency rather than a centralized fiat that gets abused. However, bitcoin itself can become centralized if we do not all take a small stake in it via running nodes or at least participating in them.
• skanga 4y ago
  Ask yourself if it is NECESSARY to have "faith in humanity" in order to have a good life? to enjoy life? Do things that you personally enjoy and leave the fate of humanity to the rest of humanity.
• fifticon 4y ago
  Also, you are not supposed to carry the world. Consider how many of the fish in the sea take responsibility for the entire ocean. Focus on not being worse than the average human, then you have done more than could be asked of you. The sun, jupiter, even pluto, and countless galaxies will carry on regardless of how little or how much the current infestation of humans screw up. We have been great and awful for hundredthousand years, and either some of us will continue to do so, or the remaining animals will get a much needed break from us.
• aljgz 4y ago
  I used to intentionally be an optimist. In a period of my life I felt like you do now, and guess what? I've been using too much news. Now I'm back to my normal. I find lots of solid advice in other replies, but I add: -Read or listen to the book "Factfulness". Or if you are impatient, read a summary of it. You'll get a much better sense of the bigger picture. News systematically emphasize bad events. This is not due to a conspiracy, it's a result of interaction of multiple factors: 1-Progress is steady and slow while disasters are sudden and newsworthy. (Mostly) 2-People tend to care more about bad news. This creates a vicious cycle between news publishers and consumers and bad news get more and more attention. 3-Same thing happens in social media. Over the past few years I've stopped using news and most of social media. The only communities I interact with are a few Whatsapp/Telegram groups of my real friends, and Hacker News. Please don't forget to check "Factfulness"
  • eddyg 4y ago
    Came here to mention “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World—and Why Things Are Better Than You Think”. Definitely worth a read/listen. https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better/dp/1250107814 https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Bett...
• mvind 4y ago
  My advice: do drugs
• burntoutfire 4y ago
  Read some history books, if you haven't already. Life has always been a shit show and the state of peace and universal affluence we have now in the West is an exception and is just absolutely mindblowing. It likely won't last forver, we should try to enjoy every year of it.
• fargle 4y ago
  Grow up! I'm serious - yours is a normal reaction, at some point every intelligent, reflective person realizes essentially this. Oddly, I've seen the age at which this happens be 16 or 50+. For me, about 21. Whenever it happens, it can be overwhelming. Getting over it is part of growing up. And we're only done growing up when we're dead. Really study history; the bad stuff, the politics, war, equality, environment, etc. Whatever you are worried about. Is it really so bad now? Is it that different? - No to both. Yes, specific things from nuclear weapons to the internet are new. No, the arrival of, and volatility caused by, some new major thing is not. You cannot expect constant improvement with no backsliding. The graph of progress is a very noisy line with ups and downs of various durations, but positive long term average slope. This year or decade or century might be a little worse in some area, but you can't extrapolate that into a slide into the abyss. Then, as other have said: Stop worrying about what you can't change. Pragmatically figure out how you are going to proceed and live in a way you can be proud of. This you have control over. You can make your family, workplace, neighborhood a slightly better place. If a couple billion people did this, and they are, the universe will not be worse for it. When you find yourself in a position that you can do something positive about something, do it! But to do so, you have to be watching and ready. If you've squandered all your energy, money, health worrying about the problems you cannot change, you won't be able to take advantage of those, usually small, but sometimes not, opportunities. There are lot of groups that like to appeal to fear and anger and hate, even violence, in support of an often valid cause. They would like to make you feel that if you don't join in on those beliefs you are the enemy. They often make hysterical and absolutist claims. Doom and gloom. They would love to steal your hope. Don't fall for it. A cause that professes hate, anger, guilt, etc. as a solution is certainly not going to be effective in it's stated "goal", but it is likely not even truly committed to it. The soldiers of these groups shout and throw nothing but problems in your face. Many of these problems are real. Sometimes exaggerated a bit. Or a lot. Or fabricated - doesn't matter to them. But then they say roughly, "if we don't fix this right now, the world will end!", or "its the worst its ever been". That's what's not true. But they never ever mention progress or good news, and will outright lie to avoid it. Because then it would be balanced; the world would be OK on average. It's hard to ignore the huge amount of noise coming from these sort of exploitative groups when it hammers you every day. We get to see all the bad stuff happening from the entire world instantaneously. But we get good news from very few sources. See those mechanisms for what they are and realize that it's not hiding from the worlds' problems "in a bubble" to keep your sanity. It's rising above some fundamentally unhealthy forces and propaganda. It's a workaround for an information feed that's heavily biased for negativity.
• karmakaze 4y ago
  > media: it's feeding people rubbish all the time. All. The. Time. Consume less media. That will deal with reducing attention on the other points. Recognize what you can change and don't dwell on what you can't. Focus on what you can.
• dotcoma 4y ago
  Nothing. You are perfectly right.
• tommiegannert 4y ago
  Why do you need hope in humanity? Society conceptually has an interest in making sure you have something to lose, because that's how you can be controlled. Wealth, family, honor, hope. Surrender to loss, and you have nothing to fear. The Earth will be lifeless one day, no matter nuclear weapons or climate change. The dinosaurs probably didn't feel bad about letting a space rock hit Earth; it just happened. Who am I to say whether they could have done something differently to not die out? Is it their fault they didn't have hands to build Mars escape pods? (Perhaps they did.) Is it humans' fault that we're greedy and dumb enough to burn said dinosaurs? Would the dinosaurs have scorched the skies too, if they had the dexterity? (Perhaps they did.) If no space junk hit Earth and the dinosaurs didn't die out, would I even have a brain to formulate this sentence and a laptop to send it to you? Perhaps this good/bad categorization humans spend so much time on doesn't actually matter. Sometimes chance and change are useful. We can't reliably predict the weather tomorrow; why do we expect fixing Earth is something in our ability? Because it gives you something to lose. A fight to unite behind. Change what you can change, and accept the things you cannot. The true nature of humans is probably much simpler than anyone makes it out to be.
• lma21 4y ago
  I want to thank everyone for their contribution. Thank you so much for your guidance and helpful advice.
• lcall 4y ago
  I don't worry about that, and I am (generally) at peace, despite things. Instead, we can have faith in God, who gives instructions and always keeps His promises, and they are good. More at my web site (no sales; from when I felt more eloquent than today; in profile). (ps: there are some very likeable thoughts in other comments here)
• 4b11b4 4y ago
  Start listening to the birds and simply observing nature. You shouldn't look for so much in the sounds that comes out of a person's mouth.
• uslic001 4y ago
  Practice Tonglen meditation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonglen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonglen