3 ms·

Life is generally hard - very few people experience a charmed life from birth to death, where they follow all the steps, play by all the rules, get handed a gre

Life is generally hard - very few people experience a charmed life from birth to death, where they follow all the steps, play by all the rules, get handed a great career, have wonderful relationships, great health, and die surrounded by loved ones after a long fruitful life (although likely HN has more than your typical share that fit this blessed existence). What “The Secret” encapsulates is one manifestation of the human predisposition towards hope. The current culture is telling people their society is hopelessly corrupt, racism is endemic, nothing they do matters, oh - and if you happen to succeed it was either by luck or exploitation. Nothing you do matters and all is meaningless anyway. Hope, along with realizing you have free agency and can fix your own circumstances, is what helps you get up in the morning when life is punching you in the nose. I also anticipate a resurgence of religiosity in Gen Z - the current mainstream secular world has nothing to offer those that are being beaten down by life.

veec_cas_tant 4y ago
Some of the happiest countries in the world are also some of the least religious. That either validates or contradicts your last paragraph, I’m just not sure which.
- pxc 4y ago
  > [Religion] is the [...] realization of the human essence [in fantasy], since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. [...] Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  There's definitely an element of secular faith, in institutions such as science, the march of progress, the market, justice, freedom etc. I don't think which altar you kneel at matters as long as you feel there's an invisible hand called inevitability moving things in a good direction.
- 3np 4y ago
  Not necessarily. Religion as a coping mechanism for struggling people is surely documented?
- theGnuMe 4y ago
  True happiness is found by relationship with other people. This has been true since the beginning since we are all born to a mother. The infant needs connection or it will die. This is true for all humans and that need does not diminish or sever as we grow. So we have to connect with others. We make friends, find partners, have kids. Society is the collection of relationships and religion is one way to create, organize and maintain those relationships. It is not the only way. Some find connection in nationalism and fascism for example. Capitalists and politicians have transformed American exceptionalism into a focus on individualism. Failure is an attribute of the individual. Ironically, capitalists avoid failure by incorporation (collective groups of individuals) which allows them to socialize the losses amongst the shareholders or if too big to fail, the general public. But this focus on absolute individualism has not always been true in the USA. The USA has had significant periods of humanistic growth and those reforms have benefited society. That is what we need to return to. I think generationally the millennials are more humanistic but there is certainly a nationalist rise taking place. Personally, I think Scandinavian countries are happier in general because of their collective humanism which is embodied in support services.
- thro1 4y ago
  I've heard it in some podcast, neuroscientic probably, but I can not find it anymore who was interviewed and I would appreciate some clue about it, he said something in the sense that religion may be some regulative mechanism imprinted into brain - so if everybody has it the same and follow it then everybody is happy. Technology, CCTV (soon AI trained on #$%@) etc. would be an external control mechanism used instead.
vasco 4y ago
The way in which many young people engage with climate change is more religion than not. To be sure there is scientific consensus of our impact on the climate and over time we need to continue to transition to less polluting industries, but there's a vibe that is very much similar to church nuts.
- ianai 4y ago
  That could be a simple “not enough science to express things rationally.” Or even dark, they’ve seen so much bad and no counter to it in their formative years that naked hope is a sort of lunge point. (Politics really has gone from “roughly responsive and representative” to pretty close to one party rule even when they’re out of power.) Like how people will turn to the more or most extreme options if they feel desperate.
ImHereToVote 4y ago
The world is yearning for a new religion, similar to the yearning for Christianity in the Roman empire. Personally I wish people could become more obsessed with being right, instead of being obsessed with having the right ideology. Sadly I think the neurology of your typical human isn't suited for this behaviour.
- dasil003 4y ago
  People are so obsessed with being right that they’re unwilling to be wrong. It undercuts your whole vision.
  - ImHereToVote 4y ago
    The odds that you were raised right into an accurate model of the cosmos is quite low. Hence to be right you have to be able to change your mind all the time.

veec_cas_tant 4y ago

Some of the happiest countries in the world are also some of the least religious. That either validates or contradicts your last paragraph, I’m just not sure which.

pxc 4y ago
> [Religion] is the [...] realization of the human essence [in fantasy], since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. [...] Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.
marginalia_nu 4y ago
There's definitely an element of secular faith, in institutions such as science, the march of progress, the market, justice, freedom etc. I don't think which altar you kneel at matters as long as you feel there's an invisible hand called inevitability moving things in a good direction.
3np 4y ago
Not necessarily. Religion as a coping mechanism for struggling people is surely documented?
theGnuMe 4y ago
True happiness is found by relationship with other people. This has been true since the beginning since we are all born to a mother. The infant needs connection or it will die. This is true for all humans and that need does not diminish or sever as we grow. So we have to connect with others. We make friends, find partners, have kids. Society is the collection of relationships and religion is one way to create, organize and maintain those relationships. It is not the only way. Some find connection in nationalism and fascism for example. Capitalists and politicians have transformed American exceptionalism into a focus on individualism. Failure is an attribute of the individual. Ironically, capitalists avoid failure by incorporation (collective groups of individuals) which allows them to socialize the losses amongst the shareholders or if too big to fail, the general public. But this focus on absolute individualism has not always been true in the USA. The USA has had significant periods of humanistic growth and those reforms have benefited society. That is what we need to return to. I think generationally the millennials are more humanistic but there is certainly a nationalist rise taking place. Personally, I think Scandinavian countries are happier in general because of their collective humanism which is embodied in support services.
thro1 4y ago
I've heard it in some podcast, neuroscientic probably, but I can not find it anymore who was interviewed and I would appreciate some clue about it, he said something in the sense that religion may be some regulative mechanism imprinted into brain - so if everybody has it the same and follow it then everybody is happy. Technology, CCTV (soon AI trained on #$%@) etc. would be an external control mechanism used instead.

vasco 4y ago

The way in which many young people engage with climate change is more religion than not. To be sure there is scientific consensus of our impact on the climate and over time we need to continue to transition to less polluting industries, but there's a vibe that is very much similar to church nuts.

ianai 4y ago
That could be a simple “not enough science to express things rationally.” Or even dark, they’ve seen so much bad and no counter to it in their formative years that naked hope is a sort of lunge point. (Politics really has gone from “roughly responsive and representative” to pretty close to one party rule even when they’re out of power.) Like how people will turn to the more or most extreme options if they feel desperate.

ImHereToVote 4y ago

The world is yearning for a new religion, similar to the yearning for Christianity in the Roman empire. Personally I wish people could become more obsessed with being right, instead of being obsessed with having the right ideology. Sadly I think the neurology of your typical human isn't suited for this behaviour.

dasil003 4y ago
People are so obsessed with being right that they’re unwilling to be wrong. It undercuts your whole vision.
- ImHereToVote 4y ago
  The odds that you were raised right into an accurate model of the cosmos is quite low. Hence to be right you have to be able to change your mind all the time.