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I echo that sentiment but oppose the positive adjectives tied to his motivation. Rather I believe can be at our best when motivated by our dark emotions towards

I echo that sentiment but oppose the positive adjectives tied to his motivation. Rather I believe can be at our best when motivated by our dark emotions towards positive actions: Grief, rage, madness. Mr. Manjhi was compelled to this momentous thing after his world was torn apart by it. He persevered while the very people whose lives and whose children's lives he was improving mocked him. He worked for 20 years compelled by his demons and the universe is better off for it. I hope destroying the mountain gave him peace.

embedding-shape 2mo ago
I dunno. Grief, rage and madness can only take you so far. The care and compassion for other human beings is what makes you continue. I don't think he'd be able to hammer down such a path for the duration of 20+ years unless he was deeply passionate about preventing the same issue for others in the future, even if they mocked and taunted him at the time.
- KajMagnus 2mo ago
  He got some support too, later: (from the Wikipedia article) "though most villagers taunted me at first, there were quite a few who lent me support later by giving me food and helping me buy my tools"
  - embedding-shape 2mo ago
    No one wants to be the one that dances first, no one wants to be the person that dances last
squigz 2mo ago
Grief, at least, is not necessarily a dark emotion. It is an inevitable part of love, which is itself almost always full of good and bad emotions. "Misery is wasted on the miserable." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQTbkEeCTeM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQTbkEeCTeM
hiccuphippo 2mo ago
It feels like an Orphan-crushing machine[0] kind of story. It's amazing he achieved that but he shouldn't have needed to. Why wasn't there a road already? [0] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/orphan-crushing-machine https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/orphan-crushing-machine
- squigz 2mo ago
  It doesn't need to be one or the other. You can be angry that the machine exists - and work to destroy it - but you can also appreciate people doing the work to stop orphans from being crushed. And you don't always have to do both at once. If you only engage in the former... well, then orphans just keep getting crushed while you try to figure out how to stop it. And keep in mind the machine is much smarter than you, and has been doing this a long time and is really good at it and is always getting better, and is supported by various systems to protect it, and...

embedding-shape 2mo ago

I dunno. Grief, rage and madness can only take you so far. The care and compassion for other human beings is what makes you continue. I don't think he'd be able to hammer down such a path for the duration of 20+ years unless he was deeply passionate about preventing the same issue for others in the future, even if they mocked and taunted him at the time.

KajMagnus 2mo ago
He got some support too, later: (from the Wikipedia article) "though most villagers taunted me at first, there were quite a few who lent me support later by giving me food and helping me buy my tools"
- embedding-shape 2mo ago
  No one wants to be the one that dances first, no one wants to be the person that dances last

squigz 2mo ago

Grief, at least, is not necessarily a dark emotion. It is an inevitable part of love, which is itself almost always full of good and bad emotions. "Misery is wasted on the miserable." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQTbkEeCTeM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQTbkEeCTeM

hiccuphippo 2mo ago

It feels like an Orphan-crushing machine[0] kind of story. It's amazing he achieved that but he shouldn't have needed to. Why wasn't there a road already? [0] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/orphan-crushing-machine https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/orphan-crushing-machine

squigz 2mo ago
It doesn't need to be one or the other. You can be angry that the machine exists - and work to destroy it - but you can also appreciate people doing the work to stop orphans from being crushed. And you don't always have to do both at once. If you only engage in the former... well, then orphans just keep getting crushed while you try to figure out how to stop it. And keep in mind the machine is much smarter than you, and has been doing this a long time and is really good at it and is always getting better, and is supported by various systems to protect it, and...