No Self

It's important to follow the recommendations of health authorities. At least being stuck indoors is not an entirely bad thing in the internet age! Just keep in mind that from a psychological perspective, we humans have a talent for fearing the wrong things! We fear terrorists who kill about 100 people per year, but not crappy diets that kill millions. There are countless examples of this. COVID is a sort of grey area, and does need to be dealt with responsibly. But this is an opportunity to focus on the mind itself and the issue of fear. Even the issue of death. That is when spirituality gets real.

Important to do lots of research to ensure you are getting the actual nutrients you need, regardless of diet. A blood test now and then can help.

The body is always changing. Most 90 year olds look quite different from 15 year olds.

We had a guy named Clive Palmer - a loud-mouthed, charismatic billionaire from the coal industry - run for prime minister. His slogan was "Make Australia Great" (not joking). Mercifully, he did poorly. Trump is mostly viewed as a clown here, though a minority support him vocally and the ugly side of conservatism - opposition to environmentalism and batshit religious antics - is consistent to both. Keep in mind that the guy behind the Fox News network that has supported Trump, Rupert Murdoch, is Australian. He had to become a US citizen in order to expand his media empire Stateside. And a lot of the same games are played back at home, but the main Australian conservative issues seems to be opposing renewable energy for as long as possible using BS fossil fuel propaganda, or stereotyping unemployed people as 'bludgers' to denounce social services - though we do have healthcare and other basics here.

Yes of course, hence the part about being open to dialogue. I was raised in a permissive environment which was good in some ways, but it meant that sibling rivalry with my sisters reached pathological proportions. My parents were in their own little world. They had three children, now in their 30s/40s, none of whom are on speaking terms to this day. There is definitely nuance involved, but the broad strokes of psychology provides a good foundation to avoid ridiculous errors in judgement.

What you said earlier about awkwardness around other races is something that still holds true in rural regions. Many people do not interact with people of other races, and this is the biggest cause of racism. Diversity in media may help by giving young people an assortment of role models, though this has been done for many decades now and it hasn't exactly stamped out all racism. Worse, trying to push this agenda far beyond what is natural has become a sickness. Republicans vote against their own interests because they support policies that benefit the billionaire class. Yet the identity politics of the Democrats is almost as bad. Hence the near 50/50 split. There is no party representing the good of all.

Some interesting arguments. There are 4 parenting styles: Permissive (kids allowed to do whatever) Authoritarian (kids forced to obey strict rules) Authoritative (a balance of freedom, discipline and open dialogue) Negligent (parents completely uninvolved) Obviously the authoritative style will yield the best outcomes, but parents need to be in a reasonable mental state themselves (including sufficient sleep, controlled stress levels, etc.), as well as sufficiently developed/educated in order for this to come naturally. There's a huge counter-argument that needs to be made, given the issues of hypersensitivity, anxiety, narcissism, intolerance towards alternative viewpoints, etc. that have been plaguing educational institutions. There is a place for discipline, appreciation of others, empathy and respect as a 2-way street. We see the results of the absence of this with many young people today. Bill Maher has expressed this many times.

Only on the conspiracy theorist extremes. Australia is a very right-wing society and most people are pretty reasonable around the issue of COVID. We need to be careful conflating extremists with healthy conservatism.

I can appreciate that. In fact, Eckhart Tolle has made a similar point before, arguing that some people turn towards intellectualism as a means of boosting their ego (calling average people stupid), the same reasons people might focus excessively on their appearance or careers, etc. But there's a lot wrong with schooling, the media and society in this respect. School reduces learning to a dreaded chore, a stressful fear of failure, and a triumphant sense of arrogance that passing a high school test means knowing it all. Real knowledge, driven by a genuine thirst for understanding, is quite different; as soon as we evaluate our assumptions, they tend to dissipate. It ends up making us humble due to Dunning-Kruger. THIS has spiritual value as we become more open-minded and see the limitations of the mind itself. Then the media comes along and overlooks the Marie Curies of the world, instead venerating the Miley Cyruses, sexualising children and giving them extremely poor quality role models. Intellectualism is seen as a boring consolation prize for autistic people with no sex appeal. In a way, being smart is seen as stupid since the narcissistic rewards of pleasure and prestige are not there. Hopefully the link between this anti-intellectualism and the unconscious tribalism of, say, the world of politics is obvious. Anyone can read and become smart the same way that anyone can exercise and look good, so it becomes a question of the priorities of society itself. Of course, a truly authentic spiritual search is head and shoulders above any mental or physical development. This directly raises consciousness on the planet, brings authentic love into the world and unveils our true nature to ourselves. And yet, even then, one might naturally be drawn to marvel at the magnificence of the scientific knowledge or the historical journey that humanity has undertaken over the eons. Cheers.

Consciousness is the key. And a minimum of introspective intelligence. Leftists are supposedly trying to evolve society to a point where equality reigns, but end up creating their own self-righteous tribe attacking average people until they turn conservative out of backlash. If the actual goal were a utopia of justice, surely they would focus on using strategies that actually work and have some persuasive value. Whiny bullying naturally turns people against the cause via reverse psychology, and is motivated by a desire to feel a self-congratulatory moral superiority at the expense of legitimately progressing the social justice cause. It is an attempt to express anger at others without owning one's own lack of consciousness. (Interestingly, this same argument was made decades ago in the Unabomber's manifesto. Amazing that there's still been introspection.)

Who decides that contractions need apostrophes?

We're going to have to start to prepare ourselves for a post-Trump world. A world with nuance and not just outraged tribalism.

One of the tragedies of these situations is that women often feel the most attraction to men who don't give a damn about pleasing them. (This is surely the essence of all the dating advice stuff?) For men who do care, there can be absolute hell to go through - putting in an extreme effort and then being rejected, cheated on or whatever. Surely this is one of the harshest lessons in life for men. My best advice is to focus on spirituality and deep meditation, with the goal of finding out what is really true about your essence. If this is the most important thing for you, the outside world - even relationships - will fade in importance. As a bonus, this will benefit the relationship (or help you to cope if for any reason it does not last a lifetime) but more importantly it will prevent a lot of suffering regardless of which direction life takes.

I normally regard people with narcissistic personality disorder as completely without empathy. But perhaps this isn't totally true. There's obviously a very powerful and visceral resonance with certain others, particularly when it comes to perceiving shared grievances. Trump has achieved a number of things that may be good in the bigger picture. He has exposed the underlying developmental stage of approximately half of the country. With his background as an entertainer, has caused many people who otherwise find politics boring to engage. And he has exposed the issue of the big tech companies whose algorithms promote content that is aggravating and polarising. There is some hope for sense and reason to start to emerge.

The question 'Who am I?', directed inward, destroys all other questions.

Good points, but I have to disagree with the above ones. Unless we are saying that ISIS suicide bombers are spiritual masters. They sure are confident.

Mobs of angry stupid people are dangerous at the best of times.

Do your best with focusing for your studies. It is about learning to focus on a project and see it through as much as it is about the subject at hand. But in the bigger picture of life, what seems like a huge deal now will probably be completely forgotten even in a year or two. But it is very hard to have this perspective when in the thick of it. I'm sorry to learn about what happened with your mother. I had a good friend in Melbourne who went through the same thing. It continued to affect him in terms of relationships with women. Her choice to end her life was not a reflection of lacking anything in terms of care for you, and she held on for as long as she could have. It would have been far worse if she had passed away when you were younger in terms of your psychological development. People who 'die' are all cared for on the other side so there is no need to worry about them. It is best not to compare yourself and your progress with those of your peers. You have gone through much more trauma and are developing far more depth and substance. It will appear that you are less developed until you realise how shallow and sheltered they all are by comparison. When the time comes for you to give advice to others in very dark situations, you will understand the spiritual value in being a survivor of some of the harshest experiences life can offer. You will no longer envy sheltered people. Regarding the more mundane aspects of mental health, the consensus is that anti-depressant medication and therapy are ideal. If neither is an option, the next thing needs to be focusing on spirituality. It is important to immerse yourself in spiritual teachings and high quality people as much as possible, because the old programming of the mind (the 'sad story of me') will return in full force as soon as you stop. I have often used a strategy of listening to Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now audiobook on repeat, over and over, whenever possible. The goal is to discover who you are without your story, and whether the story is even as real as it seems.

Not sure if it has been mentioned before, but loss of interest in formerly enjoyable activities is a key symptom of depression. Seeing the limitations of sex is also a sign of spiritual maturity. Sex is only a small aspect of love, and this energy when devoid of love, acceptance and wisdom causes all sorts of trouble.

Nelson Mandella? Winston Churchill?

Please be careful with this logic. Anti-intellectualism is not going to help us out of a situation where mobs of angry stupid people run the country. Please be careful with this logic. Anti-intellectualism is not going to help us out of a situation where mobs of angry stupid people run the country.

This is a difficult situation and requires nuance. Sadly, both sides of politics are somewhat insane on the issue. When I was young, it was very popular to use the word 'gay' as a synonym for 'inferior'. Obviously this was not right, and whatever process brought about change towards our more tolerant modern society was a good one. And there's still progress to be made to avoid situations where minorities (or majorities in the case of women) are held back from fulfilling their potential due to systemic blockages. But the issue plaguing the left is a total loss of sense and reason around the issue of diversity. Angry mobs taking offense on behalf of disabled people, people of colour, etc., without bothering to consult those people about what the issues that they actually face are. Good contributors like Al Franken destroyed over past examples of inappropriate humour. Attacks on anyone who is insufficiently pure or fails to use the latest 'woke' language. Loud-mouthed virtue signaling that would disgust any reasonable person. People who voted for Trump out of objection to this leftist garbage have a legitimate grievance. Why would anyone vote for a party obsessed with trans people, but uninterested in the working-class majority?

You might like to learn about the Vikings.

The US is by no means unique in having the issue of fanatical nationalism. The Balkans spring to mind, or Ireland, or Chechnya, or.... We might be falling for availability bias and pick on the US just because we see it in the media more. That said, of the three most ginormous global forces of the last century - the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and the USA - only one of them remains. Residue of its former battles remains. The battle with the Nazis was one that saw the US pretty unavoidably emerge as righteous, heroic and mighty. This ego boost quickly became sick as the humanitarian disasters of Vietnam, El Salvador, Afghanistan, etc. made it unclear if the US was the 'good guy' anymore. Culturally, the Cold War saw a confused contradiction as the US self-congratulated about its so-called freedom, whilst the population lived in little boxes, terrified to say or do anything that might be perceived as remotely communistic. The notion that Communist/centralised/planned governments have failed, though debatable, has combined with the insane black-and-white rhetoric of tribalism to give rise to fallacies like 'greed is good'. We can give credit to Donald Trump for exposing both how widespread this culture of individualistic narcissism is today, and how obviously sick and destructive it is. As a result, there may be a chance for change in the future.

Sounds like a difficult situation, though only a more acute version of the struggle of an average truth-seeker in a society that is anything but enlightened.