The mediocrity of the average person is horrifying

[Joshe]

I've been alone my whole life because I can't connect with people because they are too shallow. I desperately want to be seen and met but I'm fucking terrified of being ordinary so I judge everyone as beneath me. So I figure I'm isolated because others are too shallow. Since I'm terrified of being ordinary, I can't allow myself to be ordinary with them. 

This is a common pattern.

Happened to me. I remember being a kid and desperately wanting others to play with me in my unique sandbox but all the kids just wanted to play in the normal sandbox. 

One blind spot Leo has is that he's converted this pain into cosmic insight to avoid feeling it. True integration of difficult truths doesn't feel cool or exciting. It's painful. It feels like grief and humility, then relief.

When I saw what an asshole I had been my whole life - resenting people, calling them shallow, mediocre, etc. - and then realized I did it because I was hurt - I bursted into tears. Haven't been the same since. Highly recommend. 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Joshe

[Monke]

@Leo Gura Perhaps this is why most ambition is corrupted?  

The joy of being, fully experienced, is so profoundly beautiful that any ambition is icing on the cake. 

One could almost argue that a deep acceptance and deep love for mediocrity and mediocre people is almost a requirement for genuine, authentic ambition that serves to increase consciousness. I've been stuck at SD stage yellow-ish for years so it's a struggle for me to consistently think this way despite it being the obviously higher perspective. My frustration with others at different stages, especially if they hold some position of social authority over me, impedes my development significantly. I've been trying to let go of SD entirely for this reason. It creates a sense of "other" where there is none. 

It's all super ironic and counter-logical. This is probably why hustle bro online entrepreneur culture feels so hollow. It is completely devoid of love. 

[Monke]

@Joshe  Yeah this is basically the exact experience I'm going through right now. Thanks for the words of advice. 

"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" Matthew 23:12

[Monke]

@gettoefl

1 hour ago, gettoefl said:

Mediocrity is seeing mediocre everywhere

I know you are right but I can't feel the truth of what you say. 

It was frustrating to develop my social skills to a high level only to still feel like a social outcast. 

In my experience the average person Is actually quite hostile towards anyone who seeks meaning, truth, purpose, etc in any way. Even (unintentionally) implying that you aspire to more than the status quo in casual conversation is often enough to trigger a snide remark. Even if these things are not explicitly discussed there is often a subtle contempt that is hard to just brush off. I never discuss any of this stuff with my friends and socially I'm always joking, laughing, and bringing good energy. 

I can tell that my friends deeply respect me and find me frustrating at the same time. Perhaps because I don't share their obvious coping mechanisms related to wage slavery, dating, spirituality and instead seek to actually improve these domains of life? I'm genuinely not sure. I have no idea. 

I think my problem isn't with mediocre people themselves, but with how they tend to beat you to death with their mediocrity without even realizing what they're doing. It's like throwing a drowning person a rope and instead of climbing out they try to pull you in with them. 

The hatefulness of mediocrity when it is threatened is what makes it hard for me to grow past this, although I know you are correct and I need to. 

 

[Rafael Thundercat]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Yes! Yes! Of course.

Ambition is rare. Most people have none and live like conformist zombies.

However, there is a next-level mindfuck here for you. It comes when you eventually realize that these mediocre people were right. Ambition is an illusion. All your striving, and in the end you will never achieve more than just sitting and being, which you could have done from day one. Ambition is awesome, but also a giant illusion at the end of road.

Look at Elon Musk. He his horny to go to Mars. But eventually he will discover it is a completely hollow goal. There is nothing to do on Mars once you are there. It is no better than scrolling through TikTok. Except TiKTok doesn't have you working yourself to death for an empty goal.

Made me Laugth 

[Rilles]

To key to stop the intellectual posturing is to lighten up, self-deprecate, a bit, write a satire on your need to be so damn special. 

Edited 3 hours ago by Rilles

[Monomachus]

For a complex world to function there needs to be an extreme range of development levels in order to service all the different needs that form society / your world. God may allow for that vast and differentiated range by genetic means and by development of the psyche once in the world, particularly in childhood

Why do so many do so little, with low ambition? Is it because society needs only a few good ideas at a time, but lots of labour? Maybe because 'being' has such an enjoyable component all of its own. TikTok, drinking wine and gossiping are a kind of being too.

Being is all there is because the present moment is all there is and so being has to be imbued with a certain level of innate enjoyment or life wouldn't be worth it, would be too much of a grind no matter what you achieved, because the present moment is all that exists. However, for mankind (or you, if we're solipsistic) to progress there need to exist those who cannot just be, like Elon perhaps , but we know that those who take away the trash or arrest the bad folks are equally as necessary and so that range of different minds must exist, but then slavery can exist.

 

[Miguel1]

Wait until you realize that even in a community like this, theres too many people interested in crap.

Also, go tell people in this thread how it is:

 

[Butters]

I don't see the problem, it's not like you need to live this other person's life. 

Socialization is just about vibes. Then when finished you can go do something alone again. 

Edited 4 minutes ago by Butters