The most alarming trend I've seen is the rise of hating existence, and wishing you were never born. Examples of this are anti-natalism and the push for painless suicide pods funded by the government. The irony of this is the fact that this is a trend in one of the most comfortable eras of human history and that during hard times humans were more often than not life-affirmers. Religion and tradition have died but we're lacking a replacement. I don't believe the lack of religion causes decadence, but our current system prevents us from creating a new collective meaning by atomizing us and forcing us into inhumane environments like urban concrete cities without any coherent community.

What do you guys think about anti-natalism and the rise in pessimism?

    I didn't think hitting the blog tag would cause it to literally go into the blog section... oops

    Yeah its hard coded as a blog page now lol, gotta delete and remake it if ya want a normal thread not a blog. Not sure if there's anything else I can do in janny-vision

    Golden forcing us into inhumane environments like urban concrete cities

    We have been in cities as long as we have had too many people to call a tribe. Dawn of civilization times. We made them out of different materials but the concept was the same. They were even closer together than they are today. Alot closer. Point is, this is nothing new at all. Man has made his own jungle since he decided he didn't like the natural one that didn't have a roof. It's completely natural for us. The animals, not so much but most have adapted or just stay away.

    The anti natalism is only really encouraged in certain areas and certain races. I dont see that being pushed in africa, india (starting) or the bulk of asia where the real population numbers are. The old world is the one with the crowding problem. The new world is full, so fuck off. Europe seems big on the no babies suicide charge. Germany in particular has some choice propaganda pictures.

    Lack of traditional morals leads to hedonism. It's hubris to think that humans had all that wrong for thousands of years and only now are we "enlightened" enough to know better. Read some old Greek and roman philosophy and you will see the same ideas of today are just gussied up versions of 3000 year old ones. The Bible was correct in saying "there is nothing new under the sun".

    Golden The irony of this is the fact that this is a trend in one of the most comfortable eras of human history and that during hard times humans were more often than not life-affirmers

    It's almost like we were made to work and not having work makes us go a little crazy.

          Golden i dunno man but what i know for sure is that due to this system i am now a follower of the /x/ succubus *religion

              Gigachad Holy shit, this is put very well. I wanted to add my bits, but you've actually covered practically everything I wanted to say, also in a much and much shorter form. I will remember these formulations, thank you

                  NaiJi
                  Really glad you like it. I dont feel writing is a strong suit of mine.

                    I think Antinatalism is clearly an offshoot/branch of Gnosticism.

                      Fimm idk if it would be, definitely not overtly at least.
                      When I worked in retail, I spoke to a lot of my colleagues that were about my age, none were religious at all but pretty much all of them didnt wanna have kids. Reasons ranged from 'idk i wanna live my life' to 'I dont want to bring more suffering to this world'. There were a couple that cited environmental reasons too, not wanting to harm the planet etc.
                      It was quite sad tbh.

                        Definitely not overtly. But the thing about Gnosticism is that you can have similar beliefs without even realizing it. Of course not all the reasons for Antinatalism are Gnostic, but some of the main ones definitely are. Mainly the idea that the world is a prison, and that you need to have special knowledge to realize it.

                        I would like to think that there is a loss of a sense of shared being. Shared ideals of beauty. Pride and inspiration about the future. Art is sonewhat self-pleasing in nature these days. There is not a sense that art has intrinsic beauty, but only subjective.

                        Not sure how much if it is a reflection of how life feels and thus we need art to be therapeutic or if it is that we let people who hate beauty define what is good art.

                        im just full of shit anyways

                        Golden
                        Without going too much into politics I think what we're going through is a large scale of the mouse utopia experiment. Too much comfort ends up being incredibly dysgenic for society, and very few people nowadays can deal with delayed gratification.

                            5 days later

                            Murderbunny
                            I wouldn't say "too much comfort" is causing problems, as that would imply living in a safe environment with electricity, running water, AC, and food to be somehow bad which is laughable and worship of suffering. I'm assuming you've done hard labor and are familiar with that lifestyle so you might have a different opinion. Living this comfortably is a virtue, the problem arises when you go from mastering a skill and building meaningful connections to purely consuming content, which is what our society struggles with. Our biggest desire is to exert our will on our environment, like building a house or creating a work of art, which when not met causes depression

                                Gigachad
                                "We have been in cities as long as we have [...] not so much but most have adapted or just stay away."
                                You're right, cities themselves aren't inhumane. My intention was more so about having big cities without a coherent community, and a lot of the available food and water supplies being pretty unhealthy.

                                "The anti natalism is only really encouraged in certain areas and certain races..."
                                I was talking about the west in this thread

                                "Lack of traditional morals leads to hedonism..."
                                I don't believe that old ancient philosophy is infallible and that modern philosophy is a pile of rubbish, but I agree that it has value and is the base of our modern moral values. The lack of inherited morals and them being enforced morals instead of simply being thrown out words also leads to hyper-individualism which just leads to chaos, I agree

                                    Golden

                                    and a lot of the available food and water supplies being pretty unhealthy

                                    I will never see unhealthy food as an issue. I have lived on very little money per day and always had access to vegetables and fruits. Even when I lived in very bad neighborhoods I could always bike a few miles to a farmer's market or an actual grocery store. And if you know what to buy you can get a lot of stuff for very cheap.
                                    Water is a different story, I have lived in places where the water was darn near undrinkable. That was suffering. I've had very bad tasting water, places where the water needed to be boiled for a few months before use, and I've had stinky sulfur water. it just sucks when you live with this.

                                      Golden I wouldn't say that comfort is in and of itself bad but I'll definitely claim that having all your needs met effortlessly is deleterious, both from an individual and societal standpoint. I think it's similar to how playing a game with cheatcodes on gets boring fast and ultimately cheapens the whole experience.
                                      When you are pampered and have all of life's struggles removed you tend to become soft and selfish. I'd say unearned comfort is the key here, the comfort you have that came exclusively out of other people's struggles.

                                        6 days later

                                        one of the most comfortable eras of human history

                                        And that is why people have more time to contemplate over the meaning of life and focus on their emotional and spiritual needs, yet most of the time these needs are not met due to the mechanical routines, atomization, individualist culture, decline of religion, etc.

                                        current system

                                        People who are financially stable lack motivation and energy after trying to sustain the current life to pursue anything besides short-term entertainment that would just pump the dopamine immediately, while those who are struggling to maintain a comfortable life no longer believe in the libertarian propaganda that hard work always provides rewards and are filled with resent towards those who are born in more fortunate circumstances.

                                        But both groups have a common enemy, which is the "current system". What is the current system? Who controls the current system? How does the system work? People with different ideologies will give out different or even conflicting answers. We might not have a collective meaning, but at least we have a conceptual collective enemy to blame on, whether it is capitalism, cultural hegemony, fate, domination of technologies, or whatever. Individuals are believed to be powerless or trivial within the system, which only contributes more to the existential crisis.

                                        anti-natalism and the rise in pessimism

                                        They overlap a lot. Both of them also tend to be convinced that they are the logical and rational ones who can see through the reality while the inferior others are manufacturing false purposes to cope, but that might be more nihilistic than pessimistic. It is not surprising to see an outburst of these ideas when everyone reasons that we are living in a dystopia.

                                        Or...it might just be those damn microplastics poisoning our brains.

                                          gingermilk And that is why people have more time to contemplate over the meaning of life and focus on their emotional and spiritual needs

                                          I wanna argue about that. I disagree and agree. Yes, we have more time... technically. That time is also filled up with screens and let's be real here most people are not wikipediaing or actually learning or spending time on self improvement. It's mindless social media drivel, tik toks, youtube, and other inane propaganda that gets spewn out nowadays. I think the average peasent spent more time in philosophy and thought after hours than most of us do. What the hell else was there to do? Cards? Again?

                                          I'm just arguing with you to get the thread going. All your points are very salient and have merit.

                                          The rise in pessimism? Never forget the effects of absolute constant fear propaganda. I like the theory that MKUltra just thought the cia that the best way to control people was through trauma and fear. Like mankind hasnt already learned this lesson a thousand times over by now.

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