Sports writer kills himself, leaves behind website describing how and why

Is that supposed to be some sort of point? That'sliterallyall it is.

We really are dealing with some sort of religious fanaticism here, aren't we?

The word 'human' means something specific. You want to use it to imply something vague and magical. I'm not gonna let you. No apology.

Sebudai_sl said:

Nothing can strip me from "being human" and there's no such thing as a soul. So... wat? [...] The word 'human' means something specific. You want to use it to imply something vague and magical.

Click to expand...

Let us be clear (again). You're correct on the specific. There's nothing spiritual, religious, or otherwise non-concrete to my statements: it's as real as you can get. Tan's example of the caged animals was a great one that we can use to contrast.

We are not talking about souls, magic, or anything such. We are talking aboutactivity, what a certain being, a grasshopper, lion, human,does in the world, and further, how thatdoing affects their sensuous experience.

A human being is a human being not just biologically speaking, but because he or she experiences the world in a certain way, in a human way (i.e., with self-awareness, amongst other things), which is obviously rather completely different than the way something like a grasshopper or a lion experiences the world. This experience comes about by their own activity and relationships to other organisms around them.

If you cage a grasshopper or a lion, then the way they experience is no longer through their own activity, throughwhat they do. So hypothetically, if those two organisms were self-aware and could communicate, the caged grasshopper and the caged lion would likely describe a similar life experience of living in a caged world all their lives, and then if you contrasted this life experience with two from the wild, that narrative would be wildly different. In this sense, that existence deprives them ofbeinga grasshopper, ofbeinga lion: because theydo notexperience the worldasgrasshoppers and lions do.

In terms of human beings and commodity overproduction then, it stands to question the role commodities play in our lives. Because commodities, the capitalistic mode of production, are the foundation of this modern society, and we should ask if this foundation, or certain parts of it, are conducive to our mental well-being. Obviously, it's mostly a great thing that we can mass produce blankets (mostly, as oddly most impoverished people around the world yet get them), but physical needs are but one part of total human need: we are talking about mental needs, mental health. And the overproduction of commodities whose purpose are to generate emotion or feelings has the negative consequences of removing the activities we ourselves do that spontaneously beget our own emotions and feelings, to the point where, more and more, the things felt by you weren't because of you.

So as the thesis goes, this leads to feelings of estrangement, emptiness, and alienation in one's own life. These feelings are totally rational because it isn't the person that's mentally unhealthy, but on the contrary, the society in which this individual livesis.

khalid_sl said:

You don't get it dude [...] His "proof" of his premise was an empty appeal to Marxism.

Click to expand...

I put this to rest inthis post. See from the 2nd paragraph.

They'd create more theme parks.

Eliot_sl said:

Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

Click to expand...

Phazael_sl said:

This may be the single most derailed and side tracked thread in the history of this community, but its still a good read for entertainment value.

Anyhow, I think Dumar's perfect world would be something along the lines of the Equilibrium movies society, judging by snippets of his spread across several threads.

Click to expand...

I don't think that's right. Dumar never said we were automatons, he said in modern life everything has a price, and that diminishes the emotional value of everything.

Equilibrium was sweet as hell though.

Dumar, could you psychoanalyze this for us?

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/vi...kids.ketv.html

A reunion with THREE kids and a mom.