The real banality of life

[Galt]

I thought of this from another thread.

Life in general really consists of banality.  My aunt died, and I'm really not sure if anyone cared.  She had lived off her ex-husband (under the old alimony laws) until he died, then she lived off a combination of his assets and her part-time work, then she lived off her daughter (actually, a good earner) when that ran out.  Then she died.

No one really cared.

Sorry, I'm just trying to uncover the reality in life.  The media hep something up, and bring up huge emotional feelings, but the banality, the reality, of life is that you just live and then die.

Sorry to intrude among the Kodak-Pictures crowd who follow everything the media prescribes.

[Galt]

And to continue that ... LOL ... I had the experience of working in a large company 20 years ago (before I wisely went back for the education to make myself independent ... ) that all of the ass-kissers went out of their way to congratulate the boss for his birthday.  I mean to the extent of ... WTF?

And this really ties in with the banality of life in my opinion.  It's just predictable.  At least I can say that I work for my money and that's it.  But there is really a whole universe of ass-kissers, and second-cousins, and spouses and all the rest who simply ride on the gravy-train.  Life just isn't what is presented in the media.  There are a very few people who actually DO something, whether in the military or private life or whereever, and a huge, huge mass of people who ride on that.  Eat off the fat of society, and justify it somehow.

[Peter]

Thanks, Galt!

That is a question that come to my head many times. When I drive through a village, I often ask me what do they live of. What is their life like? Sometimes it looks impossible, just some houses on infertile rocks and a flock of sheep. It seems imposssible that they all can live of that soil.

If the village is on the coast, there may be may be vacation houses or second homes.

Today when I walked through the small city where I work, I tried to figure what the people lived of. I tried to estimate the size of the industry and the popoulations.

How many restaurants, how many high tech companies, how many shops.

I gave up. I did not have the figure. If I had had them, still I would not have made sense of it.

Does a barber work? Is he productive? The lady in the café? Does she contibute to the economy?

The chain from supermarket to the farmer surely does, otherwise the engineer would have to go hunting instead of designing his machine.

Do they work in the carshops? Do they fool people?

Does the staff in the bank work, or are they a load on society? No idea.

Right now I look out my window over the city. There are mostly apartment buildings, very little industry or something that produces anything.

I cannot figure how it hangs together, neither economically or demograpically.

I cannot figure out who is productive; who is leeching on taxes. Who should  be productive?

What would it look like with a 15% flat tax? Beggars on the street? Would I have to go armed every day? Would it be prosperous?

[Galt]

As always, Peter, you think pretty much the same way I think.

You've got some good insight into the game.

[Peter]

Oh, an embryo of an insight.

I cannot figure it out. I can not even figure out what I should try to figure out.

I sometimes draw figures on paper, arrows representing information flow (positive and negative), political power, financial assets.

I try to figure out how it works, with traditional economics, seeing it as political power or staring form scratch, trying to figure out the assets and significance of the various groups in society.

I cannot even figure out why I can charge the rate I do to my customers.

Sometimes a project is screwed form the beginning and I can see it straight away; I would be worth 2 000 000 if I told them to stop it and they would believe me, sometimes the project is a success.

But never I understand what my contribution was worth.

[Galt]

Oh, an embryo of an insight.

I cannot figure it out. I can not even figure out what I should try to figure out.

I sometimes draw figures on paper, arrows representing information flow (positive and negative), political power, financial assets.

I try to figure out how it works, with traditional economics, seeing it as political power or staring form scratch, trying to figure out the assets and significance of the various groups in society.

I do not get it.

I'll tell you what the initial answer is: It doesn't matter.

John Kennedy is famous for the quote, "Life is Unfair", not too long before he was killed by several bullets.  John Lennon said, "Life is what happens while you are making other plans" before he got shot.

I don't even really believe in karma or justice in some eternal heaven.  We're probably just a bunch of pigs elbowing one another out of the way to get the snout in in the best position in the trough.  That's why I always wonder about laws giving drug-addicted, worthless sons of millionaires all of his money, and housewives living the big lifestyle off the man working 10 hours a day, Heather getting tens of millions from Paul, and cousins being made vice-presidents while they damage the company.

It all gets a bit too real.

You're thinking mathematically, and that's not how life works.  THAT'S the initial answer.  It's pigs elbowing one another to get to the trough (if pigs had elbows, LOL).

[Peter]

Sure, sure, sure!

But one pig got a longer snout, he can reach the swill easier. Another pig has stonger elbows, bit uses too much energy he becomes too thin and will not be allowed near the sow...

Still trying to understand the Darwinian mechanics of it.

[Galt]

I don't think Darwin is the be-all-and-end-all.

I can at least say, "I have no idea what reality is".  And I'm not a fundamentalist Bible guy, or anything else in that line, but there are also questions with the jumps in fossil history and out-of-place artifacts and a lot of other things that provide some evidence that Darwin wasn't the last authority on how things develop.

The philosophy that I have developed is that I live a nice life, nicer than most people on the planet, so I should be thankful for that.  There is at least *some* connection between merit and money or lifestyle in the Western world.  I live better than kings did 500 years ago, because I have a refrigerator, a car, a TV, and indoor plumbing, LOL, although I'm sure that there is a housewife watching Oprah right now who is richer than I will ever be.

I wonder how Darwin will be viewed in 1000 years.

[Matt99]

ultimately it dosen't matter who you are or what you've ever done. Life is still all nosebleeds, cornflakes, and busses

[Daymar]

Individuals move towards what they want in the only way they can. That's it.

If you put a pile of steaks next to a tiger, when the tiger gets hungry, do you think he's going to eat the steaks or feel like he needs to work for a living and go catch his meal?

Well the above seems obvious but what if the tiger falsely thinks the steaks are poisoned? Then he will go hunt for his food even though he didn't need to.

That's how humans work too, we're all moving towards what we want but we don't always move towards it in the best way because we're not omniscient.

You could actually say this about anything you classify as an individual. Like a tree moving it's leaves towards the sun. A tree does that because that's what it is, just like humans.

[Daymar]

Galt, you feel like working for your living is a good idea because you learned somewhere that doing that will get you respect. What if there is somewhere that a person thinks those who need to work are losers? Like a king who has servants to do his work instead of dirtying his hands for his servants.

And then you can go on from there and ask yourself why you care about being respected. I think it might be intrinsic to humans since we're social animals. That's part of why we're social animals instead of loners like cats. Or it could just be partly because we think being respected can help us to get other things that we want, but I think our desire for respect is at least partly intrinsic to humans.

[Galt]

Galt, you feel like working for your living is a good idea because you learned somewhere that doing that will get you respect. What if there is somewhere that a person thinks those who need to work are losers? Like a king who has servants to do his work instead of dirtying his hands for his servants.

Well ... SOMEONE has to work, and I wouldn't feel good about myself if I lived off another person, or off taxpayers (meaning a mass of other people).

Maybe you're right, and I should jettison the Protestant work ethic.  I'm over 40 now, and there is really a plethora of quasi-rich divorcees or widows that I could snag for the money - instead of stupidly working and throwing everything I have into my retirement plan now - but I just don't want to.  I would like ... have to pretend that I respect them.  LOL

AND, I just can't get rid of the notion that people who have lived off someone their entire lives ... are worth jack-shit.  They don't have the continual experience of having to deal with real people, or real life, or the like.  And they produce nothing - work is also a source of pride in saying "I did that in life".

Unfortunately, I'll have to continue in my opinion that lolling on the couch, watching Oprah, being paid by some other human being who works,  is not how I want to spend my life.

[Christiane]

Unfortunately, I'll have to continue in my opinion that lolling on the couch, watching Oprah, being paid by some other human being who works, is not how I want to spend my life.

Me either, Galt.   I totally agree with you.   It's great to see you back.

Those of us who have always worked for a living eschew the banality you speak of.   It must be a truly empty life indeed to loll around, being waited on.    I wouldn't know, and I'm sure you wouldn't either.   Don't you agree that purpose and hard work in life make our existence meaningful?   That's certainly my mantra.

I think such lolling behaviour brought down Rome, but I might be totally wrong about that.  I wasn't there.

:roll:

[Daymar]

Um, okay Galt. I was just trying to explain how it happens since you were saying you didn't understand it. I wasn't giving out advice.

And yeah, if you want running water then I guess people have to work together to make that happen, right? Ie. people moving towards what they want.

Pride and feeling respected are the same thing. Why do you think a person can feel proud of scoring a goal or a touchdown when it's meaningless except in people's minds?

[Peter]

One great insight on this thread is that life is not fair. Do not expect it to be. I will cause unnecessary contemplation and grievance. Too much bitterness for some perceived unjustice, too much worry that your desicion was not right.

That is no recommendatrion to be unfair or dishonest, even if you can keep that too in your toolbox for a hard situation.

When hit get up and continue the fight.

After all, most people seem to decide that what they gain form in "just" or "good politics".

After all, we do not know what our effort is worth. Two thousand years ago we got very very little; today we have electric light, running water, painless surgery, telephones.

The brain of man made it possible, but the ungreatfulness and will to destroy is so great that I would not recommend a strike, but a withdrawal, that people of the mind would for their own state with its own rules and let the rest go where it goes.