Mine:
- Learn a second language and keep up with the language your parents speak. You will regret being a brat about not wanting to speak this language especially as your family members pass.
- The only opinions about you that really matter are from the people you respect and who respect you back
- Being a kind humble person, who leads their political convictions with curiosity and not self righteousness is important. As that one person said: “I am no hero and neither are you.”
- Don’t throw out your old media (mix cds, tapes, records, photos, zinee, etc) because you think they’re embarrassing. They either will not be embarrassing later or they will become expensive and you can tell them for mad bucks.
do you think that you should do what you enjoy at the expense of another person? like (in an extreme example) to harm/assault/ hurt someone because you enjoy it?
I think hedonism is important, but it comes at a cost. The candle the burns twice as bright and all that. At the same time if you never fuck around, you’ll never find out.
I think far too often young people go through life thinking they already know who they are, instead of treating life as an opportunity to find out who they are. They become calcified, ossified in their beliefs about their own identity, a constant and repeated telling themselves of who they are in an effort to believe these things.
An alternative approach is to try to break down who you are, repeatedly and continuously. To try new things, to change the situation. Leave a city without warning and move somewhere you don’t know the language. Abandon your belongings, your phone, your identity and start over. Change the situation entirely. Begin to understand what is you and what is the world. If you move from place to place, and you find yourself always confronted by the same types of people, maybe you are seeing a reflection of something you are bringing with you from place to place.
There is a very western identity of “knowing” who you are while simultaneously having done no exploration of who that person might be. I find it very curious.
In regard to the second paragraph, I am very much a metaphoric horse who will not even be led to water, let alone drink. This has, unsurprisingly led to a great many humbling moments in my life. In regards to those who “know themselves”, those who are most sure are those least humbled. Even if misfortune never visits you, always question yourself, your actions, and your intentions. You will find insights by doing this as a mindful part of your life.
Super interesting perspective. Thank you!
I don’t know why you are being downvoted. This is an excellent question. Personally, no, but that’s because I feel empathy towards other people and enjoy cooperation/community.
However, imagine if you were born without empathy or even enjoyed hurting others. Does that make you a bad person? Our society would certainly see it that way. You would be ostracized/incarcerated for not being the same as others because you enjoy hurting people. But does that make your existence wrong? I don’t think so. To be honest I don’t think there is such a thing as wrong and right, just selfish and selfless behaviors.
All this to say, I would say no and certainly don’t condone it, but if you ask someone else they may say yes. Who is to say that either one of us is right?
Thank you for this response!
there is infact good and bad actions. and there is a meaning to life.
But who defines them? If there is no god to determine that then that belief is entirely subjective. What one person views as good will be bad to another. How do you determine who is right?
Civilization and cooperation are intrinsic. The rules of human cooperation dictate rules of behaving. You do not require a god to establish murder and hording of resources and sexual violence as bad. They are defined as malum in sae for reason, in law.
Community sets the rules, adjudication, and punishment regardless of the inspiration of the rule. A god can provide a framework but people can do it too.
there is god,the islamic one.
Well, I’m afraid that’s where we diverge in beliefs then. With a god it is perfectly reasonable to believe that, but without one it’s not.
i accept disagreement. we can agree to disagree or we can debate. whatever you want
Ah…, the conundrums of subjective morality.