/lit/ - Literature

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people seethe when being told about Ted's elaboration on surrogate activities. Baffling to me the first times to have typically cool headed reasonable people completely lose it when being confronted with this "point of view".

>>18098061
The tedpill is a dangerous one that's for sure

>>18098061
I feel like this was a common sentiment in pop culture when I was growing up. ''yeah we all do meme jobs to convince ourselves we matter, contemporary society is sterile and life is meaningless and blah blah'. Like that was not an edgy take, you heard that everywhere

>>18098094
but isn't ted's point that absolutely nothing we do goes beyond the surrogate activity since technologcial society would not want us to be wasted so frivolously when it can instead expunge us of our work?
Ted is saying that only if you live your life, where an endeavour that does not turn out successful means you will die, will you actually have a content life.
Contemporary work can certainly matter but only in the technologcial system. It be stupid to say that there are not essential cogs in the machine for this system, its jsut that for the individual's it still remains a surrogate activity.

>>18098094
It isn't only about jobs it's about stuff like activism hobbies, art. Things that people find meaningful. Like hes saying that the whole reason this board exist is simply to pass time in that literatures fundamentally a pointless concept. And that we only do this because we're unfulfilled and bored.

I never read the una bomber manifesto until just now after seeing this thread, it's actually kind of interesting. Although I'm not actually reading the full thing, I just starter at the segment about surrogate activities. Are surrogate activities really so bad?

>>18098174
He is absolutely correct.

>>18098094
His goes further by saying that scientists and doctors are doing useless shit too. And he's right. STEM fags are larping just the same as the average office worker, if not more.

The only real work is the work that contributes directly to yourself, your family, your immidiate area. I.e. farmers

>>18098299
Read it. it's a fast read and will probably change the way you look at life

>>18098299
The 1st 10 chapters or so are important just stop when you get to his whole revolution spiel. He isn't really critical of the surrogate activities. He says that the reason surrogate activities exist is because industrial societie creates a general feeling of discontent amongst individuals.

>>18097993
that is kino as fuck...almost ignored this thread

where do i start with pessoa

Céline - Death on the Installment Plan

>>18098174
>>18098306
>>18098061
People seethe when confronted with uncomfortable truths. Ted was right about many things. Surrogate activities was certainly one of those things.

Brehs, is there an alternative to the complete collapse Ted advocates? A sort of mix of living with technology responsibly, kind of like the Amish or something similar.

>>18099905
Evola/Guenon

>>18098061
Ted deems every goal outside his “power process” a “surrogate activity.” The only goals his power process contains are hunting for food, building a house, etc., matters of base survival. He has no understanding of art and religion. He’s a cringe atheist and materialist.

>>18099916
>He has no understanding of art and religion.
Surrogate activities which appeared with agricultural civilization due to the lack of natural power processes.

>>18099928
The internet is a surrogate activity so gtfo. In fact writing is a surrogate activity because it has no place in the power process. All the posts you’ve made in your life have been cope for being “unable to fulfill the power process.” Guess your whole life’s been a lie according to your supposed standards huh.

>>18099928
>>18099963
Ted’s entire argument for the power process falls apart because to even think of it he has to use abstract rhetoric to reach conclusions. Is this not itself a surrogate activity? If he held this concept to be true he would have no position from which to formalize an argument. Engaging in rationality undermines his whole point lmao

>>18099987
Oh also reading is a surrogate activity btw. So why the fuck did you read isaif? You weren’t supposed to do that dummy.

>>18099963
You're correct, it is.
>>18099987
>Is this not itself a surrogate activity?
Yes it is, but that isn't a refutation of Ted's arguments. Ted's goal isn't to deconstruct logic, so the fact that he utilizes logic to make his point doesn't in the least affect his overall argument. The fact is, without society as it currently is, he wouldn't even need to utilize logic to make arguments against it - because it wouldn't exist!

>>18100062
Ok cool so surrogate activities are justified when you have to right a book to save society then. So literature is a surrogate activity, except when it’s not. Lmao, I didn’t realize his argument was this bad

>>18100108
I'm not justifying anything under any circumstance (nor the contrary). I'm simply stating that surrogate activities are significantly worse for human beings than the power processes we evolved to undertake. This is the same argument Ted made. If anything, he actually justified surrogate activities in the modern world, because it at least displays that one has the desire to complete the power process, even if it cannot be done in the way our biology wants it to be done (so we are just doing the best we can in the given circumstance, even though it's not ideal). Surrogate activities are simply inferior to the alternative, that is all that is being said; there is no justification or its opposite.

>>18098061
>>18098094
When I thought about Ted's take on surrogate activities, and that it also included the "nice" things like making art instead of working dull industrial meme jobs, I saw a parallel with the Talaputa Sutta in Buddhism.
http://buddhasutra.com/files/talaputa_sutta.htm
There are a few of these that go the same way, one for this actor, one for a soldier, etc. The Buddha explains that all these pursuits are illusory.

>>18100162
These types of anti-modern thought always have many parallels with each other because they are based in the same general disdain for the things modern society exemplifies, like endless striving, discontent, restlessness, constant economic expansion, etc. The biggest differences between Gotama and Ted are obviously the conclusions. The latter was clearly merely a reaction rather than a deep penetration and clearing of the waters. Although that's not to say Gotama wasn't reacting at all when you consider his early life, just that he got beyond that stage very quickly, unlike Ted, who seems stuck there (that's not to blame him, of course).

>>18100142
Ted’s life work is a surrogate activity according to his definition. He worked very diligently toward his goal, did he do this all dispassionately since it was merely a surrogate activity.l? Or did he find meaning in being an activist? There’s an inconsistency in what he professes and how he acts. It seems as though he doesn’t follow his own conclusions, and if his conclusions were true why would he not follow them?

>>18100242
You don't seem to actually understand his arguments. Read his books properly, or even just the manifesto.

you had an entirely good thread topic and had to fuck it up by shilling Ted K who is a terrible writer anyways, fuck you

>>18100162
shoo shoo cryptobuddhist

>>18100344
Just because I cited something from Buddhism it doesn't mean I am a Buddhist or I am advertising Buddhism. I can't stand this mentality.

>>18098061
It's because most of our sense of self and our indentity is related to these surrogate activities.

Your hobbies, tastes, career, love, dreams are based on surrogate activities.

It's the same reason people get triggered when you question free will or the self - they aren't ready to stop thinking in myths.

Meme took her hand and let herself be led. The last time that Fernanda saw her, trying to keep up with the novice, the iron grating of the cloister had just closed behind her. She was still thinking about Mauricio Babilonia, his smell of grease, and his halo of butterflies, and she would keep on thinking about him for all the days of her life until the remote autumn morning when she died of old age, with her name changed and her head shaved and without ever having spoken a word, in a gloomy hospital in Cracow.

>>18100306
Yeah I was not expecting this. I like the Pessoa passage better

>>18100959
Which is ironic because hes infinitely more edgy then Ted

>>18098804
I'm reading book of disquiet

>>18100269
>You don't seem to actually understand his arguments.
Point out where I’m wrong then.
>Read his books properly, or even just the manifesto.
I read the manifesto and found it lacking.

The Tedpill is something to be taken in moderation - like arsenic in the treatment of syphillis. Take an overdose and you'll die, or rather, be consumed by a sense of worthlessness.

>>18100242
Not an objection

>>18101750
any way to reverse that?
im really sucidal right now

>>18101674
>I read the manifesto and found it lacking.
Childish.

But what's wrong with surrogate activities

>>18102491
distracts you from the fact that your life is meaningless and unfulfilling

>>18102508
If life is meaningless and unfulfilling why would it matter if you're distracted by something

>>18102517
because it keeps you from realising what the real culprit for your misery is and that in turn keeps you from improving the situation
if you dont fight back and comply by continuing your normie life you are in fact contributing to making life even worse in the future

>>18102419
Cope for being unable to refute my argument

>>18101797
It absolutely is, he disdains surrogate activities yet ardently engages in them, therefore he must consider surrogate activities justified under certain conditions. His argument doesn’t address this though.

>>18100242
>>18102248
>>18103743
Lets not forget that he was an extremeist and high IQ literal autsist so he saw the world in an entirely dispassionate, materialistic and purely logical way. A sensible exegesis is obviously that some surrogate activities are cope and just harmful (e.g. masturbating, binge drinking, excessive smoking, watching an entire series on netflix in a day, working a day job that is unironically useless but gives the impression of importance, promoting X or Y international finance backed party as a solution to all problems) but other surrogate activities are useful because they inspire the fellow man, encourage him to push the limits of what is human, build a connection with God and nurture a positive outlook of the world (e.g. art, writing, music). Are we really going to claim that these latter things are harmful and bad because they might not have an immediate use to our material needs? It's just unbridled nihilism that won't ACTUALLY help us, because the only viable and logically consistent action to take is to kill yourself.

Basically: >>18101750

>>18103935
Redefining “surrogate activities” in this way I think is sensible, but is, again, not what Ted would say. His autistic individualism disregards religion, philosophy, and art because they’re things done within a community. Humans have always lived within a community though, we can’t reproduce on our own. For this reason Ted’s worldview has large flaws, some of it’s correct though.

>>18102599
this post is a surrogate activity