Philosophy and Lifestyle

[Anonymous No.7931253]

Hello /lit/, I didn't know what other board really to post this in, and as a long time /lit/ user I figured, a place that deals a lot with philosophy would probably be the best place to post this thread.

What lifestyle do you adopt? Does it belong to a certain philosophy? Did something inspire you to change the way you look at life, and in return, change the actual way you interact with life itself?

I was slacker, I never liked authority, and even now, I still can't say I like it. I always wondered if my 26 years of being an underachiever, were due to being a naturally lazy slob, someone who didn't want to work under anyone due to my disdain for authority, addiction to unhealthy sources of entertainment, or even more importantly, because of my nihilistic views on life since I became an edgy teen?

Well, seeing day after day of my life wasted on 4chan, menial jobs, and no real future with no actual achievement to my name. I decided enough was enough, funnily enough, I found inspiration in one of the silliest and unlikeliest places.

Fictional character Nicholas Angel from the movie Hot Fuzz, here was this overachiever, he kept his house perfectly clean, he was dependent, on time, professional, hard working, respectful, and had self respect, kept himself in shape, and took pride in his work. In contrast to the main character, was his friend "Danny", I embodied everything about this Danny, even down to having been fat.

Watching it on the big screen really was eye opening for me. Seeing it in third person, it became obvious to me the disgusting NEET I've become. The forgettable nobody life I have.

Now I strive everyday to perfect and excel in everything and have remained disciplined. From diet, to excessive, to intellectual pursuits, and am currently training for a career in law enforcement. I know there's a lot of depressed people here on /lit/, I just wanted to share how I am happy now.

[Anonymous No.7931259]

>>7931253
>inb4 too long didn't read on /lit/ of all places

I understand it's not a blog, I hope it doesn't come off that way, but it's better than most of the repetitive threads I'm so used to on here.

[Anonymous No.7931274]

You'd have been better off posting this in /r9k/ or something desu

[Anonymous No.7931281]

>>7931274
I doubt /r9k/ would talk to me about their philosophical views on life, and why they think and feel that way. They'd probably call me a normie, say I was lying, or give me some weird reference to some anime cartoon.

[Anonymous No.7931311]

You better get out of here as fast as possible.

But before that I would recommend you to watch

The Seven Up Documentary Series

The following films by Woody Allen:

Crimes and Misdemeanors
Interiors
Annie Hall
Manhattan
Radio Days
Husbands and Wives
Stardust Memories

And the following film by Hirokadu Koreeda:

Still Walking

And this film by Shohei Imamura:

The Insect Woman

And also read this article which will teach you everything about intergender relationships:

http://alexsheremet.com/the-red-pill-feminism-the-missing-synthesis/

The Up documentaries are interviews full of general wisdom. The Allen films will teach you about the failures and pretensions of the intellectual populace, as well as the banality of evil, the greatness of art, and other important shit about life. The Koreeda film will teach you about the thick net of compromise that comes with any human interaction. The Imamura film will teach you unflinchingly about the destituition of the poor, and the cyclical stasis that comes from it, and why you should avoid it at any cost.

The main thing is that these gems have to be actively scoured for. If you watch Annie Hall, for example, with an adolescent lens, you'll over-empathize with the main character without realizing that Woody Allen is placing you in a trap, and hidden behind the romantic surface is the fact that the main character is the cause of his own problems in a pattern he cannot escape from. With the Up Documentaries, in particular, its more important to search for what isn't said, than what is said, and when you find that you'll learn a whole lot about the banality of a lot of human life

(e.g. At 21 years old, one of the poorer interviewees is working at a meat packing plant. He tells the interviewer if he stays there too long his brain will rot. When they interview him at 28, he's still there, except that he has a family and 4 children now. If you view it from a higher perspective, rather than taking it as it is, you'll realize how much that encapsulates most of the people out there who lack self-awareness, and how much they run in their own patterns. But, he's happy with this, and he's grown into it. After seeing that, I realized how much I could easily fall into the same "just work it out and get it over with" circuits.)

The problem is all these films can be seen as bitter or cynical, and so if you go into it with that frame, you may gain less than what is actually there. But, if you have the capacity to go beyond it, then you are ready to take the first step into true life.

Good luck.

[Anonymous No.7931364]

>>7931311
I'm confused a bit by your second to last paragraph, I will look at these films, let's hope you don't accidentally get me back to my old lifestyle haha

[Anonymous No.7931400]

[Anonymous No.7931409]

>>7931364
The Up series is a documentary where they picked a bunch of random people from different classes at seven years old, and interview them about their life every seven years. It's probably the best documentary out there, being about the purely human things that we all encompass.

Being a documentary though, the interviewees obviously won't make it seem as if their lives are particularly bad, but the best part is when the documentary segues in the stuff they said in past accounts, and juxtaposes that against what they're saying at the moment.

If you can spot the discrepancies, you'll see all the self-denial, hypocrisy, and justifications that people tell themselves to try and convince themselves that their life is anything more than just ordinary.

But, that's the part which I warn about, because taking that cynical frame prevents self-reflection, which is more important than some general misanthropy. If you're too idealistic, you'll be enamored by the participants and be unable to interrogate them. If you're too cynical you'll place overdue emphasis on those discrepancies and you'll merely use it to reinforce your own bitterness, which is not the point because while the reality of these kinds of things sucks, and exists in that state, the more important thing is what you do with the information given to you to better yourself.

All of those films are great because they can go both ways like that. You'll bring yourself to the picture because they're so generally cutting about human existence itself. But you have to get to the film's level. These works won't condescend to give it to you. They've also weathered criticism and blame from lesser minds who can't get at the full picture, Allen's films in particular, and especially Stardust Memories (which many people diss as Allen ranting about the world, when actually they don't realize that the film is an optimistic film about an artist with inner strength being able to confront the world that is more needy and insecure). There's a review on IMDB that said the movie was supporting misanthropy as the best way to confront life, which, obviously is the reviewer putting his own destitute worldview into a work of art which has so much more than that.

But, anyway, the fact is its still about yourself. If you're undiscerning, it'll go over your head. That's the sad fact.

[Anonymous No.7931434]

>>7931253
Just jerk off while reading Phenomenology of Spirit. It'll do you wonders.

[Anonymous No.7931497]

>>7931400
You cared enough to google an image, or go through your sad reaction folder, most likely solve a picture puzzle, and make sure your post was actually posted.

6/10 you cared.

[Anonymous No.7931504]

>>7931409
I understand everything you wrote then, but I don't see how you're trying to related it towards me.

Are you telling me that I should just have continued on my nihilistic NEET views, and lived accordingly, since there's something wrong with working a middle class job and I'll never be rich or super succesful? Are you implying I'm lying to myself, that my happiness is now based on what I thought I should be doing?

Or are you further helping me on my ability to reflect and do what makes me feel accomplished and succesful?

Personally, I think hard work is healthy for a man. It builds character, the character necessary to deal with life. So when you work hard in something you take pride in, I fail to see how you should not be happy.

[Anonymous No.7931513]

>>7931253
but what does it mean
where is the philosophy
this is just a lifestyle change blog

[Anonymous No.7931533]

>>7931253
I have a handful of rules.
1. Always spring for the good toilet paper
2. Never pass up a drum circle
3. Everything in moderation

I don't rape because the best part about sex is the girl wanting me
I don't kill because life is the most interesting thing for a quadrillion or more miles in any direction, and for all intents and purposes is "Sacred" considering that if anything at all matters or is precious on this rock, it's that we can decide what we think and how we feel about being on said rock.
I don't steal because i'm not starving and i'm not an asshole
I read because i've learned that perspective can always be broadened and each and every one of ours is laughably small.

That's about it.

[Anonymous No.7931651]

>>7931533
This is what I wanted to hear. Question on the sex part, would you consider a consensual sex between man and woman, when the man has no intention on pleasing the woman, only pleasing himself, rape?

[Anonymous No.7931659]

>>7931513
I understand why you think so. Philosophy is how you live your life, how you understand life. And I feel, that fundamentally, man is meant to work and over achieve and be competitive, and compete in the real world. This is the only route to true happiness I say.

[Anonymous No.7931735]

>>7931504
>Are you telling me that I should just have continued on my nihilistic NEET views, and lived accordingly, since there's something wrong with working a middle class job and I'll never be rich or super succesful? Are you implying I'm lying to myself, that my happiness is now based on what I thought I should be doing?

This is the lack of discernment part. You're hitting it into two extremes because you think its an either/or.

Wallace Stevens worked at his firm and did poetry on the side, and became one of the greatest poets in the world, and was probably quite content. On the other hand people like Rilke went to throw away their whole family and lead a Bohemian life and was a shitty father, and also became one of the greatest poets in the world. The world can accommodate both sides, but it depends what you give, and what you do with yourself.

Hard work can build, and if you're happy with that then okay, and if you perceive that as the best you can get out of life then its okay. Just be aware of the pattern. Working the same job over seven years can be good, if you want stability, or bad, if it causes your thinking faculties to burn out.

I was in the Army before (mandatory National Service), and I learnt a lot from it, but I also saw how the people who enter the Army as a profession because they need to money have their whole life revolve around it, and by 50 years old they're, for lack of a better word, stale. If you want that stability then, okay, go for it. If not then learn to be self-aware. Those films teach you how to be self-aware.

Also you should go read Confucius as well.

[Anonymous No.7931744]

>>7931513
>implying that a lifestyle change blog does not execute the Wittgenstinian premise that you have to "show the fly out of the fly bottle"

Philosophy is Use. Everything else is Language Games.

[Anonymous No.7933688]

>>7931651
No, it's just a stupid way to do things. I should have added to my list of rules something like "If you're going to do something anyway, do it well."

Plus, if you plan on her coming back, you'll want to give her a reason.

[Anonymous No.7934650]

>>7931735
This now explains everything to me, thank you blessed anon, I will look into all the things you recommend.

[Anonymous No.7935077]

Interesting thread. Brace yourself for a long answer. My philosophy of life has gone through many changes.

When I was little, I was a good Catholic boy. I went to private school and read books when I was at home because my parents only allowed tv and videogames on weekends. I had lots of friends and made good grades. I was mildly hyperactive though and enjoyed being a smartass with teacher and was subsequently put on ritalin. I think ritalin made me smarter. I took pride in being the kid with the best grades and finishing tests before everyone else. We had an Accelerated Reader program in elementary that I won every year. But then they introduced an accelerated math program. I protested on principle. I got my first B that year. In math. Accelerated math was 10% of the grade.

In middle school, I was taken off ritalin and became somewhat socially active through church youth group. During this period, however, I started to lose some of my faith due to weak apologetics from my peers and leaders in youth group. I started becoming a slacker. I could coast by most of my classes without studying. I fell for the smart but lazy meme.

In high school I hit puberty. I spent most of my time obsessively masturbating. I fantasized incessantly about getting laid. I was fully atheist at that point and loved Freud and Marx and Nietzsche although I practiced some buddhist meditation techniques. I looked forward to college, where I could shed my nerdy reputation and meet a smart qt gf. I wanted to go to UT Austin cause I was from Texas and I thought Austin was super "hip". I also played a lot of Morrowind on Xbox and PC.

In college I chose philosophy and psychology as a double major. I also became obsessed with occultism and shamanism. I started taking and selling psychedelics and weed. I found the combination heavenly. I thought I had discovered the secrets of the mystery religions. I got a girlfriend as well. Sex on psychedelics was a regular thing for us.

Unfortunately, I fell in deep with drug use. My grades started slipping beyond the acceptable slacker level. I experienced relationship drama. Somehow or another, my psyche fractured. I became convinced that I was permanently tripping. Life took on the character of a dream. Words would transform into other words and then into hieroglyphs as I read them. I thought to myself, "I am enlightened." Everything said to me was a revelation. A girl I slept with was an angel. A man behind a counter was God. A crystal gem my friend gave me was the hyperobject at the end of time. I became a schizophrenic hobo. I lived outside the world. Underground of life.

Anyway, I ended up in several psych wards. My parents got me on meds. I stopped having visions. I became a NEET. I haven't gone back to school. I feel like the meds make me stupid. But I also don't know if I can handle life without meds. I like to sit at home and drink beers and smoke spliffs I buy with disability money. But I know it's not something I can sustain.

[Anonymous No.7935094]

>>7935077
Interesting life story. I also went to UT briefly.

[Anonymous No.7935138]

>>7935077
Sounds a lot like me, did you have a stern father? A disciplinarian, but a fair one, who stuck by your side constantly trying to make sure you did the right things? Or was your family not very involved in your life? Other than in useless things and providing.

[Anonymous No.7935154]

>>7935077
This would've probably been me if I wasn't too physically fucked up to get into drugs. I'm also a NEET but I'm not any meds.

[Anonymous No.7935174]

>>7931253
Trump inspired me to become a moral purist and to act in ways which exceed my own life and others around me to new heights