ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
Blogger, Christian convert, general strange one. https://shapesinthefog.substack.com/
User ID: 3709
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
22d ago
If you are relying on your moral intuitions anyway, why even go with the Christian God and have to go through these tortured interpretations to bend the Bible to your moral values?
I'm not relying entirely on my moral intuitions, though I am relying on them in terms of finding a church.
The Biblical God is obviously a wrathful, evil deity who is responsible for the pain and suffering of billions upon billions of humans and engages in cosmic blackmail to get you to love and worship him.
The Biblical God is not obviously evil, have you heard of something called the New Testament?
I would continue to reply but the rest of your post shows you aren't interested in actually discussing this, just insulting someone you disagree with.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
22d ago
Depends on the universalist belief. Personally I believe all human souls will be reconciled - I don't go as far as the demons and Satan. Some like Origen did, however. That's much closer to heresy in my view.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
23d ago
About to finish Mage Errant. I'm liking it, but it has definitely slipped from a 4/5 to a 3.5 over the course of the last book so far. It's a shame, because the series had a lot of potential. Too much filler and random side character action right after a cliff hanger for my taste though, it's absolutely relentless during this book.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
24d ago
You still seem to have a lot of reactivity & emotional difficulties based on our other interactions here bud. I'd recommend you look into emotional work for that. Joe Hudson & his Art of Accomplishment stuff is great, especially for folks who have meditated too much without any focus on the heart.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
25d ago
I don't think this reasoning is sound. It would suggest that no secrets could possibly be kept if people could profit from them in some way. Which is trivially untrue! There are lots of cutting-edge stuff locked up in SAPs that nobody will ever get a book deal about.
Rationalists/reddit intellectuals love to talk about how it's impossible to have large conspiracies because large groups of people can never keep a secret. Yet if you look at even recent history, we are chock full of examples where this is outright false.
It's quite funny to me at this point.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
25d ago
In China, a lot of the insurance system covers Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is pretty much just bullshit. Here in the US, I know people who have gotten chiropractic coverage under their own insurance. Acupuncture is also something apparently covered by many private insurance companies, despite also being highly suspect. Some apparently are even covering Reiki now.
None of this is bullshit, these techniques obviously work and I have benefited from them as well as millions of other people. If they didn't work, people wouldn't use them or pay for them, obviously.
Even if it's just 'placebo', whatever that actually means, the techniques work.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
25d ago
Follow me! https://x.com/Thomasdelvasto_
I also recommend @vividvoid and @simonsarris
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
25d ago
Hah wait, what do you think wordcel means? It's just someone who is good with words, so writers would fall in that no?
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
26d ago
Hah ok fair. Well I wish you well regardless. I have a lot of sales and marketing experience, specifically with startups, if you have any questions.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
26d ago
Sorry to hear my man. Backs can be finicky. Hope it feels better soon.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
26d ago
Ooooh fascinating! I am going to check him out, this actually sounds pretty close to what I'm getting at. Any specific essays or anything you'd recommend I start with?
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
27d ago
Instead, the progression of my adult life has been away from the intellectual and towards the concrete. Towards locations, communities, physical activities. It's a big part of why I'm starting a small business, one that will hopefully provide a physical outlet and a real 'third space' that our modern world is sorely lacking.
What kind of business are you thinking of starting?
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
27d ago
I do think there is a real danger. I was maybe too bookish for my own good when I was a teenager. But I am not sure to what extent the distance that I kept from more direct involvement with reality was caused by my bookishness, and to what extent the bookishness was just what I did while I had that distance from more direct involvement with reality. It is possible that even if I had forced myself to put away the books, I would not have engaged more directly with reality any quicker than I actually did. It's hard to say.
Yeah I know what you mean, it's hard to say exactly what the root cause is, and how bad it is. I relate to this comment a lot, especially:
sexual frustration forcing me to learn how to develop social skills
This was huge for me! I actually stumbled into /r/redpill in high school out of sexual frustration, and that changed my entire orientation. My anger at being rejected by the fairer sex led pretty directly to me putting down books for a while and really working to figure out how to succeed socially. Without that I easily could've become an incel.
To your point about people not actualizing further... I do think it depends on environment. We need culture to push especially young men to develop. Without that, I think escapism is far too attractive, and that's why we're seeing such a big rise of NEETs and such nowadays.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
28d ago
Awesome, make sure to ping me. I'd love to keep reading.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
28d ago
This is an exciting series man! I went through many of the same thoughts on the scientific revolution, it was my field of study in college when I got my bachelors in history. I'd be curious to see where you're going with this, though it's a good overview of the scientific revolution in broad strokes.
Are you planning on posting this elsewhere? I'd love to share it on twitter and substack if you have a blog I can promote.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
28d ago
As a note - I considered more directly addressing the history of writing, going deeper into the nature of society/civilization being predicated upon this sort of formalized abstractive process, but it got away from me a bit and wanted to keep it more personal/light.
If folks think that might be interesting, let me know. Or if you have reading suggestions on that front.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
28d ago
Why do you say Musks instead of Musk?
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
29d ago
What’s the hobby?
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
29d ago
Personally I resonate with the concept and feel it quite often. So does the friend who recommended the book to me.
I think it helps illuminate a specific pattern of emotion.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
29d ago
I want to talk about Ressentiment, specifically the intro to a book I read of the same name by Max Schaler. I'm surprised the motte/rationalist circles haven't discussed it more, because it seems extremely relevant to the culture war. Here's the definition given in the book:
Ressentiment is an incurable, persistent feeling of hating and despising which occurs in certain individuals and groups. It takes its root in equally incurable impotencies or weaknesses that those subjects constantly suffer from. These impotencies generate either individual or collective, but always negative emotive attitudes. They can permeate a whole culture, era, and an entire moral system. The feeling of ressentiment leads to false moral judgments made on other people who are devoid of this feeling. Such judgments are not infrequently accompanied by rash, at times fanatical claims of truth generated by the impotency this feeling comes from.
The reason I bring it up is that I see this emotional pattern as the driving force behind modern politics. More on the populist right surely, but the left also has a weird sort of ressentiment in which they kind of hate their own culture, see whiteness / western civ as a stain that they can never get rid of.
Importantly though I think the right falls into the definition of being 'impotent' FAR more than the left, which as this quote explains is crucial to the whole process of ressentiment:
Ressentiment persists and perseveres, it was stated, because of an abiding impotency which blocks any possible realization of particular positive values. This, in turn, lets the venom of ressentiment permeate the person's whole inner life and experience, so that the order of values and the order of loving positive values is in a state of disarray. Reasoning about values can not stop the emotive disorder to occur and continue. It might at best recognize the disorder when, for instance, a ressentiment-subject says, "There is something wrong with me." But this is very rare among those subjects, and it neither nullifies the experience of the disorder felt among positive and negative values, nor does it help to rationally recognize the higher values to be attained, i.e., to let the grapes simply what they are, namely, sweet. A insight in emotional experiences is at a rational inventory of oneself. Rational logic is no cure in a flawed experience of values.
Ultimately I know a ton has been written about this topic, but curious what folks here think of the idea?
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
29d ago
Don't self-medicate: Alcohol, weed, whatever. All of it has to go. If you're already drinking so much that going cold turkey would trigger DTs, then you'll have to wean yourself off it slowly; if not, then you must stop drinking completely, immediately. Not even a glass of wine with dinner "for the antioxidants". If you have any drink in the house, pour it down the sink today. If you have weed in the house, destroy it. Don't give it to a friend to hang on to until you think you're in a better headspace: destroy it.
Interesting! I have had substance issues in the past but feel I'm in a decent spot now... albeit I do drink a tad more than I'd like. Why so teetotaling here?
Luckily am already doing a good bit of these... the biggest ones I struggle with are diet, and overthinking. Good advice overall. I appreciate the detailed overview, definitely highlights some areas where I could be doing more.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
30d ago
Yeah but I hate posting in em so late. Maybe I'll repost next Wednesday.
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
30d ago
I have done a bunch of drugs recreationally, including a ton of psychedelics lol. Not tooooo interested in those, though perhaps I am overdue for another trip. Has been a few years.
$Deity has helped me quite a lot but yeah, I think a lot of it is refusing to change my life circumstances. $Deity has told me that before, now that I think of it...
ThomasdelVasto
Κύριε, ποίησόν με ὄργανον τῆς ἀγάπης σου
30d ago
Yeahhhhhh I have worked in sales and marketing my whole career and I think that is a big contributor. How did you get out of that situation?
As far as I'm aware, those rules apply only to the Culture War Thread, and not to main Motte posts. I'd be happy to ask @self_made_human or @cjet79 for clarification though.
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