Start with being a good human first, then add lots of love, empathy, & patience, then add ability to recognize the world from their kids perspectives and give them wisdom and guidance throughout their lives so they can go on to become good & happy humans themselves. That’s it.

Because you have a destiny and a purpose way beyond your current comprehension and it is so much bigger than whatever misery you are feeling at any point in life. You have to find what that destiny and purpose is, believe me, because otherwise it would only be a massive opportunity squandered. Let me explain - you are the universe itself, so incredibly lucky to be able to come alive, with an opportunity to experience and appreciate the universe itself, there is a much bigger connection you have to the stars and to all that has life. If you are true to yourself and chase what your heart desires and remove all the noise, you will find your purpose, also called self-actualization. Not to mention you are living in the most comfortable, connected, beautiful time any species including humans was ever afforded. On separate note, it is very understandable and valid if you feel like shit given the current affairs, but if you believe me, this had to happen, and this only means better times will be here sooner rather later.

I just landed on this thread and choose to respond to you here, OP. I will say you’re my kinda person :) I’m also an ethical business person and came to conclude that federated marketplaces are the future. I put together a community here (https://lemm.ee/c/fedonomy) but never posted anything. I’ve been thinking / working on this for over a year now, more on the incentive/ economic model and setting up a real life business in a very specific niche. I hate typing on the phone and there is too much to type and it’s like 4 am. Please message me.

Any day you’re able to rise above the cult of nationalism is a good day.

We let this beast called greed grow unchecked for so long in the shadows and now it has come out in the open, stepping on the throat of democracy, equality, & freedom.

Self-awareness & anxiety, two common traits of humans.

And the rent remains the same!

It’s still not warm enough for population over a tipping point, you are just more aware of the boiling apparatus. I believe humanity will jump once it gets warm enough, much like a frog does, even in a slowly boiling pot of water. I trust humanity, after all we’ve survived so far, our ancestors overcoming much much worse. Can you imagine living in feudalism? Or sword fighting in medieval times? Or when we had to hunt?

‘Supposed to’ - yeah, we all wish. ‘Reality’ is that you are who you are. If you don’t recognize this primal instinct in yourself, you’ll never understand it in others. To understand the world, all you need is a mirror, and you need to look really deep in it.

The rise of nationalism / individualism world-wide is due to powerful propaganda targeting this exact instinctive behavior of man that tells him that he is superior to his neighbor with the different religion, county of birth, skin color, economic status. There’s a reason propaganda relies on rage, anger, & fear because those emotions evoke your animal instincts, bypassing all rational thinking.

We still possess our primal instincts, we still have fight flight response involuntarily to something new or unknown, we still fall in the us vs them trap, we cheer for our team, our country, our religion, and shit on the other team, other county, other religion. It takes wisdom to rise above labels, but it’s definitely not instinctive.

When you reframe the whole world as a jungle with 8 billion animals, your mantra translates to - don’t get hunted, but it’s okay to hunt, because that is survival instincts.

Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

I’m referring to kids before even going to school. Ego / identity develops in kids by around age 5, that’s when they see the I separate from the rest, they see the difference between what they have and what others have, they find this identity that only belongs to them in this sea of identities and they adjust and they react. I’m not sure if you’ve talked to kids before age 5, I’ve raised a few kids, and so I’m talking from experience.

Humans by default want to love one another unconditionally. It is how kids are, it is how our pets are. It is our biases and prejudices and labels and insecurities and traumas that have made our love for one another conditional. The whole world needed a big hug after the pandemic. We didn’t get one. We saw powerful propaganda being an effectual tool in sowing discord, and it worked by appealing to our individualism, incorrectly overriding collectivism. With the visible rise of individualism worldwide, we’re all shriveling in our lonely corners, unloved. Everyone is, not just those choosing the individualism. The world needs loving. Here’s a hug for everyone who reads this comment. I love you unconditionally.

You are a very good person, because you are reflective of your past, conscious of your actions, and have morals that gave you the guilt that you feel. You’re alright little one.

Nobody is saying your emotions are invalid. Your feelings are very valid. Here’s a hug from me to you to prove the point (I hope it counts, lol). All I’m saying is that anger is instinctive & it clouds our judgement (like we literally can’t process any other thoughts while angry). If you calmly think about it, you instantly reacted and insulted me and other poster above you, you put us both in the ‘other team’, while we were both in your team all along. That my friend is anger leading to more individualism (you alone in your room) over collectivism (same team). That is the exact same weakness that is exploited by those doing the propaganda. And that is why we all need to rise over it.

I feel the mad in you, I sincerely do, but when the whole ocean is moving in a certain way due to underlying currents, it is incorrect to place the blame on any individual droplet, for none of them individually are responsible for it or have the power to control or alter it. Understand that the droplets themselves are moving because of the said currents. The best you can do is accept reality and plan your course ahead. The mad only burns you from inside without solving any problem.

PS: to everyone commenting below me, now mad at me -

1. everyone is accountable for their individual actions and I’m not absolving anyone of their individual responsibilities.
2. I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t feel the mad, rather that I get the mad that you feel. I’m just as mad as you.
3. After being mad at all your friends and family for say about a decade, you come to realize that most of them are simple minds susceptible to propaganda, and that propaganda works, and that it works because it appeals to the human instinct of individualism (incorrectly overriding collectivism) using tools like fear and anger. We need to rise over our own anger and other instincts to see all this so we can better move forward.

these ‘trolls’ are just regular users.

Umm, every human is a regular user. Every regular user comes with these defaults - 1) instinct to react, and 2) defend their worldview. It takes patience and mental effort to not instinctively react, but rather shut up & ponder & reflect. 49 out of 50 want to win the debate but only 1 out of 50 wants to solve the problem.