As usual David, I appreciate your thoughtful and measured response. This is awful stuff to think about as a parent I know, since children are permanent once born and the dissonance involved must be massive as the person who chose to have them.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that parenting already involves massive sacrifice. It is an awful job that results in no direct benefit to the parent other than intangibles and maybe a resource to care for you in old age. As I’ve posted before, it’s like the ultimate form of taxation, since it imprisons parents to a particular geography, forces you to be obedient to the state (or they take your fucking kids away), and costs an absolute fortune in terms of the best years of your life and earning potential.

That said, WHY OH WHY do people still do it? The state of the world is beyond TERRIBLE. Why did you bring another batch of slaves into existence when you can clearly see the walls closing in? I know you value human life but your kids will only suffer a worse fate than you, being constantly surveilled and exploited to within an inch of their lives. Do you not feel this way yourself? Do you not want to protect them from this? Do you think it will somehow magically get better or that your kids should solve the problems you and your generation have created and ignored?

I just read that here in the US, the average American only has one healthy birthday after the age of 65. Most are working full time until they are older than that. We are so beyond FUCKED in this country and in this planet yet people are still breeding and arguing over who can use what bathroom or what some senile fucking moron has to say about it.

Do you know that all of our technological advancements over the last 2000 years have only led to more working hours and less leisure time? Is this not concerning? Does this make any sense? Sure, our ancestors didn’t have Wi-Fi, cars, or air conditioning, but they had freedom of movement and ready access to the abundance of nature. When they woke up they only had to leave their shelter and find some food and water (which was everywhere) before being able to enjoy the rest of their days. Now, they wake up, go to work or school to produce yield for the masters, eat poisoned packaged food that will kill them off quickly when they are old and no longer productive, and spend what little time they have to themselves consuming propaganda so they can be optimally watched and marketed to.

We are allowing this imbalance get even worse and are pawning the hard work of fixing it off onto the next generations.

My working theory is that humanity has literally gone blind to the reality of the world. We have been bred over millennia now to be a maximally distractible and docile working class. Although it has human nuance, this phenomenon happens eventually to all species who outgrow their resources and it serves to accelerate their species’ decline and restore balance to nature. Humans have brains though and so could avoid this. It is really, really awful to watch.

If I were to be a parent, I would only do so if I were willing to die for my kids. It only seems fair. Given the abhorrent state of the world, I guess I just don’t understand how I haven’t seen ANY do so yet. I suppose they are all just too tired or distracted with Facebook updates and soccer practice.

#grownostr

#thinkdangerously

**Trigger warning**

Many parents seem to have this romantic notion that they would die for their children. They espouse this ideal most fervently when confronted with the question of what material things they are doing to unfuck the world we are currently living in and they have brought more human life into.

What seems to happen far more often in practice though is that they really aren’t willing to sacrifice anything for their kids. They just tell themselves (and others!) that they are willing to fight and die for their kids, that things will surely get better soon, or that other people who are actually to blame will soon “see the light” or get theirs. Rather than doing anything of consequence, I also see many retreat into non-logical self-soothings like “this is all just part of Gods plan”.

Anything and everything is done to avoid and distract from the harsh possibility that they have created lives that will most likely be even more miserable than their own.

When it’s all said and done, they believe their children of course will only carry on with the “correct” and “true” principles that they, as all knowing and wisest of parents, have imparted. Someday, someone else or some God will surely come along, since their own efforts are already maximized (they would die for their kids, remember?), that will finally fix all the things they complain about.

So I ask you, parents (who are all apparently willing to die for their kids), when will you start actually living (or maybe dying?) up to this lofty ideal??

How bad do things have to get? How much surveillance, propaganda, and exploitation do you have to witness your children suffer before you ACTUALLY do anything of consequence to protect them?

I’m sorry but until then, I’ll continue to see you as the impotent cowards that you probably are. Keep telling yourselves that Bitcoin, god, nostr, whatever, is going to fix this shit. Anything to avoid putting in any actual effort or suffering yourselves, right?

#grownostr

#thinkdangerously

#getoffended

how to raise children?

attention is all they need.

some basics:

food. sleep. warmth. hygiene. play. friends. rules. love.

food must be healthy.

breast milk for babies, water for kids.

low on sugar, low on salt.

complex calories, unsaturated fats, all the essential amino accids.

enough minerals and vitamines.

sleep is necessary, the need for sleep varies.

create a calm sleep environment.

establish rituals for going to bed.

warmth is necessary.

provide adequate clothing.

install heating / air conditioning.

hygiene prevents sickness.

clean with water.

change diapers.

wash their hands before eating.

wash their hair.

cut their fingernails.

time to play is necessary, fancy toys are not.

provide a safe place to play.

let them enjoy their imagination.

socializing is necessary.

provide opportunity to meet other kids.

let them play together, don't intervene too early.

rules must be enforced, this creates reliability and builds trust.

set necessary rules after careful consideration.

love is vital.

show your love, be there for them.

attention is all they need.

also:

get them outside for sunlight and fresh air.

send them to school / provide education.

and listen to your pediatrician.

Maybe there is room for an "ignore" Nostr event kind. Post it as a response to any of your notes to signal that they can be ignored. People can choose their client based on how it handles these ignore events.

I’m curious about the moral guidance, community, and helping others aspect you raise.

Do you feel your chosen religion emphasizes those things? Do you feel you would not be a moral person, help others, or have a community without religion?

How do you know that religion, and not you as just a decent human being, is responsible for acting morally, helping others, and maintaining community?

This is one of the biggest lies that religion spreads. It tells people “see how great religion has made you?!” when in fact, good people will be good with or without religion, while bad people will be bad with or without religion. It takes credit for the good that already exists and blames the bad on people who “lack faith”.

Religion is completely pointless but fools people into thinking they’d be lost without it. And often for someone else’s gain.

No thanks.

#grownostr

#thinkdangerously

Religious reasoning in a nutshell:

“There are things that humans cannot explain or understand so my chosen God must exist.”

In other words:

“I cannot understand or explain certain things, but I am sure that the reason behind everything I cannot understand or explain is my chosen God.”

Ergo, they can magically explain everything after all!

They call this “faith”.

I call this narcissistic idiocy.

#grownostr

#thinkdangerously

What is mental energy and how can I increase it? Usually I get more of it after some activity. A day in pyjamas on the couch kills it. It's low when I'm tired. Maybe some physical work gets converted into mental energy. It's motivation to do more. Is mental energy an alternative to discipline, or do they go hand in hand? Can you measure it in Joule? Depression is minimal mental energy. I think it's possible to create virtuous cycles to cultivate mental energy. Use discipline as activation energy to kick of a routine that increases mental energy. This makes it easier to start the next routine. The goal is to turn these mechanisms into habits. Thanks for reading. I wish you lots of mental energy and would be interested in your view on the topic. Cheers 🤙

After posting these kind of notes, I always feel like having had to much sugar. It's cheap to post these shower thoughts and there is a temptation to share such random "insights" with the world. Like informational fast food or the urge to play with a fidget gadget. Apologies for any spam, unfortunately deletion is not a feature of Nostr.