The whole quote gives it a lot more meaning

To this day you have the choice: either as little displeasure as possible, painlessness in brief – and in the last analysis socialists and politicians of all parties have no right to promise their people more than that – or as much displeasure as possible as the price of growth of an abundance of subtle pleasures and joys that have rarely been relished yet. If you decide for the former and desire to diminish and lower the level of human pain, you also have to diminish and lower the level of their capacity for joy.

Check out this 2 min video from The School of Life:

I think if you're still there after the new relationship phase, you've certainly found love.

The problem though, is that it made me think of my life-long clamor and struggle for a better rock to push. I can deal with the four years in high school right now, cause I'm gonna go to college, which will make me happier. I realize that the happiness i'll feel when starting college will be quickly plateau, replaced by the longing for a job– and then I'm eternally fucked by the constant need to make more and more and more money. The difference between me and Sysiphus is that I'm living a life where I have a chase a bigger better high, instead of just pushing my rock. That's a punishment I can't flip the bird to my captors for, yet.

You could do differently than most of society tells you to do, don't get debt, develop some skills, get a good job or start a business, without spending 4 years of your life in corporate education.

Full Essay: The Myth of Sisyphus

This may interest you, The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility

Nobody's actions are without influence of others, so how can anything truly be one sole person's fault, and furthermore, the idea that we actually could choose differently at any given moment of our past given the past before that moment stayed the same seems impossible.

Where are you getting that he thinks we should make bad things happen and make the bad things worse? I've never seen such a sentiment and I think he would be against a person harming themselves, that is not something a strong will does.

Rather, he is saying it is good when people suffer because it proves they have value, that they can endure.

Weak people are bitter after facing adversity.

Growth is not inherent to struggle, but struggle often gives opportunities for growth and change, and struggle comes with any difficult to do, learn, and master.

I don't think Nietzsche succeeds at trying to put such a subjective concept into objective terms.

Nietzsche would not begin to do this really. His seeing subjectivity as something everyone is forced to deal with would goes against him defining struggle objectively for all people. Struggle can only be defined subjectively.

Neither are necessarily better given your descriptions. Bboth can be weak people, both can be strong people.

To think the rich and successful are necessarily strong is a mistake.

Sounds to me like Nietzsche suffered a lot and was trying to look for the upside, either that or he was a masochist.

Yes he did suffer greatly, he had massive migraines as well as other physical ailments.

His suffering certainly painted his perspective, as you would expect.

No one needs profound self-contempt. When it is truly profound and all-encompassing I believe it prevents growth. Self-mistrust though - we should doubt ourselves.

I think there is an important distinction between being a skeptic of yourself and having self-mistrust.

To be strong, someone should trust themselves and have strong faith in themselves and abilities to do things and learn.

I hate Nietzsche and think he's a huge asshole

Which works have you read of his?

The quote you did provide is from The Will to Power which is not his work, at the obvious it lacks his eloquence with words even when saying brutal things.

Lol it's funny how having more stuff can cause so much unsatisfaction and depression. Don't expect to spend the time they each deserve, then you will not be depressed that you cannot.

This is GOP propaganda. Many many people have ideas for businesses, they do not have the confidence, security, or know how about how to start one. Would you start a business if it meant failing would put you on the street? I didn't for this very fear.

To say they'd just spend it is wrong and misguided. At best, you can say they're not aware of the manipulation in the media that incites them to buy shit they don't need. However this is not everyone, there are many, many, many hardworking poor families that do not waste money.

Yes some can succeed quite well, but that is not the norm by any means. Which is why I said citing two people alone is pointless. The norm and reality are the opposite, there's a low chance of income mobility for over 50% of people. It makes sense too, the way most people enter the top 5% is by investing and making money off of money. Those that don't make much money, don't have money to invest. Our income system makes the wealthy wealthier and the poor poorer, not only in the basic interest based structure, but in our policies (especially tax) too.

Don't misunderstand me, anyone living in the USA is better off than most people in the world. But look at what has been done to the world, especially poorer less developed countries. We thrive off of their poverty and taking of their resources. How much of what we use is made by people being paid slave wages across asia? Electronics, clothing, furniture, etc. So sure, we do okay...but we rape the world to do okay. The number of countries we have actively fucked over is astounding.

Our welfare system is not good, but it is certainly better than nothing. It actually does help people stay out of poverty and move up, however, finding something to move up to is very difficult for many. Our economy is mostly a service economy, which does not pay very well. Do you honestly expect those at or near the poverty line to have the time or money to get a higher education? For so many, especially those with children, it's nearly impossible. Not to mention so many graduates are underemployed today and have massive amounts of debt which the federal gov profits off of too!

We do need taxes to run the government, but the constitution does not allow for unapportioned taxes and only allowed direct taxes. No % based tax bullshit that we deal with today. We know how much it costs to run the government, we should be paying a flat amount, not a % based amount. It was not until the Federal Reserve and IRS were created that we passed the 16th amendment along with them. The entire system is designed to make us poorer from the beginning, taxing the poor and middle class much more than the rich, the government paying interest to the federal reserve for every dollar that's created. The dollar today is worth 96% less than it was 100 years ago. Our economy is racing straight towards the edge of a cliff, and nothing short of ending the federal reserve will save it.

I by far don't expect the government to take care of us. However, if the government CREATES poverty, then it should take care of those in poverty. We create, mandate, require, fundamentally must have, poverty because of the Federal Reserve System and always having less money available to people than what is owed.

lol Jesus. Okay, Jesus would ask why someone's right to food and shelter necessitates their working for it? Why is it okay to exploit people and the earth for financial gain, the way many corporations do today and the majority of people support? He would tell you to give the needy what they need if you can do without it.

Why is it depressing? It's the same thing we've always had to do to really study an album. Listen to it over and over again.

I spent months on Be'lakor's second album before moving on to their first and third for example. Even though I have to control myself, I love that I can and want to do this.

Always there are more albums downloaded and waiting for me to listen to. I don't let this bother me, it actually excites me that my sea of metal never ends.

It really isn't that simple. By raising the minimum wage, the power remains in employer's hands. A basic income is a far better option, it helps the poor immensely and will not make employers higher less or outsource more.

We just passed a $600 billion military spending increase. If that were a basic income, it would be $2000 per person equivalent to $1/hr min wage increase.

Who said by the workplace? You have money shoved down your throat by school, society(family/friends), and the media. The biggest consideration most people have when considering careers is how much money will they make. The media constantly pushes things like a getting a higher paying job means you'll be happier and will be like a different person because of the stuff you'll be able to have. You need only look to see the emphasis on money being most important, the reason to do things, all around us.

I agree that it's foolish to think of money as an incentive, but that's my point. Our society today pushes money as the biggest incentive for anything. I'm not saying money isn't necessary or isn't required to do what you want, but it's bad at motivating people to do things worthwhile. Money alone does not make something worth doing. It makes more sense too when you think about how corporations justify things based on money, by pushing money as being important and reason enough to do anything, it helps society accept corporations using money as justification and reason.

Raising the minimum wage does not reduce poverty. I do honestly wish it was that easy. Minimum wage helps in the short term at best. Your links don't really prove anything in the bigger picture as the first only looks at the restaurant industry which is more more inelastic than other industries. Raising the minimum wage does make it harder to employ people, especially when it's a small company. Look at the affect of people getting laid off because of obamacare's health cost increase. More costs per employee means less employees being hired. Of course you also need to consider how it will affect jobs being outsourced. The higher the min wage, the more outsourcing that will occur. That said, we should be increasing the minimum wage at least along with the rate of the CPI increasing. If that isn't done, the minimum wage effectively goes down each year.

Facing our demons, it's something very difficult for so many to do. Why else is alcoholism, partying, and escapism so rampant? So many don't want to think about anything that makes them feel negative or doesn't reinforce their viewpoints. Unfortunately this has huge consequences everywhere, especially and unsurprisingly people's mental health. So many seem to work all day and then when they're get drunk so they won't remember the night!

It's been nice being less addicted to the internet and technology. I only get in hubski weekly and twice a week on reddit these days.

75% more cancer? That's absurd! But not a surprise given all the chemicals we drink, ingest, and breathe.

To put it simply, we've become addicted to our smartphones. Anything you do for about 3 weeks beings to rewire your brain.

I gave up my smartphone for about 2 months after I was fed up with Google and their making Android more and more closed source as well as increasingly close workings with the DoD and gov.

Now I use a smartphone that mainly just gets online. People text me, I get to them when I get to them. I don't use Facebook or social networking because it's mostly a waste of time and dehumanizes actually interacting with your friends and family.

Best part? I don't miss a single app after having using Android since the 1st day it came out w/ the G1 until mid this year.

Even better actually, I find myself reading books more instead of spending most of my freetime on reddit, social networking, messing with apps, the smartphone itself, etc.

Economics is half philosophy. A lot of things hold well on the microlevel, but the macrolevel? Macroeconomics is mostly assumptions built on assumptions. Hence why it's so confusing, because it's practically a religion.

The biggest issue in our monetary system currently is The Federal Reserve and our Debt based system relying on infinite growth in a finite world. It makes us all poorer and poorer and consolidates resources, land, and wealth in the hands of few. Checked out Money as debt if you want a good explanation of our current money system. This is a very good read too with numerous citations.

Edit: Look at the comments of this economic analysis of bitcoin. You see the religions going head to head :P

Yeah, it's sad. Consumerism makes people unhappy. The idea of prestige and image, the idea of materials defining who you are, are bullshit.

People need to learn philosophy. Nothing in the external world will fill the void inside you.

I find that money is a very bad incentive. That is why the current generation of 16-30 year olds are rather lost in what to do, we've had money shoved down our throats as the reason to do anything...

Rather, everyone has things they want to do in life naturally. Usually it's based off of what they grew up doing or what they care about now. Everyone has things they would do with their time, and I don't mean just play video games or watch media endlessly.

About minimum wage, it doesn't really help too much. Raising minimum wage does help some in the short term, but the market will simply readjust after about 6 months or so and the CPI will go up accordingly, so those making minimum wage will be in almost the same position soon.

$15k is too much. We can't provide their entire living nor expect them to live alone if they have nothing but basic income. Something closer to $3k would be more reasonable. Enough to feed someone for the year so they have the strength and mind to properly function.

No the fruit picker should not make as much as a neurologist, nor did I imply they should. I'm no supporter of communism by any means, it's far worse than democracy as it leads to corruption even quicker.

I like how some Scandanavian countries have done it. There is a maximum amount the highest paid employee can make in relation to the lowest paid employee. It helps with inequality greatly.

Citing two people that became rich is pointless, you're ignoring the vast majority of people that do not have income mobility or fail as entertainers to ever make anything significant.

It is not a punishment to redistribute wealth to the needy. It's benefits those with money and it is a necessity. Less people in poverty helps everyone, including the rich. Do you like dealing with homeless and the hungry? Not to mention, if you don't eat enough, you can't function well, and can't expect to perform well in a job. It helps everyone to help those in poverty. Consider too how many children do not eat enough, affecting their growth and therefore their ability to contribute as much to society in the future.

I very much agree that we should protect the 'opportunity to succeed'. And we have failed to that immensely. There are huge barriers to entry, huge inequalities in people that were not born with a lot of money vs someone that did in starting a business, getting a degree, making decent money. We do not have a fair market, we have a market that promotes corporate oligarchies and makes it harder and harder for local businesses to survive. Think about the cost of marketing for example, no business does very well without strong marketing and marketing prices for TV are priced for corps making millions upon millions, not the typical family run business. We do not protect the opportunity for people to succeed, simply being in the USA does not mean you have the same opportunity as it is greatly tied to your family wealth and also where you live. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen, my parents give me a good example of it happening, but my parents are in the top 5% of the nation and that is appalling because they are by no means rich.

Ethical issues are public policy issues. If you look at almost all of our public policies, it has to follow some code of ethics. It's inescapable because of the nature of dictating what the society ought to do. For a society to thrive, we cannot be selfish for only ourselves. We must be selfish for our society also. We all need each other, we all affect each other, and we all need the same things.

Some interesting quotes, but not really accurate. We have a socialist democracy of sorts now, we need to iron it out further. Our democracy has made us all debt slaves, we are all in servitude now.

Faith is the death of morality...you no longer do things for your fellow man, you do it for god which completely defeats the purpose of morality.

Our single biggest issue above all of this is our money system, it is broken and makes us poorer and poorer...no one but the top 1% can escape this. With loans being made out of thin air and interest payments demanded that do not yet exist...it's absurd. Everyday the value of our money is going down and our entire economy operates under the assumption of infinite growth in a finite world. It's only time before we have to change our idea of economics.

Hopefully you will learn from others and do not take out loans no matter what. It is faaar better, even though not as lazy, to work and save up money than to take loans. It's better to stop going to school for a year or two if need be and do this. Do not take out loans!

The biggest reason for a universal basic income is that jobs are becoming less and less as technology improves. It is impossible to expect people to work to afford basic food needs because the jobs are not available. Today around 40% of working age people do not work. There's also the issue of so many low paying jobs. People that makes less than $12/hr for example will have a significantly improved quality of life for $3k a month. We would also have less reason to have these menial jobs available that could easily be replaced by automated systems, like cashiers for example.

A universal income of $3k would be sufficient and almost eliminate poverty. That's only $250 mo, but enough to make sure people don't starve. It's $1 trillion a year. In comparison we spend $6 trillion on our military a year atm.

Give it to everyone except for illegals that do not pay taxes.

lol this is neither death metal nor grindcore...nor intense...

I believe the article is saying that having to work menial jobs to get by while making your employer rich while our financial system is designed to make most people poorer and poorer is what makes us unhappy.

You are right though in saying every generation has something to point at that makes them unhappy. Happiness comes from within, but your society can certainly contribute towards your unhappiness and our current society has quite a few absurdities abound.

When we have our next financial crash(around 2016), the banks will force us to bail them out again. They, after all, own the federal reserve district banks which make up the federal reserve system. The last time we didn't want to bail them out, they threatened us with martial law and direct threats to congressmen too: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-150837

Until we get rid of the federal reserve, we will continue to serve the banks namely Chase, Bank of America, Citi, and Wells Fargo.

Something I like to keep in mind: There is always more money owed than currently in circulation. This in essence requires some people to default and go bankrupt each year, poverty is therefore built into our economic system.

To me it's even more shameful that we don't take care of those in poverty enough when we require that some be in poverty...especially when our military budget is so stupidly high.