Bandylu: I understand where you're coming from. However, I know people who had it all. They were raised in a loving home, with parents who gave them lots of love and self-respect. They went to good schools, got good grades, had lots of friends, worked in jobs they loved, married the man/woman of their dreams, bought their first house outright, and 30/40 years later they're still living the life of bliss and harmony as they walk off into the sunset.
That's what I'm talking about, because it seems they never made a bad choice or mistake in their lives, even tho' I'm sure they did.
We are all victims of circumstances, and I wonder sometimes why I was always in the wrong line for a happy, contented life.
You're absolutely right Misti. Time will tell all.
The philosopher, Nietzsche, has said that we DO live our lives over again--actually over, and over, and over forever. This is his famous Theory of Eternal Recurrence. He could never prove, of course, that everything that happens happens repeatedly forever; it was some form of almost mystical insight, I suppose, that brought this notion to him. To me one aspect of "Eternity" might be that once something has happened it cannot be made to have never happened; another might have something to do with the unreality of time--that everything in a sense happens at once. Of course, this is totally counter-intuitive to us time-dependent creatures. It is my guess that Nietzsche's theory had a strong moral implication (as much as he hated moralism). The value of the theory, if there is any, is that IF everything recurs ad infinitum, we should be careful about our actions: we should act AS IF every action (and our experience of it and its consequences) will be repeated forever. This is a bit like Kant's moral directive: the Categorical Imperative.
Two years before I retired from my day job as a social work supervisor in a psychiatric hospital I became the union steward for social workers and rehab counselors in the hospital.
although I was the second in command in my department and worked closely with the social work director, I had
to sit across from her in an adversarial capacity on several occasions. I was fascinated, exhilerated (and quite successful, I might add) in the role of advocate for members of my union.
At about the same time my daughter was applying to law schools
and I read various law school guides etc. that she was using.
When I retired two years later I was very tempted to apply to law school, and would have if I had been a little younger than fifty six.
So, if it turns out that there's such a thing as reincarnation,...next time I want to be a lawyer.
jjorge
I always wanted to be a lawyer as well.
If that was accidental, Gezzy, I'd hate to think what kind of cardiac arrest you could cause in a poor man's heart on purpose.
Jjorge, I'm sure we all have similar regrets. One small point: Nietzsche's theory of eternal recurrence is quite different from the notion of reincarnation. The latter posits a kind of spiritual evolution wherein one lives out a progression of sorts. Each life is different from, but based upon, the last life. The eternal recurrence involves no progress or change at all. In it we repeat every experience and action EXACTLY as it occured originally. We should not, therefore, take any action for granted; we should treat it as an eternal event. We are going to have to live with it, exactly as it is, eternally.
What haven't we learned?
One thing for sure, the purpose of life, should it really exist, is totally unkown to me. Should I ever be re-born, I doubt that I, or anyone, will ever know why humanity exists.
What have we learned, for sure?
Time marches on!
But. . . but, wait a minute, JL. If we've already done it before and have to do it again, can't we just merrily skip along through life like always?
Also we've
learned, that IT WILL ALL END ONE DAY!
Here's to you, Joe Demagio!
Very good, Roger. I'm not advocating Nietzsche's theory here, only reporting it for its relevance to this topic. I find it quite incomprehensible, frankly. But many famous philosophers have taken it very serious, trying very hard to figure out what he meant, and assuming that his theory has merit--if only they could decipher it. If we are doing something now, according to Nietzsche we've done it many times in the past but simply can't remember it. Therefore this amnesia prevents us from changing our behavior based on such past experiences. His theory applies, I think, to our future, that we act AS IF our actions have eternal significance; but if we have no free will, only repeating past actions, what then?. He used the term Amor Fati (to love our fate), meaning that we should embrace our lives exactly as they are, or perhaps we should live so that we can have an embraceable fate. I hate to be so stuffy. Pardon please.
No accident Roger and I'm flattered
I gotta remember to come back to this.
"NIETZSCHE IS DEAD"
God
timber
I would have raised my kids in Europe so they would be polyglots, or at least bilingual. It is a shame to miss out on so much because we can't understand another language.
Easy there! 99% of English folks can only speak English.
And not very damned well either . . . Piffka, if you brought a plane-load of polyglots back to the ol' US of A, the religious right would have 'em arrested immediately . . .
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa haaa.Trés bon mon ami!!
