They might be getting mad because Jesus is not saying the same thing I am.
He is saying do not worry about tomorrow because you can worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.
He is saying material reality is not the most important thing, your relationship with God is.
I am saying do not worry about things where the worry itself prevents you from actually acting to make tomorrow better… or where there genuienly is nothing useful you can do, when you have no realistic choice.
…and I would want you to fundamentally base your appraisal of your own situation in the material and practical reality, and in you trying to be as honest with yourself, about yourself, as you can be.
Haha suppose you’re right. I appreciate the perspective. :) I think I missed the point at first. I’ve been really sleep deprived lately.
It really blows, how especially from the Internet, we have so much information we can’t do anything about. It feels like we’re failing if we’re not out there literally saving the world every day because we’re always shown a constant feed of where and how it’s burning.
…But then yeah, realistically, we can’t. I’m always trying to figure out “solutions” to these big problems but that usually just results in my brain flooring the pedal in neutral until it burns out and feels helpless and anxious again.
So yeah, I totally agree with your approach. It’s almost a skill in itself learning to discern what we can change with enough effort, and what is simply beyond our control.
Everything is a contest to get you to pay your attention toward watching, looking at, reading, whatever particular thing.
Outrage is the best way to get you to pay attention.
But when you’ve spent your attention on being outraged… your brain tricks you.
You’ve had the experience of being outraged… you felt it, you feel like you understand the thing, experienced the thing… contemplated the thing… even like you acted in some way about the thing.
But 99.9% chance… you did nothing other than absorb information and have emotions about it. Maybe you also posted a reaction comment or video of some kind… but you didn’t do anything tangible about it, something that might alleviate the conditions that led to this outrageous thing being a thing, or its likelihood of recurring.
You didn’t actually do anything about it… but you feel like you did.
This is why people get nutty about fandoms, have parasocial relationships with e-personalities, get legitimately fatigued from so much bad news.
There has to be a balance, you have to retain actual self control and self awareness. Otherwise, you’re a zombie that thinks you’re morally superior to other zombies, and you’ll sleepwalk toward what the algorithm wants you to…
When you could have, at some point, turned off the screen and… meditated, read a book, gone for a hike or jog, planted a garden, maintained your car… even gasp had a face to face interaction with a random person.
They want us atomized, exhausted, existentially despairing.
Such people won’t be capable of doing anything about anything.
If you want to stay Christian about it:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
… Not actually in the Bible. A Lutheran pastor came up with it in the 1930s.
Though I personally disagree with the less often quoted second part of it, which echoes your quoted verses of Jesus saying to more or less be right with God and focus on that… seems to imply that all suffering is unavoidable, and of course that you’ll be better off in Heaven… which I do not think is the case.
But, I can at least say that I think the first part is pretty close to spot on.
They might be getting mad because Jesus is not saying the same thing I am.
He is saying do not worry about tomorrow because you can worry about tomorrow, tomorrow.
He is saying material reality is not the most important thing, your relationship with God is.
I am saying do not worry about things where the worry itself prevents you from actually acting to make tomorrow better… or where there genuienly is nothing useful you can do, when you have no realistic choice.
…and I would want you to fundamentally base your appraisal of your own situation in the material and practical reality, and in you trying to be as honest with yourself, about yourself, as you can be.
Haha suppose you’re right. I appreciate the perspective. :) I think I missed the point at first. I’ve been really sleep deprived lately.
It really blows, how especially from the Internet, we have so much information we can’t do anything about. It feels like we’re failing if we’re not out there literally saving the world every day because we’re always shown a constant feed of where and how it’s burning.
…But then yeah, realistically, we can’t. I’m always trying to figure out “solutions” to these big problems but that usually just results in my brain flooring the pedal in neutral until it burns out and feels helpless and anxious again.
So yeah, I totally agree with your approach. It’s almost a skill in itself learning to discern what we can change with enough effort, and what is simply beyond our control.
We live in the digital attention economy.
We literally pay … attention.
Everything is a contest to get you to pay your attention toward watching, looking at, reading, whatever particular thing.
Outrage is the best way to get you to pay attention.
But when you’ve spent your attention on being outraged… your brain tricks you.
You’ve had the experience of being outraged… you felt it, you feel like you understand the thing, experienced the thing… contemplated the thing… even like you acted in some way about the thing.
But 99.9% chance… you did nothing other than absorb information and have emotions about it. Maybe you also posted a reaction comment or video of some kind… but you didn’t do anything tangible about it, something that might alleviate the conditions that led to this outrageous thing being a thing, or its likelihood of recurring.
You didn’t actually do anything about it… but you feel like you did.
This is why people get nutty about fandoms, have parasocial relationships with e-personalities, get legitimately fatigued from so much bad news.
There has to be a balance, you have to retain actual self control and self awareness. Otherwise, you’re a zombie that thinks you’re morally superior to other zombies, and you’ll sleepwalk toward what the algorithm wants you to…
When you could have, at some point, turned off the screen and… meditated, read a book, gone for a hike or jog, planted a garden, maintained your car… even gasp had a face to face interaction with a random person.
They want us atomized, exhausted, existentially despairing.
Such people won’t be capable of doing anything about anything.
If you want to stay Christian about it:
… Not actually in the Bible. A Lutheran pastor came up with it in the 1930s.
Though I personally disagree with the less often quoted second part of it, which echoes your quoted verses of Jesus saying to more or less be right with God and focus on that… seems to imply that all suffering is unavoidable, and of course that you’ll be better off in Heaven… which I do not think is the case.
But, I can at least say that I think the first part is pretty close to spot on.