You frame it with ambition as a virtue to be desired, but that’s really not a given… ambition is often super toxic. I can imagine a future of luxury automated space communism™ where the ultimate purpose is fulfillment. To be Zen is to release ones self from ego and put desire and ambition in context.
The toxic aspect generally comes from the consequences of pursuing ambition by undermining others in a competitive context. If, hypothetically, the competitive pressure is off, then “ambition” is not nearly as likely to have negative consequences.
Here the person was saying we really need to actually put our minds to use, and that’s not really likely to be the ‘toxic ambition’ you fear.
You frame it with ambition as a virtue to be desired, but that’s really not a given… ambition is often super toxic. I can imagine a future of luxury automated space communism™ where the ultimate purpose is fulfillment. To be Zen is to release ones self from ego and put desire and ambition in context.
The toxic aspect generally comes from the consequences of pursuing ambition by undermining others in a competitive context. If, hypothetically, the competitive pressure is off, then “ambition” is not nearly as likely to have negative consequences.
Here the person was saying we really need to actually put our minds to use, and that’s not really likely to be the ‘toxic ambition’ you fear.