Is it best to live with unabashed elitism or unbridled compassion?
I find both temperaments to be appealing. A certain dose of elitism is necessary to prevent cultural/intellectual decline. It gives us a set of standards and encourages to live up to then. However, compassion toward others is far likelier to engender fulfillment. The life of an elitist is often a bitter and angry one.
For example, a handful of my colleagues and fellow community members are involved in a feminist collective. This collective ultimately does little other than to perpetuate this bullshit slacktivist ethos, as if liking a Facebook post that espouses feminism will do anything to help the plight of women. They've merely created an echo chamber and now treat it as courageous activism.
However, knowing some of the individuals involved, I can say that they are genuinely well-meaning people. They really do seem to want to make the world a better place, and even if I find their methods totally vacuous, I find myself admiring their spirit. Plus, though I do contend that elitism can yield benefits, it's hard for me to shake the idea that my elitism toward these young women amounts to little more than self-aggrandizement.
So what do you say /lit/? Are there any novels or thinkers that deal with the tension between these two temperaments? Or some which argue decidedly in favor of one over the other that you think I'd benefit from reading?
Having some balance and not giving too much of a shit about other people's development. Work towards bettering yourself.
What happens when you have cultural decline? I never study what happens if that was an event that could happen.
>>7879089
I agree that it's best to focus on your own personal growth, but at the same time each person's individual development feeds into society at large which necessarily has an impact on all of those within it. No man is an island and whatnot.
>>7879110
Yeah I agree with you. At the same point tho I think that you have to reasonable and understand your limits in influencing people. Challenging people is fine, but you are not going to save the world looking down on others.
>>7879110
>>7879089
Personal growth is one of 4chan's biggest spooks I swear. One of my friends decided to pick up drawing, bought a $60 e-sketchpad, lurked /ic/, and decided after <30 days that the learning curve was too steep, or the returns too shallow. Another of my friends is constantly telling himself he'll learn guitar and buy a drumset, yet every time I see him he's still playing the same chords, still expanding his collection of amiibos instead of saving money. As for /lit/, it's always shitposting, memeing, posting bookshelf or recent purchases threads, meanwhile (beside the rare anon like Nietzsche guy) the level of discourse never improves, and the critique threads are always shitty. I am willing to grant that this may be due to the turnover rate, but another part of me thinks 4chan is a place for stagnation. I don't think self-improvement can be forced, but rather must be picked up on the periphery of pleasurable activities. How many /lit/eratis actually read instead of blogposting about it?
>>7879150
Yeah, not being here is an important part of self improvement.
>>7879150
I read. Another thing is that a large majority of 4chan boards have users that are just awful at whatever the board subject is. It's the same way in most places around the internet. You need to find specialized sites dedicated to one certain subject that is constantly moderated to keep out constant shitposting.
I don't even know why I came back to 4chan to be honest. I haven't been able to have a discussion of a book on /lit/ and /g/ is still a consumerwhore board that overreacts to stuff on tech news sites.
"Best" for whom?
Best is not a universal, it's a particular.
Nothing is "Best" when it renounces context.
Examine your life and determine the best tool kit for improving your life in the ways important to you.
Nobody who doesn't actually know who you are and what you're about is going to be able to give you advice on how to live your life that amounts to more than garbage.
>>7879178
>I don't even know why I came back to 4chan to be honest.
I'm here to have something to do while I listen to music.
>>7879150
Because most people like the idea of something rather than the execution.
> I don't think self-improvement can be forced, but rather must be picked up on the periphery of pleasurable activities.
Well, there is an overlap there. I don't particularly enjoy reading and practising the piano compared to playing video games all day but I do it due to the long term rewards.
You need discipline unless you'll end up like your pleb friends.
>>7879223
i'd say that if you "don't particularly enjoy reading" then you're doing something wrong. can you tell me something more substantial than a wiki breakdown of a book you didn't enjoy? because if you can't, then what long term rewards are you talkin about?
>>7879075
I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. You can have very high standards and approve of nothing below it but still realise that most people can't help but fuck themselves over and therefore feel empathy for their not being able to reach those standards.
I try to reserve most of my contempt for myself and don't focus to much on other people's weaknesses. It's not easy but consciously attempting this helps.
>>7879150
I mean obviously if you spend your every waking moment shitposting here you're going to be living a stagnant life, but if used moderately 4chan is fucking great, and is one of the best sites on the web. Over the years I've been exposed to a number of great works of art I might otherwise have not discovered, participated in fascinating discussions, and laughed my ass off thanks to this site. I read about a book a week, get physical activity every single day, and make time to explore my other hobbies and interests. Browsing 4chan doesn't necessitate stagnation, and spending all of your time on /lit/ is probably better than spending all of it on facebook
only optimists fear stagnation desu
Neither. Understand yourself and others as unique instances of the same no-thing, and end all value comparison, which to begin with arise from a fixed conception of yourself and others (namely one that equates both as Mind), so as to assign a secure direction for movement, so as to secure survival of Body, which is in itself folly due to the very process needing progress-in-time (meaning start-and-end), and a spook as survival is taken for granted.
PS: do not reject this process, that is a value judgment; simply be conscious of it.
>>7879244
>I try to reserve most of my contempt for myself and don't focus to much on other people's weaknesses.
This is a useful idea. The golden rule is best applied reversely (treating self as you would treat others), simply don't forget that it's also helpful to help others with an issue once you're done with it--but again, begin with the person closest to you, which is your own.
>>7879150
Well obviously 4chan is not the place for growth and lots of people never try to better themselves. I don't really see what your point is or how personal growth is a "spook." I'd suggest you either take time away from here or learn to see this place as primarily for entertainment, which is what it is.
>>7879320
OP you should cultivate good will in your heart according to the customs of the Noble Ones
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.1.08.than.html
>>7879320
its a spook because people sincerely post about it and probably believe in it without examining if it's a flawed concept, and it provides a blanket of comfort that only limits actual growth/awareness
>>7879235
I meant in comparison to leisure activities.
Reading takes effort compared to lounging about playing video games or watching TV. For me it gets exhausting faster compared to other activities.
The "rewards" are hard to put into words. Having knowledge of humanities' history, being exposed to new ideas, to philosophy. That sort of thing.
I want to progress beyond the average person who has no job of any real intellectual difficult who then goes home and does fuck all. I don't want to become a complete non-entity.
>>7879347
Sure, but it's useful. Acknowledging this, we still must strive on.
You have to climb the ladder all the way to the top before you let go.
>>7879365
>progress
>beyond
>average
>person
>job
>real
>intellectual
>difficult
>home
>fuck all
>become
>complete
>non-entity
Self-improvement is complacency
>>7879075
Mein Gott op You're a spooky guy
>>7879347
>[personal growth] ... limits actual growth
??
>>7879100
“We are born into this time and must bravely follow the path to the destined end. There is no other way. Our duty is to hold on to the lost position, without hope, without rescue, like that Roman soldier whose bones were found in front of a door in Pompeii, who, during the eruption of Vesuvius, died at his post because they forgot to relieve him. That is greatness. That is what it means to be a thoroughbred. The honorable end is the one thing that can not be taken from a man.”
