I would say the immediate item to be addressed is, did you
enjoy it?
That's a question for another thread, in another forum.
Not ALL pessimists / realists have no dreams - just the ones trained in Taoist philosophy, and of THOSE only the ones who find that it suits their needs
.
Sounds kind of slippery....do you have to be a pessimistic Tao philosopher in order to have no dreams, and are Taoist who have dreams to suit their needs really Taoist?
By "dreams" I am not referring literally to visions that come to you while sleeping. A better substitute for the word dreams would be goals.
In your opinion can you be a non-Taoist and have a lack of dreams/goals?
Not everything. In the worlds of science, mathematics and logic the predominant model is to be as precise in one's actions as possible. NASA could not have landed a car-sized piece of scientific laboratory equipment on a target half the size of Earth, 140,000,000 miles away and moving at 55,000 MPH if they had settled for "interpretation".
The English language (Americayle) has unfortunately devolved as it has evolved. Already it was one of the poorer languages in the world for descriptive purposes - the Sami people who are native inhabitants of the Arctic circle have over 180 words for "snow" and over 1,000 words for "reindeer". Each word has a very specific meaning, one that cannot be mistaken for any other, unlike the English language where such open interpretations of "optimism" and "pessimism" are allowed to exist.
We can't seem to agree on one version of the meaning of two words, think of debating the meaning of 180 words for one word. I'll stick with my evolved devolved English. I have enough comprehension problems it seems.
(You should have auditioned for Cliff Claven's character on "Cheers"..you know an amazing amount of trivia).
Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with the reigning philosophy of America to allow ANY meaning for a word as long as it doesn't offend anyone.
I see the reigning philosophy in America as not allowing any
words that offend anyone, regardless of their meaning or suffer the wrath of the thought and speech police.
By the way you should be careful in using that particular emoticon. School kids have been suspended for merely drawing a picture out of gun, munching a pastry into the shape of a gun and shooting bubbles from a plastic gun. They may come and take you away...heh..heh, deeming you emotionally unstable and dangerous.
Yes and no. Do you believe that "evil" is always necessarily bad, or that "good" is always the best course of action to follow? If so, then yes, the definitions I used would appear to be "negative" to you.
When one reads another's writing, the reader can only interpret the writing to a certain degree. The reader cannot fully determine how deep the writer is thinking when putting the words down. Generally, I take them at face value, as it pertains to my thinking. I usually cannot know what prompted the writer to write the words. So yes, taking the quotes at face value, I deem them negative. It was not explained in the writing in what context evil is not evil and good is not good.
I would venture to call that the "Disney Version of Life". To my way of thinking (an admitted pessimist, realist and grump) dreams do not make the world go round. The Earth formed out of a nebula that collapsed. As the nebula collapsed it began rotating, which may seem odd, but actually not rotating is far stranger than rotating. The Earth's rotation comes from the initial tendency to rotate that was imparted on it when it formed, and there is nothing (other than the tidal forces of the Moon, which are weak) to slow it down.
Therefore it is physical laws that make the world go 'round, not dreams. You're using platitudes and poetic license - I'm using fact-based declarations.
Is Taoism fact based or a philosophy? You responses seem to be vascillating between "fact-based declarations" and philosophy. In going back to my thoughts about not knowing what a writer is truly thinking as they are writing. I doubt anyone would read what I wrote concerning dreams making the world go 'round, and literally think the world would fall off it's axis tomorrow if every one stopped having goals or expectations.
It's for certain though, for good or bad, the modern world would not exist today, but for people who have dreams, goals and expectations. As far as I know, both pessimists and optimists have contributed to this evolution, maybe a study should be commissioned by the government to explore that.
Of course, a person whose reality consists ONLY of dreams has problems that are far too complex to be addressed here.
Yes, there are medical terms for those individuals.
I think perhaps you've taken the idea of trying / not trying a little too literally. Let me see if I can explain it better ...
It isn't a matter of pre-judging a situation. It isn't gambling - you don't first figure out the odds of success and failure and proceed according to what benefits you the most.
I think millions of people would disagree with you...it's called
making decisions. Decisions are part of life and are made many times on a daily basis, to highly varying degrees of importance, concerning not only what benefits the person themself, but also their families, job responsibilities, and other areas of importance in their lives. To a degree, I guess you could say that making decisions is a bit like gambling. Some decisions work out to expectations and some not at all.
It's about attitude: the attitude of doing anything. If we "try" to do something, by stating it in that terms - or even by thinking about it in those terms - we have already limited our chances for success. We have admitted there is a possibility of failure. This allows doubt into our minds, followed closely by rationalizations for why we SHOULD not / CANNOT accomplish the task. We fall back on the comfort of telling ourselves we're only human and that humans fail all
While I whole heartedly agree that attitude is key component to accomplishments, I don't agree with the subliminal message you are projecting onto the word
try.
As the saying goes, a journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. If a man falls in a ravine in the dark, half way to his goal is he a slacker with a defeatist attitude? Should we not acknowledge him for trying?
"Commitment" is something that, at least in this particular philosophy, should not even be a question. you give it everything you've got - anything less (the so-called "slacker" attitude) and once again you've pre-defined the conditions for your failure. But we as a culture are taught in many different ways to hold back, to conserve, to "save a little for later", and most importantly (and destructively) we are now taught from an early age that IT IS OK TO FAIL, AS LONG AS YOU GAVE IT YOUR BEST TRY.
I also agree that this country has totally dumbed down society. This has been done by design through education, no child left behind policies that teach to the lowest common denominator, entitlements to pander to the products of no child left behind for political votes, and the collusion of main stream media to suppress what is really happening in this country, and the moral degeneration....uhoh...enough said, or there may be a drone landing on my window sill this evening.
Well, I guess you can tell I am not an optimist, but am I a pessimist or realist. Do I have a pessimistic viewpoint, or is this what is
really happening
Bullshit.
This is just another part of the dumbing-down process that has taken over both our educational system and our society at large. In the philosophy from which the "do or do not" quote comes there are many examples of just how far you are expected to go and how focused on victory you should be, while simultaneously not even acknowledging the possibility of failure, no matter HOW seemingly impossible the task is. According to the Hagakure, the 18th-century "book of the samurai" written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo,
THAT, my dear friend, is DOING. THAT is INTENT, pure and simple, and THAT is the kind of attitude I'm talking about here.
"To some degree", yes; in MY world, the fewer you have the better.
I know you are not totally devoid of any dreams, based on your posts in another thread you are comtemplating a move to be near water. Or is this not a dream (not a delusional one)?
