Basically, but it ain’t that bad

While I’ve never read “Brazil” or “A Handmaiden’s Tale” I am well versed in the other titles. Dystopian doomsday tales are indeed all around and the writing has been on the walls since , well, always. Progress is a grueling process. While things can look quite bleak, it’s important to take stock of what we’re evolved from. I’m not worried about mongol invaders, viking raids, spanish inquisitions, or even a 4th Reich today.

It’s true that the world is still fighting over who’s god is better, and sadly some people go as far as to ascribe their leaders as chosen by said god, but, all in all, I’d dare say compared to our recent past the world is now undoubtedly statistically a safer place.

Of course this depends on where one finds themselves on the map but my point is this, life is both resilient and precarious and it’s up to the individual to choose stoicism in the inevitability of tumultuous times.

Words are inadequate to describe exactly what I’m alluding to, so in this admission the prescription for the universality of any life philosophy will always elude us as a whole. For instance look at some synonyms of stoic and the implications of the subtle nuanced differences as found on synonyms.com

Apathy, according to its Greek derivation, is a simple absence of feeling or emotion. There are persons to whom a certain degree of apathy is natural, an innate sluggishness of the emotional nature. In the apathy of despair, a person gives up, without resistance or sensibility, to what he has fiercely struggled to avoid. While apathy is want of feeling, calmness is feeling without agitation. Calmness is the result of strength, courage, or trust; apathy is the result of dulness or weakness. Composure is freedom from agitation or disturbance, resulting ordinarily from force of will, or from perfect confidence in one's own resources. Impassibility is a philosophical term applied to the Deity, as infinitely exalted above all stir of passion or emotion. Unfeelingness, the Saxon word that should be the exact equivalent of apathy, really means more, a lack of the feeling one ought to have, a censurable hardness of heart. Indifference and insensibility designate the absence of feeling toward certain persons or things; apathy, entire absence of feeling. Indifference is a want of interest; insensibility is a want of feeling; unconcern has reference to consequences. We speak of insensibility of heart, immobility of countenance. Stoicism is an intentional suppression of feeling and deadening of sensibilities, while apathy is involuntary. Compare CALM; REST; STUPOR.

One can only imagine how much has been lost in translation over the ages. To wrap this up I’ll just say my approach to this world is to find a balance and perhaps aim to be compassionately stoic and rationally optimistic...

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