Sociopath Community

So we have to balance our control of perceptions. Which affect our reality and thereby actual reality... with reality.

This is all dependent on what reality is though, which we cannot know for sure.

Mindfuck. Another one, I feel I've seen this before... Is deja vous a side effect of awareness or are you guys fucking with me.

"It sucks, but that sort of obstacle has in turn made things more interesting. Working with my strengths to push myself farther while managing my weak points is quite the challenge. Life is a cynical game of balance, that can really be enjoyed and rewarding if you have the right attitude for adversity."

I do think this leads into the larger point of aligning your wants and desires with realistic outcomes. It sounds a lot easier then it is and to some degree it's impossible to realistically eliminate anything but the most absurd ones. Without grandiose impossible desires and dreams we has human's would not have achieved many of the great feats we have so far.

However for ever Eisenstein there are 1000s of people who's greatest dream would be to do something similar but never reach it. If they had dreamt smaller they probably wouldn't have fallen so hard and perhaps would have found self actualization and meaning in something less extreme. So in the end both ends of the spectrum have their merit (I do tend to favor the more extreme version because emotional welfare tends to come second to societal gain in my book).

"I completely agree with this, though in this generation I think the main response to this issue is to indulge in distractions(due to technological advances there's an abundance of them) and temporarily forget about the problem or not focus on it."

I'm not sure escapism is on the rise but I do see how technologically based escapism would correlate with poor living conditions and general unhappiness.

Pertaining to chance alone I think my point was a bit more meta, whether or not things outside your control had granted you favorable conditions or not people still tend to search for meaning in it. 

"So many things in life are out of your control, sucks doesn't it. What I mean by this is for example; you might get sick or be born into a situation were doing X might be impossible."

It sucks, but that sort of obstacle has in turn made things more interesting. Working with my strengths to push myself farther while managing my weak points is quite the challenge. Life is a cynical game of balance, that can really be enjoyed and rewarding if you have the right attitude for adversity.

"Dealing with this fact has lead many to console themselves in the empowering delusion that somehow if they act a certain way they have power over these events. Most Religions and superstitions have the common theme that they empower the individual to take back chance and offer a explanation for arbitrary hardship/fortune. "

I completely agree with this, though in this generation I think the main response to this issue is to indulge in distractions(due to technological advances there's an abundance of them) and temporarily forget about the problem or not focus on it.

"I say embrace chance but not to the point of apathy and not to the point where this chance is used as a excuse not to take responsibility for a situation."

I agree with this too. 

So many things in life are out of your control, sucks doesn't it. What I mean by this is for example; you might get sick or be born into a situation were doing X might be impossible.

So what degree you believe this to be true is only really a matter of politics/physiology/philosophy.

Dealing with this fact has lead many to console themselves in the empowering delusion that somehow if they act a certain way they have power over these events. Most Religions and superstitions have the common theme that they empower the individual to take back chance and offer a explanation for arbitrary hardship/fortune. 

I say embrace chance but not to the point of apathy and not to the point where this chance is used as a excuse not to take responsibility for a situation.

Cadaver stated: source post

Dealing with this fact has lead many to console themselves in the empowering delusion that somehow if they act a certain way they have power over these events.

We do wield some power over these events, at least technically. The world is just a floating soup of particles that can be manipulated after all.

I completely agree with Ed on this.

I would also like to add that there is so much you can do to improve your life. Read some books and educate yourself, exercise, force yourself out of your comfort zone. I love this quote by Bill Gates:

"If you are born poor it's not your mistake, but if you die poor it's your mistake."

Gates was talking about finances, but the same notion of personal responsibility applies to many other domains of life. If you die a vapid airhead, or your life is in shambles...that's your fault, if you are at least intelligent to properly use an internet forum and be reading this. Sure, maybe life will throw a curve ball at you that hits you in the temple and fucks you over. But I don't think it's healthy or productive to live in fear of that possibility.

Edit: I meant to make a general reply, not one to Ed.

Looking back at our lives so far we can see that a LOT of stuff would have been different if not for outer events out of our control. We are born a certain way, we are put into an environment, chance governs who we meet and interact with, what we find in stores to buy to eat, dress, etc. I found myself sometimes thinking: hey, had this little thing happened slightly differently, I would have missed this entire string of events that turned out to have a big impact on my life.

I've thought that way at times too. There are also occasions where I've realized that decisions I've made in response to certain situations that I thought were minor at the time actually had major and long-lasting impacts on my life. Tiny little alterations in events or minor variations in response to events could have led me to a completely different place in my life.

And yes, there are odds, sometimes against us, sometimes in our favor, and odds can be beaten in turn. We just have to work with what we have at our disposal. We need to seek control, but also understand realistically that said control has massive limitations, and not break when we find that out on our own skin.

I agree.  Understanding that there are times when we have no real control over the situation itself, but instead realizing that we have full and total control over our own reactions to the situation help with this. We can only work with what we have but we can choose to work with it the best we are able.

Letting go was/is the hardest part for me.

But it feels fucking fantastic. Now to impose my will... of which there is no contradiction.

I absolutely believe in the power of resourcefulness and self-discipline to change ones circumstances,  However, I also believe that changing ones life is a much easier and more realistic goal than changing the self.  And as all people are born into varying degrees of the aforementioned qualities, the amount of control a person has is, in its own way, a matter of chance.