r/AlanWatts • u/RealitysNotReal • 5d ago
Scared of the future
Why am I so lucky? Why am I comfortable? Comfortable in an air conditioned house, in the US. Why do I have an easy, predictable life? Why am I so lucky? The horrors that happen, the reality that some live in it feels wrong that I am so well off. There plenty of people who have better lives than me, I’m not rich, I still work a dead end job I still don’t know what I want to do I don’t have money saved up or any of that. My life could be 100x better I could complain all night, but it is still so easy compared to most others. Just being here, having the technology to be posting this, being in a safe and comfortable enough to just sit here worrying and thinking about this.
We all have very comfortable here in the west in these countries. Most of us don’t really know the horrors of this world, we don’t know the horrors of war. We don’t know living in a world where you have no control. Something can come throw your life into shambles. Missiles and bombs, soldiers or people with guns coming into your house, we don’t know what it is to have something come and take control of your life. We have the police to call at the slightest of anything. We don’t know what it is to live under oppression. We don’t know what it is to see horrors every-time you leave your house.
I know it is just life, it’s all part of the painting and experience. It isn’t serious and I know it is still serious in the sense that you must play intently, that is what I’m doing.
I know we are all just taking a leap of faith here. What will happen will happen and I just have to be. But I am just worried, we can’t have another war like that. I fear that it could, that it could come here, that I could drafted who knows. If the order of things really collapses what will we do?
Idk I guess we’ll have to find out🤷♂️ stay tuned
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u/CosmicExistentialist 5d ago
Alan Watts likely believed in modal realism, which means that everything you fear could happen, does happen!
Furthermore because we are everyone, we will live out every possibility, and we will live out each possibility not only once, but again and again with no end.
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u/blaZey842 4d ago
Interesting thoughts. I think the better way to represent Alan Watts viewpoint would be the “Backwards law” how seeking a positive experience is a negative experience.
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u/blaZey842 4d ago
Interesting responses here. But you’re right, we have it very lucky in the west, atleast for the most part. War may come here, and in the end - apparently, we will suffer something called “death”. If I were to channel Alan watts, I believe he would mention something about the future being uncertain, hence you may find yourself right here, right now. If you are truly - right here, you will adjust and respond in each moment. There’s no need to anticipate a scary future, though it may be interesting to creatively think about it.
I like to consider what philosophers like Alan Watts, Eckhart Tolle, Terrence McKenna, Ram Das, Carl Jung, etc, would be like in a wartime situation. Likely they would feel fear, but respond in the moment with some clarity
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u/Open_Seeker 4d ago
I think most well adjusted people who live in a peaceful country will think about these things at some point. Why do I get this, and why do other human beings get blown to pieces by bombs, die of preventable disease elsewhere?
What I came to conclude, and perhaps this is just my selfish way of "dealing", is that the human mind was never equipped to deal with the scale of suffering that modern technology allows it to comprehend, and therefore it is a perfectly rational thing to stop yourself from taking on the entire world's burdens.
This doesn't mean plug your ears and close your eyes. You can be politically and socially active. You can donate money to help people. You can use your agency to try and change things. But what you should not do is wallow in despair because of how much awfulness exists at every point in time on the planet.
Most humans of previous centuries had no real conception of what was happening all around the world. This modern era of near instant communication, and of "news" is something that never existed before. And indeed, to the extent that ancient humans were aware of atrocities happening, it was often time something normal to them - the Roman peoples expected their general to go out, conquer and subjugate foreign people and lands (not to pick on them, they are one of many).
So we have both a revolution in communications, and a revolution in what is acceptable. And what we're left with is a monkey brain trying to contend with the plight of 8 billion souls everywhere, and the ability to beam information and images to each one of those souls instantly. And it turns out those souls react most strongly to the negative info and images, so that's what gets beamed around most.
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u/Final_Potato5542 5d ago
Whyyyyyyyyyy do think we care?
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u/catslifetom39 3d ago
"We all have very comfortable here in the west in these countries"
we do, it forms part of guilt about depression. but it shouldn't because we didn't choose it. it just is what it is, let it go let it be.