the system is rigged against you okay
you're gonna die you're gonna be ill
like it's rough man now you don't want
to lay that at the feet of the social
structure because the social structure
at least in part is trying to have you
not die right I mean that's why we have
walls and electricity and all of that
and works pretty damn well you know
you're probably going to live till
you're 80 and the only reason you're not
going to live longer is because we can't
figure out how to get you to live longer
that's why you're not gonna starve to
death
wild animals aren't gonna tear you in
pieces tyrants aren't gonna rip you from
limb to limb it's like these are good
things now you still got a big problem
because the cosmic system is rigged
against you in a sense but okay so fine
what do what do you mean by that the
cutoff is you know you're vulnerable and
and and and and and you can be broken
and you will be in many ways mm-hmm but
you can't blame someone for that it's
just that's the structure of reality
okay so what do you do about that well
as far as I can tell and I've always
looked as a psychologist for optimistic
ideas and and I'm not it's not I'm not
an easy sell with regards to optimistic
ideas especially because of my basic
belief in the idea that you know the
most profound truth is that life is
suffering it's okay fine life is
suffering you can't blame that on anyone
all right so what do you do about it
well maybe nothing maybe nothing maybe
the jig's up it's hopeless you know but
maybe that's not right maybe here's
something what do you have against the
suffering and the malevolence let's say
you have possibility you have potential
in front of you inside of you even
whatever that means so here's the
question what would your life be like if
you made use of all the potential that
you were offered that's the optimistic
question because you can test it out say
okay well I'll just try that for a year
I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna do the best I
can at everything that offers itself to
me just as an experiment and then I'm
gonna see well is my life better or is
my life worse it's like you try it for a
year you think huh it's actually better
my friendships are better my family's
better I'm I'm less anxious I'm more
positively oriented I'm less resentful
and bitter and gel
and angry you know I'm more physically
healthy it's like hey great and you
still you're not that good at it it's
like what happens if you did that for
five years yeah that's a good addiction
that's an addiction yeah that's an
addiction to possibility and then it's
also an exponential thing and this is
actually technically true we know this
beyond a shadow of a doubt there's this
principle that economists talk about
they often call the Matthew principle
which is based on a statement in the New
Testament from those who have everything
no yeah to those who have everything
more will be given and from those who
have nothing everything will be taken
it's really a vicious statement but what
it means is as you go downhill you go
downhill faster and faster and people
know that it's like it isn't linear man
it's exponential you do one thing
stupid then two stupid things happen
then four stupid things happen and it's
you know before you know it you're done
but the reverse of that is also true you
do one good thing and then you know you
get two opportunities and you fix them
up and you get four and this is how the
world works it's a fundamental economic
principle and you see because of that
that a small proportion of people have
most of the games accrue to them and
they're the ones they're healthy that's
luck often you know they didn't get run
over by a bus like there's lots
arbitrary things about life that have to
go right but after that it's like those
are also people who are capitalizing on
what they're being offered without
bitterness or resentment and then maybe
it won't work for you but you don't have
a better you don't have a better plan
than that
you
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