It feels like (at least in the West) the majority of our ideation about the future is negative, e.g.
popular video games like Fallout
zombie apocalypse themed tv
shows like Black Mirror (there’s no equivalent White Mirror)
Are we at a historically negative point in the balance of “good vs bad ideation about the future” or is this type of collective pessimistic ideation normal?
If the balance towards pessimism is typical, is the promise of salvation in the afterlife in e.g. Christianity a rare example of a powerful and salient positive ideation about our futures (conditioned on some behavior)?
I agree. I feel like this is a very recent change as well. We used to be hopeful about the future, creating sci-fi about utopias rather than writing nightmare scenarios.
The west is becoming less self-affirming over time, and our mental health is generally getting worse. I think it’s because of historic guilt, as well as a kind of self-loathing pretending that it’s virtue (anti-borders, anti-nationalism, anti-natalism) not to mention the slander of psychological drives which strive for growth and quality (competition, hierarchies, ambition, elitism, discrimination/selection/gatekeeping)
I do not believe that the salvation in the afterlife is the opposite of this, but rather the same. It ultimately talks negatively about life and actual reality, comparing it to some unreachable ideal. It’s both pessimistic, as well as a psychological cope which makes it possible to endure this pessimism. The message is something akin to “Endure, and you will be rewarded in the end”
It’s a weariness we will have to overcome. I feel like our excessive tendency to problem-solving has caused us to view life as a big collection of problems, rather than something which is merely good but imperfect
It feels like (at least in the West) the majority of our ideation about the future is negative, e.g.
popular video games like Fallout
zombie apocalypse themed tv
shows like Black Mirror (there’s no equivalent White Mirror)
Are we at a historically negative point in the balance of “good vs bad ideation about the future” or is this type of collective pessimistic ideation normal?
If the balance towards pessimism is typical, is the promise of salvation in the afterlife in e.g. Christianity a rare example of a powerful and salient positive ideation about our futures (conditioned on some behavior)?
I agree. I feel like this is a very recent change as well. We used to be hopeful about the future, creating sci-fi about utopias rather than writing nightmare scenarios.
The west is becoming less self-affirming over time, and our mental health is generally getting worse. I think it’s because of historic guilt, as well as a kind of self-loathing pretending that it’s virtue (anti-borders, anti-nationalism, anti-natalism) not to mention the slander of psychological drives which strive for growth and quality (competition, hierarchies, ambition, elitism, discrimination/selection/gatekeeping)
I do not believe that the salvation in the afterlife is the opposite of this, but rather the same. It ultimately talks negatively about life and actual reality, comparing it to some unreachable ideal. It’s both pessimistic, as well as a psychological cope which makes it possible to endure this pessimism. The message is something akin to “Endure, and you will be rewarded in the end”
It’s a weariness we will have to overcome. I feel like our excessive tendency to problem-solving has caused us to view life as a big collection of problems, rather than something which is merely good but imperfect