Open Thread, August 16-31, 2012

OpenThreadGuy

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.

Suppose you are pretty sure the society you are living in is evil, beyond your power to destroy and unlikely to ever reform.

How would you deal with the psychological toll of such a life? What strategies and approaches would you recommend?

http://lesswrong.com/lw/sc/existential_angst_factory/

You could try self-modifying to not hate evil people ("hate the sin not the sinner"). Here's some emotional arguments that might help (I make no claim as to their logical coherence):

If there was only one person in existence and they were evil, would you want them to be punished or blessed? Who would it serve to punish them?

If you are going to excuse people with mental illness you are going to have to draw some arbitrary line along the gradient from "purposely evil" to "evil becau... (read more)

5Jayson_Virissimo14y

How high are your standards for non-evilness? Singapore and Switzerland seem non-evil to me and are reasonably easy to immigrate to.

4[anonymous]14y

Move to a less evil society. Better yet, move to a good society, assuming such a thing exists. Otherwise, keep you head down. Do what the society compels you to do (pay your taxes, obey the laws, etc.) because there is no sense fighting against it if there is no significant chance of reform. Beyond that, try to live as though you lived in a good society. Focus on following your passions, finding a romantic partner, getting a fulfilling job, and so on.