As I say below in my response to this piece, I guess I have Dutch muse. Lot's of topics, from media dosages, political madness, the nature of dignity, whether gold and silver should be in an investment portfolio.
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First time I've been back in since I last commented. I'm glad I've reduced my frequency. More on that in the second paragraph, but I might just put an entry in my calendar to catch up every two weeks or so. I value the way our anonymous Dutch writer shows where the emperor has no clothes, and when I think he's wrong, I think he's wrong in ways I find interesting -- interesting enough that I feel inspired to write replies. (I guess I have a Dutch muse. Who knew?)
Today, I am not here to disagree with much. As is the message in the first part of the piece, people need to know what they can handle, and how much good they are actually doing with the time they spend on an issue. I once wasted an entire sabbatical by being on r/collapse too much. Yes, the information itself was a drag, but the real thing to avoid is misanthropes who are sack-of-shitting through life. Once you get the message, hang up the phone. Our Dutch friend, while better than them, is still somewhere on the spectrum enough that I need to put the writing away on focus on my stuff, rather than left is disgust and dread, whether at the world or the writer.
To our current political discussions in our culture. A plague on both your houses. It's all just resentment-ball. And, yes, people who have their shit together by definition know how to cut it off in their heads and move to other, productive things. Obviously, the Twitter left is bound and determined to crowd out any attempts at personal improvement and personal responsibility. The Unabomber Manifesto pointed this out, and it's more true today. On the other hand people, usually on the right, make the mistake of thinking that just because they defend their favorite billionaires they are not resentful. But thinking people on the lowered ends of society are getting more they deserve is just as much resentment as thinking the same thought about those at higher up the pyramid. Either way, the resentment can at best blind a person, and at worse, eat them alive if it is left unchecked. Watch what people are doing to improve themselves, not what they are signaling.
New topic:
I invest with a friend, he grew up effectively in the opposite manner, in excessive luxury. It’s important to meet people who are different from you, they help cure you of your own irrationalities. At this point in time, I’m in the process of learning to treat myself with dignity.
Dignity finally clicks when it is a moment of grace. You don't deserve dignity because you are fit, because your carbon footprint is X, or because your bank balance is Y. Keep playing the differed dignity game and you'll never get there. This is one of the rare Big Truths where Christianity does the best explaining compared to its peers-- and why it's not a coincidence that it was Christendom that came up with liberal democracy and top-notch contract law. And that as we start eroding dignity -- pretending it is in the pursuit of truth, but really to serve consumption imperative better -- we endanger our liberty.
Nietzsche is right about when God died. The foundation of dignity has to be found in something other than Sky God. I think it can be constructed out of a deep understanding of what care is (to some extent I mean the warm fuzzies, like holding a baby, but really I mean more of the sense of "to care about" something). If you can actually care about something, then you are enough of a piece of god-shatter to matter. But. . . so is everyone else.
To sum up all of this: there is a lot of things wrong in the world, but we should try to handle it all gracefully. The real problem with both misanthropes and the overly political is they lack grace.
Two quibbles:
1) Give Direct charities are probably better than UNICEF. When I get back to making money, that's where I am going to tithe. (I'm trying to use that as motivation to get a business off the ground).
2) Precious metals can have a place in a portfolio. Say 10%, up to 20% if you are a paranoid fuck trying to price in big-ass disruptions. Yes, the expected value of a precious metals is 0% growth, but all short-term bonds and many long-term bonds in the wealthy world are either at negative rates or hovering right at the zero-bound. Secondly, since precious metals do not correlate with stocks or bonds, they provide opportunities to buy low and sale high each time you do a portfolio rebalance.
