I read it all, and you make some good points. It would take to much time to reply to them all, but I'm interested in your thoughts on this quote from Muhammed Ali about the power of positive thought :
“I am the greatest. I said that before I knew I was. It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”
I won't comment on
his "Greatness", but the word itself is meaningless to me and I think everyone, its a generational none after his generation really think the same way he does it was just for his times that he can really speak for, which I don't want to snip at people for doing this but the quoting itself doesn't hold meaning , what holds meaning is the conversation we can have about it because the one who made it is dead, and thus we can find meaning in the now from it is what matters and that is why people quote no intrinsic value is in all of those words than just their applicableness to problems in the now, to those affected by them.
Now to praise him, no one will know truly how greatly he suffered for that greatness except him, in the end only in his heart will he know if it was truly worth it all, the people that encouraged him that never lived to see him rise above it all, and that is what people of all ages and walks of life valued in the character is looking back on the story than just the progress, and not obsessing over the results that is not just progress; but also loss, through those ends to which we know how they were justified, which kept him going.
Perhaps if vital people had just given him everything he wanted or vital figures hadn't died he would not have had any motive to go on, to apply those results to those alive in the now than just another statistic, that cannot tangibly accomplish anything as it is not alive, is what most institutions do to you, is accept your resume and social contract to be productive member of society, a silent monotony , then accept your results, no tomfoolery, mocking, inappropriate behavior, the people don't tell them that they aren't the results, because life isn't a test that you pass, as long as you are alive an not depressed they agree life is not a test you pass then they shove you in a locker and or assign you to an easier class, whatever struggle you are in and whether you go on is contingent on those push and pull factors the motifs and losses, loss of regard from community, all the fears that drag people along the hard concrete sidewalk to their destiny.
Whether you write about this and become read or not in the future when making sense of the obselete system to those who went through the same system that claim its fine and its just you the bum that chooses that life, becuase low and dumb is what you become used to, says, the more literate and higher skilled career men and women, we ought to stop complaining about the system, the poor specifally because it makes the bourgeoise, wealthy and rich feel uncomfortable, "Just stop being poor lol", your words are like water on ducks back, to the rich who keep on getting richer, saying anything about it is entitled, ungrateful, lethargic, and disgraceul , good grief, look at the stallions this artifical ranch we call societ y ahs produced and next to the is a crippled pony, that is proof of progress, your personal failures arent undenyable proof that society is a decadent self justified poo, with sweatshops and suicides left and right, but sure, anyone that says anyting is a squeaky wheel that has to be replaced, God forbid the pessimists drive us all offcourse , if we listen to the depressed idiot resposnble enough to take care of themselves let alone unecessary children it didnt have to have, after all we ca n only justify a few deaths and suicides per thousand on this happy bus ride to nowhere, becuse the bad apple can change but everyone has to shut up when anyhting happens ,then bad apples get tother hte hten hte y vow to not snitch, until shit keeps hpapneign prety soon they disappear ten everyone has to keep their lipssealed again, rinse and repeat.
The ones that made it through, they become then providers, eventually the same process occurs enough until a tragedy occurs through enough silence, no matter how much suicide prevention nor counseling or good producers we make this never stops the system gets to as close as perfection but it never seems to achieve it, pretty soon in the modern era a few are going through would hope for death, a quite painless death than a never-ending goal to reach perfection, the middle age just kept on going what achievements have hey no nare perfect, when no one not even the brightest actually know what the fuck that ould look like considering the dig shit that goes through the system unchecked with every generation, go anywhere its the same thing through civilization some only end up seriously fucked, mangled, or harmed mentally to justify the happiness of some fucking morons so they can tell their little ones they are unique, but no one talks about all the unique suffering and new fucked ways people die in this progressing world, its like a movie that keeps adding new characters killing of te old ones you missed and keeps on slowly progressing to the next great catastrophe hits the climax then the producers sell out for better technology to get closer to God destroying nature in the process.
The system was never perfect it was always adapting, but what about our optimism and the future makes us think somehow there won't be suffering in the system in the future, failure is slipping a scrapping your knee, in Ali's case breaking his arm a few times, ask him if he was alive, would he do it again for a nice BMW,considering one bad angle and he'd never be able to box again I think we know the answer.
Its these conversations that everyone does not just you and I that people value that makes their lives, dare I say , more bearable , not just going through the motions of monotonous language, but the resultant knowledge of trying to understand each other results in seeing something that you didn't see before from things you previously knew, that does not involve a criterion made for producing value for the community.
Without ever questioning your loyalty to the community any deeper than that a valuation that eventually means nothing when you everyone put in the same and the next generation has their foot in the door. We question life in and of itself only in times with people when we convey the truth of our reality, those are the moments we remember vividly the most, but we never seek those out they always just seem to arrive at the right time, fate is the only thing that can describe this.
Shortly after a stressful career you remember many of the transactions specifically that went on and eventually those fade more into just remembering those people that affected each other and the logical progression, then just being a number count of bad days or good days, in reality even the least productive life doesn't do this otherwise they'd find more justification to end themselves but only humans do this , this is the only thing I can give you pass on in your statement of positively influencing yourself, but its just a rationalization not to commit suicide into to be productive or optimistic i any sense come up with grandiose fantasies, etc.
On Ali, you make the least bad in your day no matter how anyone perceives you in the now or time before, because they can appreciate the suffering through to the end no matter what kind of being he was that is the true greatness of the human race, valuing him solely on the fact that he was born of a certain kind but what he suffered through in the real world, where the forces of nature are blind and truly blind, unlike people to the actual sentient lives that live and feel, it has no consciousness of its effects to be able to discriminate on what its affecting that can infer the same on want affects it because of any differences.
The stress he had to put others through all along the way he did not do it alone and it wasn't just his greatness many were affected and encouraged him along the way which is my argument about cause and effect, neither am I putting him down for fighting because it was consensual agreement, the point is, through that, his end game was never this abstract concept of greatness, that is the resultant description of his career.
In the end, his opponent had to lose in order for him to be great, his training had to be time-consuming and he probably lost many people to achieve that end goal, cost-benefit analysis, the relationships he lost any time he wishes he could have cherished more than money mattered he can't trade in for the time he lost, nor really claim is not priceless in the end, put on hold because his relationship to the game kept him alive and more motivated, so they let him go on, to live although the risks were much greater, you can refer back to the broken arm analogy, I could go o and on, life is like a film but you are not just watching you are in the movie and the effects are real and the risk and suffering o are more than the good.
People scrutinize through a lens of infinite progress, yes in their optimism they honestly do, they don't care how they got there, where they are going, just like everyone else you should be there, stick to the program, and if not happy be civil, if there's an in-fight between people valuing the short term over the long term and griefing to feel more special than the other it gets squashed, trivialized, then later on is moot.
There is nothing worse than despair you die a thousand times, I even heard it my first time here before I went back out into society, they are silent, like the animal that lives truly in sanctuary, happy because it has no worries about the future neither optimistic nor pessimistic, the human that is pessimistic and gives in is damned to their own suffering no longer do they seek redemption or anyone to care, the humans look on silent than take part, giving up seems purely random they are not guilty, humanity is not guilty.
Just like the animal, they live in the now, they see the future as an optimistic bubble without being able to predict when it will burst, when you burst it you are worse than Hitler, no amount of scolding, but silence would do it injustice, unlike quickly getting over grieving the dead to pursue life you are nothing more than statue to give up on itself grieving itself in the future knowing the long term suffering that awaits, what can answer that, besides agreement as a species with more intelligence than animals , yet with free will we choose to just be optimistic, or be left to suffer, with nothing but the injustice of your shyte community's silence, just as the example of humanity at it's best with Ali , this is it at its worst animals alo sufferwihtout any prediction ofits fate, wehuamns as acollective are optismtic about our fate aloe as indiviuals we suffer are told to be optistm and pregres btu thsoe that suffer alontraginally unliek animals whenwebecoem pessismitic unlikeaniamls that cant predict their fate wecan predict wit evne mroe agony our betrayal and despair wegive in to ourown sufferignand die a thousand times.
Someone that doesn't have the free will to be optimistic and change their fate must have just made the wrong decisions feeling down they deserve it, they are worse than animals, humans the whole lot when they act like this, its like being threatened with the death penalty every time you despair as the world turns their back on you then you realize there is no such thing as Karma, its a bad joke about fate, If you can't see how humans doing this is worst than animals killing each other I can't explain it to you any other way.
The unnatural looks on their faces is despair, its the same thing in the teacher analogy as you see the hope gone from their face, a dominoes and they think as all the of those in the middle, are just dominoes that think they cannot be touched, so when you the squeaky wheel make the noise e they say nothing because you just complain until you get what you want then you shut up, when some tin else looking through the lens decides to sit and have without the effects yo and some negative for my life ends, until that gaze when they all view you as the freak happens again, the Frankenstein, unlike those that died in tragically ,alive you should be grateful if not gracefully politely seek help when in the moment yo feel hopeless no matter what as an outcast, you are Frankenstein, they can't say anything, the infrastructure, nor them, none if it will bet here in a few centuries, until then take in that consciousness.
The reality is that there is no choice just as much as your first language was your own choice, even speech is involuntary, see the guy that lived without saying a word for a year, ask him how he's been, but not free even you have to admit that when you chose that quote than words have power, well where does it come to from it can't be freely given it must come from somewhere?
Ali's accomplishments or trinkets don't matter in the greater scheme wasn't even mentioned with any substance to it in his eulogy. I don't think I am writing this as biography, I am arguing progress is and if we have control over our fate.