#and you're actively missing out on things that could enrich your life and you're also being racist.

[romansmartini]

the thing that drives me crazy about the james baldwin post apart from the blatant racism is just the complete incuriosity. like idk i don't think you should pretend you know Everything just to keep from ever appearing ignorant because like yeah everyone has gaps in their knowledge that are a product of your family and home country and schooling system and things you were exposed to growing up and what degree path you chose. but don't you like. want to know more? when you see a quote that you like from a named author, don't you want to look that name up to see who the author is before you proudly say you don't know who they are and you don't care? why is your response "well my school never taught me that so why should i care!!!!" instead of "oh wow i've never heard of him! which work should i check out first?" are you proud of your ignorance? do you want to go through life spending your time, energy and resources defending your lack of knowledge rather than learning something new? are you not the most pretentious person in the room by proudly condemning a generation-defining black author you've never heard of and wearing your ignorance like a badge?

#jillian.txt #idk i think a lot of it is like. guilt based. people not wanting to seem like they're imperfect or something so hoping to pass the blame to #someone else for their lack of knowledge. but it's like actually just do better lmao. you're a worse person for having this attitude #and you're actively missing out on things that could enrich your life and you're also being racist. #like at the very least man. i don't know. look him up and say 'oh fuck it looks like his work was really important. i can't believe i've #never heard of this guy before! my fucking family/school/etc never taught me about him! where do i start?' #UGHHH it makes me so mad. much more i could say but i will stop here

[pornaddictionsymptoms]

How To Tell If You're Addicted To Porn

How can you tell if you're addicted to porn? There are a few key signs to watch out for. If you find yourself spending more and more time watching porn, or if it's interfering with your everyday life, then it may be time to seek help. Porn addiction symptoms can be detrimental to your mental and physical health, so don't hesitate to reach out for professional help if you think you might have a problem. Thanks for reading!

Do you spend more time watching porn than you do interact with other people?

In order to have healthy relationships, both online and in-person, there must be a balance between the amount of time you spend interacting with others and participating in solitary activities. Taking this into consideration, it is important to recognize that watching porn can actually be an enriching part of our lives - provided it doesn't become an obsession or overtake the time we could be spending with friends and family. Watching pornography can serve as an outlet for sexual exploration and stoke creativity when it comes to spicing up your sex life with a partner. However, it is also essential to remember that too much focus on any activity can be detrimental; so if you find yourself spending more time watching porn than you do interacting with other people then it might be worth taking steps towards actively changing things up.

Do you find yourself needing to watch more and more extreme porn in order to get aroused?

Watching pornography can be an exciting and potentially cathartic experience, but one should take caution not to let their viewership spiral out of control. It can be tempting to watch more and more extreme pornography to the point that standard images no longer illicit a desired effect, but it’s important to work on refocusing your desires and self-pleasure practices in order to avoid addiction-like tendencies. Seeking out new content can help break the pattern of seeking “harder” or “stronger” experiences – instead looking for something different, novel, or even abstract. Finally, talking about these issues with trusted friends and health care professionals is paramount for maintaining healthy sexual habits.

Do you often miss work, school, or social engagements because you're too busy watching porn?

In this day and age, it is easy to be side-tracked by everyday temptations. One such temptation is watching porn. Watching porn can be an addiction that leaves you unable to focus on your responsibilities or social engagements. Perhaps when it comes to this issue, the best course of action is to make sure that you keep track of how much time you spend indulging in such activities so that you don’t lose sight of the things that really matter. It might also be a good idea to seek professional help if needed and talk to friends and family if the issue becomes too overwhelming. All and all, there are ways we can manage our distractions when it comes to watching porn and still make sure we stick to commitments like work or school.

Do you keep your pornography habit a secret from your friends and family members?

Pornography is one of those taboo topics that can be a challenge to bring up in conversation, so it's no surprise that many people prefer to keep their own pornography habits private. If an individual finds their interest in pornography embarrassing, or they value their relationships with friends and family members, they may not feel comfortable revealing this part of their life. On the other hand, if they do share the news with trusted loved ones, it could open up a new avenue of honest discussion and support. Keeping one's pornography habit secret or coming out about it should be respected as it is ultimately an individual choice designed to protect relationships and maintain high levels of comfort.

Are you spending money on paid subscriptions or individual videos instead of using that money for other things like bills or savings?

Many of us have expensive tastes, particularly when it comes to video content. With streaming services costing as much or more as cable or satellite, and with the temptation to keep subscribing to multiple options a reality, it can be easy to find yourself spending quite a bit of money on videos and subscriptions. It's important to evaluate whether this spending is worthwhile or if you're better off funneling that money into bills or savings instead. When it comes down to making a choice, you may find that there are some subscriptions you don't need and also some services that give you more bang for your buck than others. In the end, it's all about deciding what matters most and how willing you are to make sacrifices in order to get more financial stability going forward.

Has your pornography use led to any legal trouble, such as being caught viewing child pornography or being arrested for public indecency?

Thankfully, my pornography use has not led to any legal trouble thus far. Even though it can feel like a very secluded and private activity, the reality is that there are laws protecting the innocent and vulnerable from exploitation in this industry. I have always strived to be mindful of this fact and to not do anything which goes against the law or puts someone else at risk. Thankfully, these measures have worked in my favor thus far and I can honestly say that I've managed to avoid any legal issues involving my pornography use.

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, you may be suffering from pornography addiction. This is a serious problem that can have devastating consequences for your personal and professional life. But there is hope: recovery is possible with the help of a qualified therapist or counselor. If you're struggling with an addiction to porn, don't hesitate to seek out help today.

[imperatriceauxdiamants]

Your average woman spends....

7 hours a day on her cellphone

49 hours a week,

210 a month,

2520 per year,

And finally, 25200 per decade. That's 2.9 years of her life spent on Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, et cetera, doing useless activities that she'll not even remember, out of 10 YEARS of her life.

Even dedicating one third of that total time spent on screens on activities that provide an actual feeling of furfillement would reveal itself to be incredibly more fruitful.

We're assisting to a massive collective time sinking right now, and it should worry every single one of us. Even you, dear reader.

Your average woman is putting off excercise, skipping cooking healthy meals and going for the junkfood, avoiding studying new things that will enrich her life by going on Instagram Reels, odds she's skipping socialization opportunities with family or friends, she's probably missing out on activities because she's being overwelmed by the SELF-CAUSED lack of TIME. Your average woman is very likely to report lack of focus and feeling less productive than she feels she could be. She's also likely to report having mental health issues, from anxiety to depression, compulsion or apathy, or general lack of energy even.

Those two different issues, time wasting and lack of satisfaction with one's life, are absolutely linked.

And in my honest opinion, dedicating maybe one hour or two per day to reading, self-improvement, journaling, meditation, excercise, actual in-person socialization, and so on is going to help a LOT those issues.

Your average woman is actually simply NOT doing any of that.

And you probably deduced that being average isn't a great thing in that case.

You owe yourself your own happiness and furfillement. You owe yourself time to yourself.

You owe yourself an excellent focus, you owe yourself accomplishment and success.

You know how to do it. Eliminate anything that's on the way. Uninstall Tumblr and Pinterest and Tiktok and Facebook and Twitter and... You get it. You're way more likely to WASTE your precious time and STEAL yourself from great opportunities because you dead-scrolled.

Then, with the remaining apps, electronics, etc, severely declutter their use down to what you DO actually appreciate, to what you consider important.

Technology offers great benefits but it did stole our collective time. It made us insolated from each other, it made us hyperfocused on the fake PLEASURE that electronic device "interactions" offers, and made us skip the ACTUAL PLEASURE that life offers us.

I am not writing this to be angry at YOU in particular, I am personally pretty angry at the WHOLE situation that led us to that. And I personally feel pretty helpless facing this whole situation, people are aware of this themselves but they don't really realize how bad it actually is.

#glowup #levelup #hypergamy #get your shit straight #get your shit together #procrastination

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

congratulations on your bachelors degree slug! can you give us tips on managing the workload and how you were able to talk to your counsellors about early grad? i’m a freshman in college and hope to transfer for junior year and finish then :)

Thank you very much for the congratulations! Put under a cut for length.

Your school will likely have a much different process than mine. I apologize; I will be a bit vague about the details, but a huge part of why my university worked so well for me as opposed to other schools (which I really struggled with) is because it was almost entirely self-paced. Because of that, if I wanted to take a year's worth of courses in a single semester, I could, provided I showed I could handle it. It wasn't a complex process. In your case, you will probably have a lot more graduation requirements and fiddly things to deal with, so bringing it up to a counselor now and making a roadmap towards graduation is a very smart idea. Be really careful! You don't want to end up in a time crunch due to perquisites, fall-only/spring-only classes, etc. If you're outside of the US, this may not apply (but still, please talk to the counselor), but plan ahead to take summer classes too. You'll probably not be able to do a lot of internships, extracurricular activities, or other fun/enriching things. Is the trade-off worth it? Maybe. In my case, I was paying for most of my tuition, so only paying 2 years of tuition vs 4 was a huge motivator for me. I was also working full-time and otherwise not living the typical college student life, so I already didn't give a shit about missing out on the social aspects of college. For some people, though, that's a big deal breaker.

In terms of managing the workload, again, your situation is probably going to be different. I've been lucky to have a lot of flexibility; when I was working full-time, my workday started in the afternoon and ran all evening, and when I was doing contract translation work, that could be done literally whenever. Likewise, my classwork could be done almost whenever, so I was able to shift things around as needed. My school also didn't have a lot of busywork since it emphasized self-management; it was on me to figure out how much I had to do in order to pass exams and complete projects to the necessary standards. With that being said, some general tips for time and workload management:

Plan out your time in advance with flexible scheduling. If you've been around for a while, you may remember how I always put up monthly translation calendars with daily translation goals. I almost never did the day's goal on the day itself (just because I kept moving things around as I responded to other workloads likewise shifting) but I always made sure everything was done before the deadline, aka the month's end. Flexibility is fantastic if you can have it! It allows you to absorb sudden shocks (accidents, unexpected new work coming in, illness, etc.). But if you're dealing with 12 hours of work in a day when you're only awake 16 - 18 hours, it's vital to have a game plan to know how you're going to fit that all in. Calendars, daily task lists, etc are all good tools to do this. I'd be happy to show some of mine if they're wanted.

Learn your peak hours of productivity and use them to their fullest extent. For me, I am most active in the morning (usually 5 am - 1 pm or so) so I try to shift all my hardest, most energy-consuming tasks to those time slots. Other people are most active in the evening or afternoon and should commit to those as their peak productivity hours.

Use wait times productively. Since my disability prevents me from driving, I use public transit a lot which is often sloooooow and boooooring - but I can use that to my advantage! During the unpleasant six months of my junior semester where I was averaging about 80 working hours a week (two jobs + a year's worth of classes in six months - and then there was Hypmic and housework and shit to contend with of course), the overwhelming majority of my coursework was done on the train to and from work. Before that, I printed light novel pages or grabbed Hypmic screenshots to translate during those commutes. Nowadays, on days when I know I need to run errands, I bring my self-studying textbooks with me and pencil in working on those during that timeslot. Outside of public transit, there are lots of other situations when you may lose chunks of time waiting - waiting for a ride, at a doctor's office waiting room, etc. Plan ahead, and if you find yourself in a situation where you're wasting time on your phone or whatever, know that that's a good time to spend a few minutes studying from a textbook, doing flashcards, finishing a worksheet, etc.

Budget downtime for yourself. Energy is a resource as much as time is. If you're working yourself into a crash state on a consistent basis, you're likely to burn out. Most people schedule themselves at least one day off a week to allow themselves time to relax and have fun. I... do not for a variety of reasons, but I'm very much an exception to the rule and not the rule itself. Please plan time to recharge. Having a certain time to "clock out" at the end of each day is also a wise idea.

Be diligent in taking care of yourself physically. Your body can't work at 100% capacity constantly, especially if you aren't taking care of yourself. Be mindful of getting enough rest, even if that means setting a strict bedtime. Make sure you're eating enough, at whatever times are appropriate for you, and with balanced nutrition. If you have the time, exercise is also vital.

Learn how your brain works best and go with it. What works for one person you know may not work for you. If you're not sure how to begin with this, try different strategies out and reflect as you go on what is effective and what isn't. Tweak things as needed until you feel comfortable and like you're working with yourself instead of actively fighting against yourself.

I think I'm making it sound more stressful than it is, but graduating early or otherwise managing large workloads isn't usually an easy process for anyone. I think of it as a battle I have with myself to be the very best that I can be each day, which requires a lot of discipline, training, and mindfulness of my thought processes. I don't always win this fight, but I take note of what didn't work and then try again the next day and the next to do better. Best of luck to you in your education!

#not a translation #asks #personal asks

[oasisspringstownie]

FAME: A Legacy Challenge

Sul sul simmers!

Like many of you, one of my favorite things to do in The Sims is play Legacy Challenges. They lead you to explore new aspects of gameplay, give you new imaginative ideas, and facilitate storytelling. So, a couple of nights ago I got the idea to create a new kind of legacy challenge revolving around different aspects of fame.

The goal isn’t exactly to become the most famous using said career/ skill, but to play around with different elements of the fame system in the game. You by no means need all the packs to play through this legacy. While the experience would be more complete and you will be missing careers and skills and stuff you can obviously adapt it to your need. Also, you are more than welcomed to use mods to enrich your gameplay. I myself can’t play without mods and look forward to see what kind of chaos mods can add to this challenge.

So without further a do below are the 10 generations I concocted like a fever dream at 2 am on a Saturday evening:

Gen 1: A Shaky Foundation

Traits: Cheerful, Ambitious, Self-Absorbed

Career: Acting, Style Influencer (Trendsetter Branch)

You move to a new city full of hopes and dreams. You initially pursue your dream of becoming an actor. However, your career is cut short by the unexpected arrival of your first child. You retreat from the spotlight in order to raise your baby and put all of your energy into making sure they have the best future possible. The rest of the time you spend either working or trying to unwind from your demanding life. What will fate bring you and your descendants?

Goals:

Move into an empty lot with 1600 simoleons for the bare minimum.

Start in the Acting Career, but abandon it for the Style Influencer career once your first child is born. Remain in the Style Influencer Career and eventually choose the Trendsetter Branch.

Max out the Style Influencer Career.

Reach level 10 of the Parenting and Wellness Skills.

Be close friends with all of your children and make sure they each age up with at least 2 positive character attributes.

Gen 2: Get Your Head in the Game

Traits: Active, Music Lover, Outgoing

Career: Athlete, Entertainment (Musician Branch)

Your parent might have seemed very overbearing at the time, but they instilled a work ethic in you like no other. Your entire life you were split between your two passions: basketball and singing. Okay, fine, you're Troy Bolton. After succeeding in the sports world you still find yourself feeling somewhat unfulfilled. You enter the entertainment career later on in life to live out your dreams. Will this be the start of something new?

Goals:

Max out the Athlete Career and then switch to the Entertainment Career (Musician Branch).

Max out the Fitness and Singing Skills.

Be in the drama club in high school.

Gen 3: Going for the Stars

Traits: Clumsy, Loner, Genius

Career: Astronaut

Your parent always told you to shoot for the stars, you just took it a bit too seriously. This world was always a bit too pedestrian for you and you yearn to finally lay your eyes on the astronomical craters of Sixam. There's just one problem: you're terrible at it. It's not your fault, you're just a bit clumsy; but will your two left feet keep you from reaching your dreams?

Goals:

Work in the Astronaut Career your entire life. Get demoted and fired at least once in your lifetime.

Destroy and repair a rocket 3 times.

Live in a tiny home for your young adulthood and adulthood.

Have at least one set of twins. *You can cheat for this!*

Gen 4: The Finer Things in Life

Traits: Materialistic, Hates Children, Lazy

Career: None

You've seen all the generations before you work their little pixelated butts off for every simoleon, but you're not about that life. You were destined for the finer things in life.

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Charisma and Mixology Skills.

Marry and survive 5 spouses. Take that wording however you want. Divorce is not allowed. You must be the last once standing. After all, spouses are like infinity stones. Meaningless.

Never have a job. Only make money from spouses, family, or children. If you get desperate enough you can ask a friend for a loan or steal, but no working of any kind.

Each child you decide to have with one of your rich spouses comes with a 20k trust fund. If they get taken away or die before coming of age, all the money has to be returned to the evil capitalist overlords. You can't get rid of them that easily.

Own at least 1 restaurant/ retail/ business with one of your spouses. Decorate it, assign the uniform, and hire everyone, but you never run it. Why would you go through the trouble?

Gen 5: My Precious

Traits: Art Lover, Kleptomaniac, Self-Assured

Career: Criminal

Your childhood was pretty hectic and you felt like you barely knew your parents. Who needs them? You've never needed anyone else anyway. On your 18th birthday, you receive your inheritance and use it to buy yourself an unfurnished apartment in the nicest building you can find and that's when your money runs out... literally. However, will a new job as a tough guy be the first of many great ideas or will it only be the beginning of the end for this famed family?

Goals

Once you become a young adult give yourself enough money to buy one of the apartments in the Uptown Neighborhood in San Myshuno. It must be unfurnished. After moving in set your money to 0 simoleons.

Complete the Criminal Career.

Reach level 10 of the Mischief and Dancing Skills.

Gain an atrocious reputation and spend the rest of your life trying to cover it up.

Steal 10 paintings from a museum and exhibit them proudly in your home. You are never allowed to sell them. As an adult, hide them in a secret attic nobody else has access to or knows about. They are your precious.

Gen 6: The Muses

Traits: Creative, Family Oriented, Insider

Career: Painter

You could have anything you wanted in the world thanks to your family's empire so you pursued your passion: painting. While you were never close to your other family members you were always very close to your art teacher. This led you to have very close ties to your friends, co-workers, and eventual children. Will your legacy remain for longer in the memory of strangers or your loved ones?

Goals

Complete the Painter Career

Reach level 10 of the Painting, Cooking and Baking Skills

Have a better relationship with your art teacher than anyone else in your family until you're a teen.

Move to a new world once you become a young adult and cut ties with your family.

Be the leader of one club for all your young adulthood and adulthood.

Be close friends with 3 co-workers and all of your children.

Prepare a meal at least once a week with the help of your children. *I know we don't have this in the game yet technically, but I'm hoping to have Cottage Living by the time I play with this generation*

Hang 5 paintings in a museum.

Retire from Painting Career to help care for your grandchildren.

Gen 7: Mole

Traits: Good, Perfectionist, Paranoid

Career: None

You always had a good relationship with your parents. You told each other everything... well, almost everything. You never understood why but one of your parents never talked about the rest of your family members. They explained that they simply never had a good relationship and would rather not talk about it. You respect this until their death when you return to their seemingly abandoned childhood home. While exploring the house you find a not-so-subtle bookcase door and a long forgotten attic filled with paintings. You take them in hopes of returning them but unbeknownst to you, you are being watched.

After an unfortunately unavailable nail-biting car chase, you shake off your attackers. You can't just lead them home to the rest of your family and what would the police do? They don't even arrest Vlad when he's trying to bite all of your sims!

Sorry, different rant.

So you do the only logical thing: you sell the paintings you just stole for some cash to buy an empty lot and skip town. A new life awaits you... just a bit underground.

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Writing, Logic, and Handiness Skills.

Complete the Best Selling Author Aspiration.

After your parent dies, you visit Gen 5's main home and retrieve the paintings hidden in the attic generations ago. Sell them and use the money to buy an empty lot in a completely different world.

Use your remaining money to build a small underground bunker. You can now never leave your bunker or risk immediate death.

You make your income by writing books under your new name. Oh, didn't I mention that? You changed your name to avoid detection. Your children may carry this new fake last name or your partner's.

Gen 8: Part of Your World

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Outgoing, Geek

Career: Social Media

All you knew was the bunker and it's not that you hated it, you just wanted a bit more. You're basically the little mermaid, except you don't get to be a mermaid. You just get a bunker you can never leave and a desperate yearning to explore the outside world.

Your outlet is the internet. From a young age you loved using it to play video games and make friends. As a teen you began to make videos and fostered a community online. Will you finally take your place in the world or remain hidden underground?

Goals

Reach level 10 of the Media Production and Video Gaming Skills

Complete the Social Media Career.

You're never allowed to leave the underground bunker until you're a teen.

You aren't allowed to go to school. Instead you play video games and use your computer for outside interaction.

As a teen you start developing your online presence by posting on social media and making videos on the video station.

You are only allowed to move out of the household once your parent dies and you have enough money in reserves to buy a furnished home.

Gen 9: Natural Born Performer

Traits: Gloomy, Unflirty, Adventurous

Career: Entertainment (Comedy Branch)

Due to your parent's fame, it was always expected you would follow in their footsteps. While a bit more gloomy than most, you are happiest when you make others laugh. So you join the Entertainer Career where you flourish as a comedian. You're also a bit unlucky in love. Will the family name's fame and your own notoriety keep you from finding true love or are you destined to a lifetime of gold diggers and one night stands?

Goals

Complete the Entertainer Career (Comedy Branch).

Reach level 10 of the Comedy and Rock Climbing skills.

Complete Serial Romantic Aspiration

Have four children.

Die suddenly and *mysteriously* in your adulthood.

Gen 10: A Grand Finale

Traits: Kleptomaniac, Ambitious, Perfectionist

Career: Actor

After losing your parents at a very young age, you and your siblings were sent to live with some distant relatives you didn't even know about. While you and your siblings are all very different and you bicker plenty, you always stick together.

After learning you are a descendant of some of the most famous and infamous sims in history, you are determined to meet and surpass their achievements. Will you come out on top or have you flown too close to the sun?

Goals

Complete the Actor Career

Achieve level 10 of 10 skills of your choosing.

Become a Global Superstar.

Get a star on Starlight Boulevard.

Throughout your lifetime you must go on vacation to every house you lived in throughout all previous 9 generations. Oh, and your three other siblings need to come along too. Think of it as Narnia meets It. Also make sure to steal something from each of the houses as a souvenir and display it proudly in your own home.

After you've completed all the things above, get turned into a vampire and choose to end your mortal legacy here... or start a whole new type all together.

Thank you so much for indulging me in this insanity. While I haven't played through any of these generations myself as of yet, I look forward to see the chaos and cuteness possible in The Sims.

Happy simming!

V

#simblr #ts4 gameplay #ts4 lets play #sims challenge #fame legacy challenge #ts4 simblr #ts4 legacy #ts4 legacy challenge #sims legacy #the sims legacy #ts4

[lascivo-derrame]

while islam and christianity both do have some gross implications and quotes and rules within them, I think all sane believers disagree with those parts and believe them to be outdated. I think they understand that the reason the bible and the quran were revealed to the prophets/messengers were to counter the hedonism expressed by pagan or secular societies. so both books were responses to that, albeit written in different ways and at different times. the societies of the 21st century do not experience the same issues that people 2000 years or even 500 years ago did, so many things from religious books are now obsolete. but many things written are universal truths and wisdom people believe could only have been revealed to the Earth by a god. anyway... a bad person or an ignorant person can read the Bible or quran and use it to justify their badness or ignorance, and a good person can read them and use them to justify their goodness. and the concept of an afterlife is good for a society, mourning is a lot more difficult when you believe death is blackness and nonexistence and not a transition into a land where you're rewarded for all of the good you've done in the world. also... I think humans just naturally have the tendency to seek a greater purpose in their lives. isn't it better for people to seek spiritual knowledge or to be at peace with death than to seek endless fame or wealth or sexual pleasure during life? this is very incoherent sorry it's 6am and I haven't slept I can message you about it more sometime

I ve already counter point the point you re missing when you argue about the relationship between the believer and the message in first paragraph of your text in a previous ask. There is no such thing as a sane believer. Those who profess any sort of religion have to agree with all that it is written there otherwise they are just spiritual people whose spirituality finds adherence to certain parts of the holy text. Those principles who are in accordance with modern morality. A religious text is a text which can not suffer any type of hermeneutic interpretation. If you do so you re subverting the universality and intemporal sacredness truth contained there. The inherent purpose of it. Veiculating an intemporal truth. If you give yourself the privilege to interpret the text or contextualize it you re killing the God you claim to belive. Is this so hard to understand? I get it must be hard to face but you can't deny the logic of it. The sane believers, as you call them and I agree are decent people who understand that the holy scriptures contain in the most part messages against the individual subject and humankind. But they want to preserve this leap of reassurence brought by the spirituality of their religion. And that's all. Those are the ones who can form part of a multicultural society with which I TOTALLY AGREE!! The holy texts must be seen as what they are. Outdated, historical projects of society uniformism and MARVELOUS PIECES OF LITERATURE! People are afraid of thinking critically about things and can't see beyond the lens of their inner comfort. And I get it. You must realize that I'm concerned! I don't want society to be more divise that already is, although I can't think of an alternative or a solution to this clash of ideals. As a leftist all I ever wanted was the possibility of finding a way to enables us, above all our divergences to live peacefully with each other and enrich ourselves with one another's.

I'm sorry but you re not being historically accurate when you trace back the reason to the apparence of those monolithic religions to put a grip on hedonist pagan societies. Like what? You should well know that pagan societies deeply involved themselves with questions of ethics and morality. I think I don't need to remind you of such names as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca and so many others that brought those questions forward and actively tried to living in accordance to the conclusions they arrived. The hedonism is a philosophy sect that arises in Greece as so is stoicism and for as I know stoicism certainly does not defend the hedonism you mentioned. And talking about secular societies back then is just pure ignorance or distraction of yourself as you said you re writing this at 6 am. Like really? They were pagans as you correctly pointed out and this fact profoundly influenced their style of living.

You must be joking! Which univeraal truth is revealed in a monotheisticc scripture? Are you kidding me? Wtv...

Yes it is true that the idea of an afterlife is very appealing to the individual and a society. Human nature doesn't deal well with uncertainty and the unknown. That's actually a great read those religions do of the psychological individual. Taking profit and feeding this fear in many forms imprisione the mind of the believer and make him as malleable as he can be to their project of totalitarian morality. Now I ask you what if the "good" you have to do in the world clearly violate the principles of a secular society. Afterall your task as a believer is to expand by any means the ALMIGGHTY TRUTH of the proclaimer. You know this is true! All sorts of liberties and rights are jeopardize in the name of this preaumably afterlife. An afterlife which is chosen by default! Where you ll encounter those so merit deserved virgins (an obviously complementary view with the struggle women have to emancipated themselves) and so on... If you read the Quran you know all about this. And I m taking Muslim faith as I could take Christian one. It's the same chained doctrine.

And once again I agree with you. Humans do have a natural tendency to find a greater purpose to their lives. The existentialists took great account of that and the unfortonate consequences that came with the anguish of not finding one. It's our condition whether you like it or not. The purpose is something you invente to yourself, either you create it, discover or reveal to within you when questioning your passions, desires and ambitions. Maybe you won't be able to find it outside of the values we lost when we realize the plausible possibility of an absence of God. Maybe you turn into a nihilist idk. The thing is God is dead (don't misinterpret) and you re responsible for your destiny. Whether you go down the road of pleasure and wealth or spiritual peace, asceticism and so on is not of your concern. You lack the legitimacy to judge those ways of life UNLESS! UNLESS! those styles of life go against the articles present in the ultimate source of equality, justice, freedom and dignity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is the REAL SOURCE BY WHICH ALL HUMAN BEINGS MUST ACT!