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my wife read out loud to me an article in THE SUN about Terror Managment Theory from some rebel psychologists. They hypothesize that virtually everything we do is in response to death anxiety.

“Terror management theory claims that humans are aware of our inevitable death, and to manage our anxiety and intense fear around this consciousness, we invest in creating cultures, belief systems, values, and worldviews which shape a reality for us that make us feel protected from this terror.”

exh. A: the meat box.

i immediately embraced this theory as the overarching unified theory of everything human, from hoarding, to trump, to money, religion, art, fashion. no more need to wonder why anyone does anything anymore. it’s all about managing death terror

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to be fair, my net worth is a few million, and I feel broke all the time.

We went to a wedding and they served way too much meat. I dont eat meat but there was no selection so i had all this meat I couldnt eat.

I took a to go box and tried to feed this meat to my kids later. the kids didnt want the meat, the yw ere like, why do you have this extra meat.

it was nice meat, that’s why. really nice meat. why wouldnt they eat that nice meat. they kept calling it my “meat box”. why do you have a meat box? i ended up irritated and threw away the meat box. I was like, fine, no ones getting any more meat boxes out of me, fucking ingrates. im not saving any meat. the hell with it.

really i was thinking, save a few bucks on nother meal, they could have nice meat. why waste this meat?

why so cheap? I was thinking maybe it had to do with the jews emigrating from russia 100 years ago. the jews who scrimped and saved made it, had enough for safe passage on some crappy ship to america. the profligate jews? the jews who didnt save a meat box? THEY’RE DEAD! DEAD and buried, killed by cossacks or nazis or who knows what.

that’s why I have a goddamn meat box, i think. if I had 30 million, id still be carrying a damn meat box.

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keep saving, rent a room from flyer. markets too risky.

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What does our actual day consist of, v. What do we fantasize our actual days might consist of.

For an actual day your place looks awesome

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[quote=Escoguy]We plan to watch today at 4 pm PST.

It’s a live performance.[/quote]

Good luck. Turn down the lights and focus.

Pretty intense.

I need to send them more $ .

I really cheaped out on the initial voluntary donation and felt terrible afterwards because i was so moved by the show.

I think last performance is this weekend

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I was looking at a listing with a 1300$ hoa fee in a downtown condo near whrre im living a few months.

1300!

Jeez. Its like you never get out from under your monthly payment

On the other hand, theres a pool on the roof. I kind of need that.

What happens in an earthquake. Do i slosh over the side.

I really like this downtown condo lifestyle. Im sitting in one right now
adjacent to petco park. Id buy season tickets.

1000 hoa just ridiculous tho. I think id just rent downtown. I think the unit we are in would cost like 420k. 600$ hoa 600 taxes ins, so like 2700 a month with 20 perc down. Not very enticing. Pretty sure it wouldnt rent for that. Tiny. Not great for roomates

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it is a strange series of events that cause one to end up where one is. I guess Im grateful. It’s also kind fo a headache, all of it. It’s a good thing I’m old because I definitely couldnt do all this again.

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Pretty much the only thing ive learned over my life is that im usually wrong.

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More glee than brokeback. but i also buy my t shirts from tsptr.com, purveyors of vintage repro tshirts and goods from the 60s and 70s. i love them. where else can you get a “drop acid not bombs” shirt with the grateful dead logo on it in a true vintage slim cut made of portuguese cotton? also, they are nicely made.

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Kind of. My wife says its more of a homosexual vibe.

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Humans in the usa are kind of like the failing banks, propped up by modern medicine in spite of overwhelmingly bad health. Which is great. Provides a lot of employment. But we shouldnt expect such a frail structure to be bombproof

Ill be wearing masks way into the future, even when no ones around. I much prefer them to sunscreen. Great coverage with a hat and cotton scarf.

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[quote=ucodegen][quote=scaredyclassic]
The creator is a sadistic teacher/taskmaster who likes to watch us flail about in various conditions and judge us, according to unclear standards, rewarding winners and squashing losers.

Maybe trump is the Lord. Or capitalism? Or our superego. Or all 3? The holy trinity.

It could be just as ive expected all along …the universe is a giant rat race, but the rat race is inside us.

And why are there no professional rat races being run? So much cheaper to keep than ponies.[/quote]
Deteriorata comes to mind…[/quote]

National lampoon had a strong early influence on me

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[quote=sdrealtor]I think I might not be making my point. It was not as catastrophic BECAUSE it was pumped to be. People stayed home, businesses shut down, people wore masks and socially distanced. In the absence of that it would have been as catastrophic as it was pumped up to be. We dodged a much worse situation through the actions taken here and abroad.[/quote]

I suppose. Although we did do pretty damn bad.

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“Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives to them.”

― Epictetus

old bastard might be right.

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Right. We couldve done better…agreed. probably couldve kept deaths down from 500k to 100k

But in the scheme of things, the human portfolio if you will, isnt it a small loss? Im speaking from a nonhumancentric viewpoint. Kind of a drop in the bucket? if you took that percentage loss on a specific holding in your financial portfolio, it would be irrelevant. and nothing compared to gains in other areas: babies! new drugs and surgeries! etc.

or If we heard say, there were a 10 perce. Increase on total lost forest, or a 10 perc species extinction, wed take it in stride. no one would be like, WE MUST ACT! we’d be like, meh. like we are right this minute. meh.
give me money. ecosystem trouble? ho-hum.

But we lose our minds if an extra less than 1/10 of 1 perc of us die? I’m not saying that we should’ve stayed open to benefit the economy. quite the opposite.

just that our deaths are kind of not that big a deal, really, so long as they happen in an orderly, somewhat predictable manner , and aren’t caused by other’s carelessness or disregard for us, such that we are enraged by a particular localized injustice, in which case we get really really worked up. Look, if I knew I was gonna have a heart attack tonight for sure and die tonight, i’d still be outraged if some drunk driver KIlled me this afternoon.

I’d be like, that rude, non-mask wearing, bad driving moron!

And although i’m arguing that human life is not worth all that much in aggregate, Im not talking about the individual lives, which are obviously infinitely precious to each of us, and precious to our loved ones, in some cases.

Im talking the global perspective, as seen froma distance, not alpha centauri distant, maybe just from the Moon, where our lives seem to be not very valuable.

Humans gonna human. Dumber than rocks. Not gonna be careful.

look at it this way; an extra 500,000 iraqis died in the iraq war. but really, who cares? Do we worry about it, or even remotely feel anything? barely. because it’s a drop in the bucket, right? and who are they anyway? nobody. why does their country end with a Q? don’t they know that q’s must be followed by u’s? barbarians!

covid seems worse because it highlights how much we truly dont give a shit about each other in our own society, financially, physically, etc.

. on the other hand, if we weren’t such a bunch of pleasure and sensation seeking, self-centered, restless, risk taking jerks. perhaps the economy as we know it would come to a standstill.

all that we’d sell would be a bowl and aspoon, a meditation mat, and a blanket.

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