Larry wrote:
> Moose wrote:
>
>> I find the fierce and unflagging negativism of his viewpoint and his
>> expressed experience of life quite enjoyable, bracing, even.
>>
Larry, I'm deeply sorry if I have so offended you, even though it is
through you misunderstanding what I was talking about and your
projection onto me of things which you can't know to be true or not.
(Unless, of course, you were able to afford a PI to check into me.)
E.M. Cioran was a Romanian who lived and wrote in France most of his
life. In his many and often lyrical writings, his concerns were all to
do with the interior life, not the exterior. He wrote with great beauty
about death, suffering, alienation, boredom, meaning, or lack of it, in
life and death, futility, and so on, and on.
None of his writing I've encountered engages with the day to day
exigencies of exterior life, like the price of food, fuel or housing. He
did manage to create the theme of human alienation, later a major part
of the philosophy of Existentialism in the work of Sartre and Camus;
taking suicide as an idea that could provide a reason to keep on living.
I just took another dip into one of his books, and still find his
writing much more enjoyable than watching hockey, which preference, by
the way, was the actual subject of my post.
> I realize I'm on a list that finds they'll never have a problem for the rest
> of their lives surviving no matter how high costs rise. Most lifestyles here
> aren't affected in the slightest by gas/home heating oil costs, and might
> even only notice it because the media is making such an annoying stink about
> it. I mean "$1.50 a gallon, $5.50 a gallon - what's the big friggin' deal.
> Its hardly an increase, and my company pays my healthcare for the rest of my
> life!"-or some such thoughts.
>
This is a theme you play with some regularity. I have little direct
knowledge of the financial situation of most other list members. None
speak on the list directly of wealth, and only a very few about serious
financial hardship. From the ages and occupations of many, I would guess
that relatively few are in the situation you describe.
Personally, I retired early, so the result of 31 years in the arms of a
major corporation yields the princely retirement of $31,000/yr, already
significantly eroded by inflation in eight years. I also received the
right to pay for my own health insurance at what are purported to be
group rates. Next year, I qualify for Medicare, so I get a 'raise' by
the amount of the several thousand I've been paying for health
insurance. I don't know yet whether I will find it necessary pay for
supplemental coverage. In a couple of years, I qualify for 'full' Social
Security, which ain't a fortune, but is indexed.
Thinking about your cars which, by the way, I'll be sorry if you lose, I
drive a 1995 Olds convertible, which needs a new top, but runs well and
has good brakes and tires, but I drive it few miles a year. Our
workhorse hauler for stuff and people is a 1992 Ford Taurus wagon we
bought for $1,700 a few years ago, which has since been totaled for
insurance purposes and is up in the 180,000 mile range. Since my mother
died last year, we now also have a 1996 Mazda Protege with a few dings,
but low mileage, that gives us an everyday vehicle that doesn't use too
much gas. Pretty impressive stable, no? When I first heard about your
Rolls and classic T-bird, I thought YOU were the plutocrat.
> But finding it "enjoyable" that I've had to start selling off the few things
> I have in order to keep my home for maybe another year or so, sucks,
I'm sorry about your situation, but I assure you I don't find it
enjoyable, nor any comfort in it. Shadenfreude is not my thing, exactly
the opposite, in fact. As above, my comments were not about your, or
anyone else's, external financial situation, but about interior
emotional and psycho-spiritual matters.
> and sounds like you're looking at success in life as if it is all about "hard
> work", and "choices we make" or "we make our own success or failure" types of
> ridiculous mantras.
Here, you completely leave the tracks of what I said, going off into
your own stuff, making assumptions about me that are unsupportable. I do
not believe that success in life is about money. I do not believe the
sort of aphorisms you refer to are particularly helpful or meaningful
for most people as guides to a successful life. I especially believe
that they are destructive as ways to flagellate them for their 'failures'.
> None of these are truisms, or hard & fast rules in any way.
Agreed, although there are germs of truth in them. The money I didn't
spend, but put in IRAs, 401ks, etc. does today make some difference in
my situation. If you didn't have those opportunities, I'm sorry, but
that doesn't put me in the wrong.
One of my sons, who was, and is, overly attracted to material
possessions, used tell me I could afford all sorts of things he thought
we should have. I drove him crazy when I said, over and over, "The
reason I could afford xxx, is that I don't." Needless to say, he has
been one of the major financial drains on my retirement. In his case,
following some of those truisms in his life decisions would have made a
major improvement is his happiness and both of our financial situations.
> So, I'm happy that my difficulties that have magnified themselves over the
> last 7-8 years or so have been so exciting to you. Its great that my opinions
> formed from my experiences give you greater entertainment than people
> fervently fighting over a flat rubber thing being smacked around.
Read a little Cioran, or at least the material available about him
available free on the web. You will see that the pessimism he embodies
is not of the sort that blights your life.
> Especially since so many millions are spent to hype people into thinking its
> actually engaging to stare at.
>
I'm not responsible for that, either, as I thought I made clear.
By the standards of the vast majority of the people in the world, you
are almost certainly wealthy. Where I stand financially relative to you
I don't know. If I were still married to my first wife, the professional
poor-mouth, and you heard her, you would think I was begging on corners
for money for food. She still says she has no money, even after whatever
settlement she got from her third husband, the really wealthy one. Who
knows?
One thing I know for sure is that money and happiness are not positively
correlated. I've met a number of seriously wealthy people, mostly
through work, and the vast majority ranged from vague unhappiness
through outright crazy in unhappy ways. A lot tried to act/be happy, but
it was a poor sham. Yes, it's possible to be rich and happy, just
uncommon. I also know people with very, very little. Some are happy,
others aren't, but it's not much related to their finances.
I'm sincerely sorry for your financial difficulties. I'm also sincerely
sorry that they lead you into such suffering, although that is where you
do have some choice and control. In any case, what I wrote was not about
you, in any way, shape or form.
Moose
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