Hi -----,

I'll answer since you've sent your message to me, but I'll pass it
along to rekka to, maybe they can add to what I'm about to write.

I think you're having a profound realization about what you yourself
don't want, the prospect that the gluttony of capital will eat the
world. I think another world for capitalism is just "violence".
Capitalism is excess, bartering that excess, producing that excess and
defending it comes down to investing in violence.

There's other ways to live, but it's difficult, because it's not
talked about often, or it has purposefully been mostly forgotten, or
it's looked down upon. It's like thrift going out of fashion, you
could look at it in the light of being street smart, but anything less
than basking in wasteful consumption is looked down upon.

I think harm and trauma is cyclical, it's part of the human
experience, and that happiness cannot be added or taken away from the
world. We've encountered people who've been on the hedonic threadmill
for so long that it will take a long time until they can feel happy
again, but eventually the life sort of normalizes everything,
inversely, even for trauma. Living today has transcended some of the
old ways to get hurt, but people aren't happier I don't think. We let
different things be the Ends Of The Worlds for us now, than people in
the past did, but we'll never purify the world enough that it will be
bliss everyday for everyone.

Everyone is convinced that they need a lot of things to survive, that
when all the money runs out that you're just as well to out yourself.
This myth that we need capitalism to live is really quite recent, I
don't think people are able to see past it yet, but in the future I
think some will, capital has this tendency to eat itself, it might
certainly be self-obviating. Nature is abundance, we're being made to
forget it, but it's still out there, it's just harder to recognize.

Becoming collapse aware is one thing, but maybe don't let it stop you
from looking at the world as a playground, it's like you said, we
don't really know what the purpose of life is. So until we know, it's
hard to figure out what's good and bad, the point system might be
benefiting people who destroy the world the fastest, kill the most
people, drive the most miles, dive the deepest, we just don't know.

So in the meantime, since it's unknowable, the world is a playground,
and it will outlive humans, it will even likely outlive time itself. I
wouldn't limit the range of your human experience with guesses as to
what life wants from you, and your damaging it somehow. In a while,
the earth will be almost completely spherical, smooth and covered in
ice. All our pains and happiness will have made no difference, not
even our trying to preserve fauna and flora. Try gluttony, once you
tired of gluttony, try ascetism, try it all as Allan Watts would say.
I don't think there's a better or worse way to live, it changes over
time too, so we ought to change with it.

Humor is necessary to navigate all this, it's better to laugh about it
all. And art is important, it's a sixth sense, it's worth cultivating,
but it can't be the solve purpose of life, it just has to be there at
each step, but it can't be the destination, otherwise it corrupts art
somewhat.

Be careful not to fall in the trap of utilitarianism, look at all
these people holding on to the past, building walls to shield them
from the wind, laugh at them, raise your sails go some place else.

Dll