The Paradox of Sadness and Depression In America - David Foster Wallace

[@sotdeckard7807]

What a beautiful and compassionate way to talk about life.

[@eternalyt5175]

The background music was not a good idea

[@pacific-midwest]

Agreed. Let the words stand on their own.

[@CM-cy6ot]

I’d rather listen to Scientologists than this pretentious bs… is this the American culture that killed more Asians then Germans killed Jews? All tax funded by this man and his family tree? And there’s a sadness paradox among Americans? Aww geez poor guys…

[@toufikcherifi7512]

Completely agree with you. Our emotions don't need to be "guided" by music. The words are strong enough.

[@garyspence2128]

And you let yourself get distracted like a typical American consumer. That's why we're slipping. Is it TV that distracted you, or your cell phone ringing, or simply watching You Tube? Isn't that why people text while driving? The music broke the spell of his comments, and on and on...Is that how Trump flimflammed you again, because Joe Rogan or Diddy's troubles or Alex Jones distracted you? Poor babies...

[@eternalyt5175]

@garyspence2128 I'm Indian....chill out.

[@maimox664]

Voice in my head that mocks me whilst speaking I thought i was alone on that

[@dannyadamson7609]

God, I sure wish there were more cuts in this video... He almost was allowed to finish a thought. These snippets are exactly the opposite of what DFW wanted to impart to us.

[@cooperd.jansen7518]

If I'm not mistaken you can find the whole interview online in a longer less edited form.

[@natejohnston365]

He’d be so great as a podcast guest with the long form interview format. Gah

[@iceavelli7667]

There's an unedited version of the interview on KZbin

[@paulwheeler6609]

We are not an elder wisdom culture. We are a commodified human disaster.

[@bradenharris8718]

If you’re an American, we are a very sick, dangerous, selfish and violent culture. We are a very “As long as I get mine, fuck the next guy.” We’ve allowed children to get killed in school shootings DOZENS AND DOZENS of times in the last decade and then act as if this “problem” is just totally unavoidable and there’s just nothing we can do to fix it. This pro men that is unique to only one country in the whole entire world- which is America- is something we simply can’t do anything about. Even though literally no other country in the entire world deals with this happening ever. It’s absurd. It’s just like no other FIRST WORLD country in the entire world deals with poverty, homelessness, mental illness, declining physical and mental health, the majority of the population being uneducated, selfishness, greed, corruption, violence on the scale America does. It’s sad but we are the dumbest and most violent country on earth yet have the all the ability in the world to fix it but don’t want too. People have warned us about what we would become for DECADES, one most notable Jimmy Carter who just passed away- shit even the Unabomber tried to tell us, he literally predicated every single issue we have now including the massive scale of gender confusion, declining intelligence and physical health, the political climate, that middle class would turn into the lower class and the lower class into the poverty line and the poverty live into homelessness, the mental health and drug crisis…. But we are just too dumb and greedy to listen and change anything. Our country is absolutely cooked- especially with the two generations coming up and the two generations already here and the one now dying. The one dying - Boomers- made 99% of these issues into the issues they are, the next generation-Gen X- perpetrated the cycle and did everything the Boomers told them too because they got the last reaping of the benefits and they’re too scared, dumb and old to do anything now, millennials are selfish, stupid and immature and the Zs and Alphas are the dumbest yet and easily fooled by propaganda bc they have zero critical thinking skills or common sense.

[@gunsofaugust1971]

He touches on a lot, including the dopamine cycle. DFW understood American culture like few others. Cell phones have put his observations in a new light. He was extremely prescient. It's not a good time to be intelligent in America.

[@Nintendofan1984]

Dan’t chase happiness people, just let it entry, like a dog from the estreet

[@KrakenZero]

Good analogy

[@joshchapman4753]

Ok dude I’ll let it entry like dog from the estreet, what is that? Spanish?

[@KrisM189]

DFW is my spirit animal

[@chocolatewheelchair]

he is not an animal

[@HY-vz3ks]

@@chocolatewheelchair a human is an animal.

[@sirtom3011]

That Pollux Troy….or maybe Otacon from Metal Gear Solid haha

[@jeffkaufman9875]

Bulletproof…

[@Misserbi]

The paradox is we forget our heads and feel liberated but are set up to fail in order to remember. We are not tricked as much as avoided to pick up everything that falls. That is it -- what is luck than the ultimate initiation into eternity?

[@eli7527]

deep

[@kwyatt261]

Nothing else is incentivized for me

[@fr57ujf]

We don't all worship and we don't all have a religious impulse. Worship is self-degradation and religion is not a cure for hedonism. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that evangelical Christians are among the most fervent devotees of Donald Trump - as obscene and hateful a figure to taint the public stage of America we have ever seen.

[@kwyatt261]

It's all complicated. Ain't that the truth

[@jerryhoran6036]

It is and it isn't. Treating everyone the way you want to be treated is pretty simple to understand

[@tydriskel9878]

The burden of genius.

[@blackbird5634]

Happiness is a kind of wisdom and Wallace didn't have it.

[@melancholia34]

the wise man has nothing hahahaha

[@blackbird5634]

@@melancholia34 I do not think, therefore I do not am.

[@chocolatewheelchair]

@@blackbird5634 don't have do be, do be have.

[@Nintendofan1984]

I like when Mamma makeme pancackes

[@joshuamyoungblood3578]

😅you weren't there for his life that played out, how'd you know that he be not happy ☺️😁

[@jacobhoffman2553]

"there is no larger good than your own good and your own happiness".... thats satanism son... or as alister crowley defined it... "the worship of ones self"... its is the biblical beast system.... beast just means animal..... its animal behavior and most often predatory.... instead of "do unto others as youd have them do unto you" you get "do unto others before they do unto you".... satan promises whatever you have in life you shall also have in hell but thats just for the ppl who know he is real.... he is also the father of lies and never keeps his word... and yet.... here we are.... getting his eternal prison ready for him.... thats right... satan gets the earth and humanity ends eventualy.... god takes his ppl and leaves i guess.... off to create something new maybe... personaly from the sounds of it earth is gonna be alot like mars which does lend some wonder to mars itself

[@paulwheeler6609]

@@jacobhoffman2553 Stop personifying God and Satan. These are elemental forces working in and through man. Everything is transitory. "This world is a bridge. Build no house upon it." Defeating the ego self is the primary objective. With it comes common good. Unfortunately, commodified culture doesn't allow for much of that. And technology entrenches it.

[@notsocrates9529]

I noticed a chasm where God should have been in his writing.

[@LaundryJohnson]

Note all the gymnastics you have to do to turn his statements into selfish ones. If you follow and deviate every train of thought perpetually, eventually any road can be perverted to appear like the devil. DFW is explicitly talking about feeding that part of your spirit/self/brain that craves difficulty by not feeding every material impulse. Think of Christ talking about praying to the Father in private. Matthew 6:6 It's just about developing resilience and turning the light around.

[@whatthecello42]

nihilism