"Life swings like a pendulum backward and forth between pain and boredom": Arthur Schopenhauer Original article: https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/04/the-west-is-bored-to-death OP comment: "The West" must be understood as part of the world where Physiological and Safety needs from Maslow's hierarchy are on the vast majority, satisfied: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs Apparently, from the article, if you replace work (pain) with leisure (free time), people fall victim to doomscrolling (neo-protestant version of "the devil will get your soul if you indulge"). So what can be done?
I was thinking lately if it's feasible to implement Universal Basic Income: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_basic_income First objection I have on it it's not moral ("Why enable freeloaders?") but economic ("Is it even mathematically possible?"). To make it economically possible, I would rethink the idea of a strong centralized economy. Aided by 100 years of technological advancements and to break from the failed Soviet experiment, I would add: 1) Participative democracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_democracy 2) Something that to my original 135+ IQ was obviously going to be both necessary and sufficient to make it work, but going after my 4th beer and IQ dropping to 95, I totally forgot what it was. So before I remember by tracing back my original thought process, can you help me filling up #2?
UBI will never ever happen. If they do not even want to pay people to work why do people think they will pay people to sit around, fuck all day making new UBI recipients etc.. We will reach a point where the plan will be to cull the surplus population in the distant future once 90% of people are no longer needed to do work.
>> We will reach a point where the plan will be to cull the surplus population in the distant future once 90% of people are no longer needed to do work. << Thanks for your input. In the meantime we're the old Dacias. But we're not fighting oppression of Romans, we're welcoming it.