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An existential question - 'Wisdom' and 'Sad/Harsh/Bitter realities' of life.

BurnedOut

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I feel that there are good realities too. Good realities are what we call 'wisdom' and sad realities are what we call, well, 'Bitter Realities'.

Is there a need to draw a distinction between good and bad realities?

Furthermore, if we call wisdom 'Good realities', will it be taken less for granted?

Wisdom is looked as more of a means than an end. By that I mean, we don't seem to cherish it so much as much as we want to instinctively apply it after understanding its importance. However, we all love to cherish and feel nostalgic about 'bitter truths of life'. Logically these bitter and good truths offset each other, however, it seems culturally imbibed in us to focus more on the negative than on the positive and then shit on everyone when they actually sound or do something...negative...

I don't understand this conundrum - to believe in the bad and try to be good. So this good hopelessly morphs in the name of 'relativism' while the negative ideals remain largely the same. Then everyone bites their tongues and wince in pain, 'The world is ultimately a bad place to live in.'

What makes sense is to accept that there are good realities too and those should be accepted alongside bad ones. This will lead to more balance and less dualistic antagonistic. Nobody has to chasistize anybody for saying positive or negative on average because everybody implicitly has gone over it.

The interesting this is that we will claim that capitalism has changed all this. I think it has not really changed. Just like tiny things influence, slowly, big events, deriving volatile definitions of truth end up making one hunchbacked by the constantly looked-down-upon and looking-down-upon everybody and everything because wisdom, is well, what? Some teeny weeny sometimes-handy swiss army knife and harsh truths - some kind of wolves one should eternally be afraid of.
 

EndogenousRebel

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I think the main thing here is that wisdom is associated with solving problems, they are prescriptive. In other words, wisdom is knowing the bitter reality and knowing what ought to be done about it, if not just make people prepare more for the bitter realities. The world may be a bad place to live in, but wisdom can alleviate how bad it is. The bitter truths in life, can only bother you if you are not wise, to the fact that you cannot change everything, and must accept certain things.

I don't know entirely what you mean tbh. There are just some problems that humanity will never solve until we advance further. All of humanity has only existed in a fraction of a second even just on Earth, let alone the universe. These bitter realities, like mortality for example, may one day be solved, but we may never see it, which just adds to the almost endless list of bitter truths, like the fact that statistically, we will never get to that point anyways. Scientifically and technologically, every year we advance ourselves decades further than anybody in the 1700 could've ever dreamed to see in entire lifetime. And yet, we are still but one caged person. "Bitter truths" have had a lot of momentum, and there isn't enough wisdom in the world to make up for it, who knows though, maybe in our lifetime things will be different.
 

Black Rose

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I shift inbetween dark and light. Hope and hopelessness. I do get what you mean. I try and see the good in the bad. It is like we must experience the emotion of negativity to let go of its hold on us. We must self embody the negative to control or to mater it rather than be a slave to it. To handle emotion and not let it weaken you you make trama yours. That is not to say emotions are a weakness. But if they cripple you you must own them not suppress them. Deep inside if there is anything holding you back you must face it. The good realities still have in them the negative realities temporarily which much merge. Feeling the weakness to defeat it.
 

BurnedOut

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I think the main thing here is that wisdom is associated with solving problems, they are prescriptive. In other words, wisdom is knowing the bitter reality and knowing what ought to be done about it, if not just make people prepare more for the bitter realities. The world may be a bad place to live in, but wisdom can alleviate how bad it is. The bitter truths in life, can only bother you if you are not wise, to the fact that you cannot change everything, and must accept certain things.
Wisdom such as 'Save your money.' or 'Do not trust people blindly, they may betray you.', etc are rather neutral comments. I call them 'good realities' because the end they seek are good in nature irrespective of any kind of badness. For example, if you save money, you will be able to use it when you really really need it. It means - "You can live well if you are able to use your money properly when you need it."

Did we derive its significance from anything harsh? No.

Is it sustaining itself without relativism? Yes.

It sounds like it is a mean when it is an end. What I mean to ultimately say is that one who takes his wisdom quite seriously ends up leading a happier life.
"Bitter truths" have had a lot of momentum, and there isn't enough wisdom in the world to make up for it, who knows though, maybe in our lifetime things will be different.
Considering the examples you provided above and this line too, imagine that you accept the above wisdom. Then you ponder upon it and realize effortlessly "since life is mortal, have fun." - there is a positive side to the 'bitter' truth and that effectively neutralizes the negative connotation of neutral events.

After all the most mature person ends up being the most neutral one - saving himself from the poison of passion which thrusts irrationality into actions.
 

scorpiomover

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I feel that there are good realities too. Good realities are what we call 'wisdom' and sad realities are what we call, well, 'Bitter Realities'.
Good realities are those that would lead us in a generally better direction.

Bad realities are those that would lead us in a generally worse direction.

In modern psychology, bad realities are often referred to as maladaptive schemas. So you would be more accurate to think of them as helpful views of reality, versus harmful views of reality.

Is there a need to draw a distinction between good and bad realities?

Is it a good idea to not point out the distinctions between that which helps us, and that which hurts us?

Furthermore, if we call wisdom 'Good realities', will it be taken less for granted?

Wisdom is looked as more of a means than an end. By that I mean, we don't seem to cherish it so much as much as we want to instinctively apply it after understanding its importance.

Humans talk about wise people, aka sages. Humans refer to specific people in human history as sages, as if we can identify who is wise and who is not.

But when humans talk about wisdom, they do so in a rather abstract way, without being all that specific about what is wisdom and what is not.

That's because wisdom is found in the person, not in the knowledge. Wisdom isn't necessarily about knowing a lot, but about applying the knowledge that you do have, and not just applying it to achieve their short-term goals, but in a more even-minded and balanced way that would achieve benefits in the long-term, to them, and also to the people they care about.

Thus, a person can be wise, by becoming a person who applies their knowledge.
A person can become wise, by conditioning himself to apply their knowledge.
Since a person can become wise, a person can also be said to acquire wisdom.
But a person cannot learn wisdom.

Wisdom is not a piece of knowledge to be learned. It must be lived. It's the process of acquiring that knowledge, making it one with every part of you, making your every thought and deed consistent with that knowledge, for every moment of your life, that turns mere knowledge into wisdom.

So yes, we cheapen wisdom by calling it "good realities". "Good realities" is the knowledge. Wisdom is in the living by it. It's like saying that to be a good surgeon, one only needs to read a few books on surgery, and you're ready to perform heart transplants.
 
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