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Overwhelmed by humans

Started by Pingers, February 06, 2019, 10:21:14 PM

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Pingers

I think this likely has something to do with my job of the last 5 years, which involves helping people in the direst of circumstances: domestic violence, mental and physical ill-health, abject poverty, hopeless alcohol and drug dependency, sexual expolitation, emotional abuse, torture-induced trauma, homelessness, the fucking benefits system. All yer favourites. I'm finding more that when I'm out and about in town, when I look at people walking around I don't just see people, I see problems. It's getting harder to look at other people without wondering what shit they've got going on. And sometimes I look around and see a lot of people and start to get a bit overwhelmed at how many people there are and how many problems they have when added together. I used to think I knew that not everyone has a lot of problems, but I fear I may have lost sight of that and now it's harder to not see people as a big bundle of problems.

Then I made the mistake of watching this video set to a Boards of Canada tune. Great song, but the video is of cities, often new cities being thrown up around the world, and it freaked me out. Just too many people. Waay too many people. Jesus, what have we done?

Anyway - humans. Too many, too many problems, not coping very well with that over here. 

a duncandisorderly

I can't help but agree.

also- we have a finite number of atoms in play, inside our biosphere. the more of them we turn into people, the fewer there are to make into other things. I try not to think about it too much.

Uncle TechTip

Quote from: a duncandisorderly on February 06, 2019, 10:24:20 PM
I can't help but agree.

also- we have a finite number of atoms in play, inside our biosphere. the more of them we turn into people, the fewer there are to make into other things. I try not to think about it too much.

Maybe that's where all the insects are going?

bgmnts

Haven't we established that the problem is not with overpopulation but over-processing/over-consumption and a broken distribution of wealth?

Pingers

But even if we use fewer resources, we still have the same problems in our heads. What is the use of being sentient if we are just so fucked in the head?

Old Nehamkin

Yeah overpopulation is a bit of a red herring I reckon. We're all going to space soon anyway. Wheey.

Buelligan

Quote from: Pingers on February 06, 2019, 10:21:14 PM
I think this likely has something to do with my job of the last 5 years, which involves helping people in the direst of circumstances: domestic violence, mental and physical ill-health, abject poverty, hopeless alcohol and drug dependency, sexual expolitation, emotional abuse, torture-induced trauma, homelessness, the fucking benefits system. All yer favourites. I'm finding more that when I'm out and about in town, when I look at people walking around I don't just see people, I see problems. It's getting harder to look at other people without wondering what shit they've got going on. And sometimes I look around and see a lot of people and start to get a bit overwhelmed at how many people there are and how many problems they have when added together. I used to think I knew that not everyone has a lot of problems, but I fear I may have lost sight of that and now it's harder to not see people as a big bundle of problems.

Then I made the mistake of watching this video set to a Boards of Canada tune. Great song, but the video is of cities, often new cities being thrown up around the world, and it freaked me out. Just too many people. Waay too many people. Jesus, what have we done?

Anyway - humans. Too many, too many problems, not coping very well with that over here.

Try separating them.  Just looking at them one at a time, like individuals.  See?  Better, isn't it?  And yes, they do all have problems but they also have hopes and loves and answers and imaginations and favourite songs and books and shyness and humour and creativity and cake recipes and weird charming smiles and earthy musk and vulnerability and double-jointed thumbs and piercings and bouquets and a desire to eat chocolate and generosity and great taste in shoes and huge catalogue of jokes and origami and beloved cats and good skin and solidarity and spare towels and selflessness and the best vintage tshirt you ever saw and enough to share and change for the machine and room up here for another.  So don't worry so much. 

Pingers

Thanks Buelligan. I think I just need to know that not everyone is in bits. I appreciate this might the worst forum I could have chosen to pitch this at, but I just need to know that some people are having a good time overall. Please tell me if you are not in bits. Thanks.

bgmnts

Quote from: Buelligan on February 06, 2019, 10:34:14 PM
Try separating them.  Just looking at them one at a time, like individuals.  See?  Better, isn't it?

Try doing this when you are stuck sitting in the doctor's waiting room, on a hard wooden bench for 2 hours, busting for a shit. Surrounded by noisy, coughing, spluttering, mumbling sentient flesh bags; half of them with smaller whinging shit vessels crying about not spending two hours staring at a smartphone with the volume turned up to 11.

Fuck em all I hope they all give each other super flu.

ToneLa

Quote from: Old Nehamkin on February 06, 2019, 10:32:08 PM
Yeah overpopulation is a bit of a red herring I reckon. We're all going to space soon anyway. Wheey.

Nah, the rich would keep us poors down here, and leaving earth like this would mean we haven't learned our lesson - like moving house because the old one is full of shit

purlieu

Overpopulation isn't really a current issue, but it's a probable future issue, which is why it's probably important to consider now, rather than waiting until it's actually a practical problem and we have to start imposing limits on how many children we can have. The more awareness of it is there is, the more likely people will choose to have fewer children, rather than having it forced upon them a hundred years down the line.

Anyway, I'm with Buelligan. It can be difficult and depressing considering people en masse, but as individuals we all have our highs and lows, things to celebrate and things to improve. Many of us have mental health issues, but even most of those find things to enjoy in their lives; those who are more sound in their head are likely to be appreciating their time on Earth. If you can learn to see people as good beings, or potentially good beings, it can help do away with the 'fucking hell what a sack of miserable shit our species is' feeling a lot.

Buelligan

Amen to that.

Quote from: bgmnts on February 06, 2019, 10:38:45 PM
Try doing this when you are stuck sitting in the doctor's waiting room, on a hard wooden bench for 2 hours, busting for a shit. Surrounded by noisy, coughing, spluttering, mumbling sentient flesh bags; half of them with smaller whinging shit vessels crying about not spending two hours staring at a smartphone with the volume turned up to 11.

Fuck em all I hope they all give each other super flu.

I think you need to change that mirror, bgmugts

Quote from: Pingers on February 06, 2019, 10:36:40 PM
Thanks Buelligan. I think I just need to know that not everyone is in bits. I appreciate this might the worst forum I could have chosen to pitch this at, but I just need to know that some people are having a good time overall. Please tell me if you are not in bits. Thanks.

I'm completely not in bits. 

Pingers


ToneLa

I've seen close family die, had broken bones, already been to a funeral this year, no work, been redundant three times... And I'm happy, it's what you have, not what you've lost.

And I can come on this wonderful forum and make people laugh! Occasionally! Trust me, you can stare depression in the face... But you can win.

If I'm in bits, they're happy bits I spread around to everyone... No, not like that, your honour!

Also got a baby budgie that sits on my arm watching me on the PS4. Happiness is there if you stop to find it :)

BlodwynPig

Imagine a Buelligan, or perhaps an old crone, sitting in her cubby, lace shawl around her shoulders, cat on her lap, cup of tea next to the buffet. Sun filters through the little glass panes in her thatched cottage. There is a stillness, except for the chirruping in the forest.

Suddenly a modern bulldozer piles through the abode, crushing all inside. It's being ridden by Donald Trump and a thousand tweets follow, some in faux-outrage, some with memetic asides, some hailing the act as a Gift From God to all us hummans. But everyone doesn't care and the incident is soon forgotten.

That's what it will be like and has always been like.

Gregory Torso

If you've never experienced a Chinese subway during rush hour you don't know the meaning of being overwhelmed by people!

But seriously folks, it's nice to see a bit of optimism here. I'm sure within a few more replies this thread will have turned into another "I wish we were all dead / stop owning things you idiots / having children is genocide" glum and outrage parade.

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: BlodwynPig on February 06, 2019, 10:45:56 PM
Imagine a Buelligan, or perhaps an old crone, sitting in her cubby, lace shawl around her shoulders, cat on her lap, cup of tea next to the buffet. Sun filters through the little glass panes in her thatched cottage. There is a stillness, except for the chirruping in the forest.

Suddenly a modern bulldozer piles through the abode, crushing all inside. It's being ridden by Donald Trump and a thousand tweets follow, some in faux-outrage, some with memetic asides, some hailing the act as a Gift From God to all us hummans. But everyone doesn't care and the incident is soon forgotten.

That's what it will be like and has always been like.

>douglas adams considers re-write. old lady as hitch-hiker isn't going to work.<

Buelligan

Quote from: BlodwynPig on February 06, 2019, 10:45:56 PM
Imagine a Buelligan, or perhaps an old crone, sitting in her cubby, lace shawl around her shoulders, cat on her lap, cup of tea next to the buffet. Sun filters through the little glass panes in her thatched cottage. There is a stillness, except for the chirruping in the forest.

Suddenly a modern bulldozer piles through the abode, crushing all inside. It's being ridden by Donald Trump and a thousand tweets follow, some in faux-outrage, some with memetic asides, some hailing the act as a Gift From God to all us hummans. But everyone doesn't care and the incident is soon forgotten.

That's what it will be like and has always been like.

That's bollocks Piggers, Trump's tiny hands could never manage the controls of a bulldozer and you know it!

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Buelligan on February 06, 2019, 10:54:57 PM
That's bollocks Piggers, Trump's tiny hands could never manage the controls of a bulldozer and you know it!

This was a fantasy scenario (not one I wish for - I'm sure your cave is suitably bulldozie proof)

Buelligan

There's no access really, they'd have a hell of a job.  Certainly someone with minuscule digits would be at an overwhelming disadvantage.

Noonling

#20
Here's a hexagonal commune for 216 people:



I feel like 216 is the perfect amount to not get overwhelmed by people and have a sense of community (each set of 6 being your main group, and 36 being a nice hive).

I did forget to put in bogs though.

Edited to suit Mlle Buelligan's tastes a little more. Still no bogs though, maybe they can be on the roof?

Buelligan

Not that fussed on the colours.  Got a commune for 216 in a more restful palette?  Keep the green if you want.

purlieu

It's about a week away from being a year since I went to hospital for taking an overdose. This followed five years of unemployment due to mental health problems, and about eight years of mental health issues in general. Since being discharged from hospital, I've been building things back up, and I feel better, mentally and emotionally, than I have since probably mid-2008. I'm looking to get back into work and, Brexit aside, feel like I'm on the cusp of actually getting back to living a normal life again.

The truth is, people are - for various reasons - less inclined to talk about positive things in their life, and certainly not inclined to continue to talk about them. Whereas negative things allow us to mope, but also allow us to ask for help and console each other. So we come across them far, far more often. But I'm not at all alone in being able to recover from such a low point and start getting my life back on track. There are ups and downs, and the more we focus on the ups, the more we become able to feel the ups ourselves. No amount of Trumps and Brexits will extinguish the beauty and hope from the world, even if they succeed in backing it into a corner a bit.

Harley_Quim

Unless someone pushes the nuke button. Pretty big problem there - or solution depending on the way you think.

Pingers

Quote from: purlieu on February 06, 2019, 11:29:41 PM
It's about a week away from being a year since I went to hospital for taking an overdose. This followed five years of unemployment due to mental health problems, and about eight years of mental health issues in general. Since being discharged from hospital, I've been building things back up, and I feel better, mentally and emotionally, than I have since probably mid-2008. I'm looking to get back into work and, Brexit aside, feel like I'm on the cusp of actually getting back to living a normal life again.

The truth is, people are - for various reasons - less inclined to talk about positive things in their life, and certainly not inclined to continue to talk about them. Whereas negative things allow us to mope, but also allow us to ask for help and console each other. So we come across them far, far more often. But I'm not at all alone in being able to recover from such a low point and start getting my life back on track. There are ups and downs, and the more we focus on the ups, the more we become able to feel the ups ourselves. No amount of Trumps and Brexits will extinguish the beauty and hope from the world, even if they succeed in backing it into a corner a bit.

That's great to hear. I get quite a jaundiced view of the world and a lot of the time I can manage to see that it's not necessarily representative, sometimes less so. All the best with your recovery.

ToneLa

I think I'd like to be whelmed. Not over, not under. Whelmed just right.

Cloud

Life is suffering. 

To the Jordan Petersons of the world that's just life and you should stand tall with your shoulders straight and man up
To the antinatalists it's why reproduction is immoral, humanity should be wiped out and you should sue your parents for bringing you into this despicable world
To the rest of us, somewhere in between where we try our best to get on with it, with support of friends and family, and enjoy what we have while we have it

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I'm alright, Jack. I don't have any personal problems that couldn't easily be fixed by being less of a lazy sod.

chveik

Quote from: Cloud on February 07, 2019, 12:13:49 AM
Life is suffering. 

To the Jordan Petersons of the world that's just life and you should stand tall with your shoulders straight and man up
To the antinatalists it's why reproduction is immoral, humanity should be wiped out and you should sue your parents for bringing you into this despicable world
To the rest of us, somewhere in between where we try our best to get on with it, with support of friends and family, and enjoy what we have while we have it

why are you so worked up about antinatalists? they're pretty much harmless (except that idiot in the guardian article I suppose).

Cloud

Quote from: chveik on February 07, 2019, 12:35:46 AM
why are you so worked up about antinatalists? they're pretty much harmless (except that idiot in the guardian article I suppose).

I'm not that worked up about them, they just came to mind because of the thread about said idiot

Sorry for mentioning them I guess?

(Sheesh can't say anything on this forum without someone having a go)