Good thought, wrong sub.
Yeah this ain’t a meme
Looking for the correct sub for this kind of content. Have a link?
This isn’t a meme
Why is this posted to memes? This sounds like a good way to live life. Stop chasing that next big promotion, or whatever status symbol you think will make you successful.
Just live and try do what makes you happy.
You can be successful in helping others and live one of the most fulfilling lives without needing to be rich*
*Disclaimer: This tends to be a lot more difficult when you’re born poor. If this is the case, try finding someone who isn’t, who is trying to live a fulfilling life.
Are western cultures not indigenous?
Or is this just more US defaultism?
Defaultism by default. It could also be the land of the upside-down, Canada, or anywhere else in the American continents.
Problem is I was born in a place and time where I need to do in order to be.
Don’t do the cat!
I feel like the caption doesn’t summarize the spirit of the quote. The indigenous folks cooked, told stories, made art, danced, fell in love, made enemies, had sports, and formed various unique cultures. There’s a lot of “doing” in a that. For me this reads as you don’t need to grind to make other people wealthy and collect a lot of plastic bullshit that Instagram convinced you was necessary for happiness. But like we’re all slowly, collectively realizing this right?
It’s always “western culture” being compared to a vague “indigenous culture” in these posts.
As a not very well-traveled American, I definitely read this as the US and our indigenous peoples. I suppose only the speaker truly knows who they were referencing. Or it’s intentionally vague to be relatable…
To me, the quote is another way of saying our ‘purpose’ is to be sensory organs for the universe: life is how the universe experiences itself.
The more you do, the more richly you contribute to that experience, but the caption’s take is also valid in that ‘being’ also contributes, if that makes sense.
(Disclaimer: I may be slightly high.)
I hear you, though the universe experiencing itself is due for reconsideration after I’m slightly high…
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We also do all that, the problem is that it’s all commodified, advertised, ultracompetitive, conspicuous and repackaged, like we need to relate to each other and nature through something that has come out of a factory or a pr firm. There are ways to escape this, but it comes at a social cost, but it gets better if you find others.
I hope we are. Based off some shit lords in here, I’m having my doubts.
Don’t lose heart. The kids already think Facebook is lame, X killed itself, most folks on the street have heard “if you aren’t buying anything you’re the product”, influencers are as frequently pitied as admired. I see glimmers of the needed changes in these things.
Also Nature: relentless, uncaring, powerful, unpredictable, and disastrous.
I hate it how hippies keep thinking nature is some Disney movie shit.
Nah, it ain’t, plants devouring ants alive, monkeys been waging wars and raping their enemies skulls
Ant super colony’s waging wars taking over full continents n shit.
You just described western culture, too.
Some indigenous cultures never invented writing and are hunter gathers. They don’t have time to engage in any sort of philosophy. There’s no basis for them to even describe these ideas.
It’s not better. It’s not different. It’s underdeveloped.
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White savior complex is alive and well
So I guess the white savior can stop saving, the noble savage can stop being noble and we can all chill, just like the meme suggests.
Western culture is indigenous to the west.
Europe’s culture has developed from Christian Roman culture after the Roman Empire conquered most of the continent. The indiginous cultures and religions of mainland Europe were destroyed by the Romans and the Roman-influenced kingdoms springing up after Romes demise.
The culture resulting from that was exported to Britain with the Norman conquest, and that new British culture was exported to the US and other “Western” nations through colonialism.The indiginous “western” culture doesn’t exist anymore.
Don’t spread bad history. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
You give the Romans way too much credit. They didn’t even manage to export their style of music and had their tradition supplanted by the rest of Europe: Previously they were part of the Mediterranean tradition (which nowadays people recognise as oriental, definitely a misnomer), have a listen. Nowadays they have just as much as an allergy to flourishes as much of the rest of the continent (modulo Greece but also Spain, also at least parts of the Balkan)
…and this is just to serve as an example.
The indiginous cultures and religions of mainland Europe were destroyed by the Romans and the Roman-influenced kingdoms springing up after Romes demise.
Okay, by that reasoning then the indigenous cultures of Australia, the Americas, the Caribbean, Pacific islands, etc were destroyed by European empires/colonization and thus also don’t exist anymore.
Huh guess my culture doesn’t exist I’ll be sure to tell everyone on the reservation.
Frankly if argue that grouping all the different varied cultures under the simple term “western culture” is equally reductive and unproductive. There is no single “Western Culture” just as there’s no single “indigenous culture”
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“Western culture” isn’t even universal in Europe. Sami and several peoples around Russia are quite distinct from anything rooted in the Roman empire. Many of them don’t subscribe to any of the Abrahamic faiths, while others only converted to Christianity in the last few hundred years.
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That’s definitely one of the opinions of all time.
Is it underdeveloped though? They’re certainly not the ones driving us toward the 6th mass extinction and potentially an uninhabitable earth (for humans)
Yes it’s undeveloped
That’s not what you said, you said underdeveloped, two very different things.
Okay sorry I think it’s underdeveloped and undeveloped. Primitive, lesser, inferior, etc.
Ah okay, so you’re bigoted, at least you admit it.
Yes, I admit it. I’m not going to play intellectually dishonest games with you or pretend I’m something I’m not.
That’s good because I think you’re a shitty excuse for a human being.
I bet you’re an authority on things that are underdeveloped…
Thanks! Yeah I see a lot of people acting like impoverished tribal cultures are as cultured and complex as ancient and beautiful cultures like the middle east, Persia, China, Greece, etc. It’s simply not true.
wooooosh
I like little boobs
Imagine behaving like this with the one life you have
Thinking about the language needed to express philosophical ideas and how language can impact your ability to form complex arguments is probably not the best use of my time. It’s pretty interesting though and I enjoy it so it’s not exactly a waste.
Yea fr, the only species that can even entertain the idea of “just being” are humans, it’s not part of the natural world whatsoever, it also comes at the expense of other humans who are actually supporting the society.
What…
I am quite confused on the people here on lemmy. On the one hand, the consensus is ‘capitalism bad’ (presumably because people work themselves to death with little to show for it). On the other hand, this post seems to be somewhat populated by people that are against the whole idea of ‘just being’ vs ‘doing’. So, what would one conclude from this?
I hate capitalism but I do feel like people get carried away blaming everything bad on capitalism, slavery and authoritarianism were present in pretty much all the cultures around before capitalism even existed and the indigenous cultures of pretty much everywhere had class and caste systems often based on religious power which itself was based on violence.
It’s so reductive to say ‘oh these people weren’t building factories so their lives were just sitting around in the sun doing whatever makes them happy’ but life in a tribe was every bit as rich and complex as modern life - generally without the luxury of being able to choose your life path, certainly for women and minorities.
Capitalism and the influence it has over people creates some fucking morons?
A fine assessment, good chap.
Their validity, or even their level of quality as a culture, is not necessarily measured by their ability to invent writing. We are not automatically better than them just because of that, and we certainly don’t have the right to pass them off as savages.
They don’t have time to engage in any sort of philosophy.
They did. Columbus made contact with a very sophisticated culture that was soon wiped out by disease, and effectively entered a dark age from which it never recovered.
We normally divide human philosophy into Western and Eastern types. There’s some evidence that on the American continents, there was a third independently developed branch of philosophy. It was all but lost, with only oral retellings remaining.
Spoken like a true colonist.
Wow, least racist comment I have seen. Bravo.
Read up on Boasian anthropology and it states that no cultures are inherently better or worse than another. How is the culture of Christian Europeans killing and enslaving hunter gatherers, who haven’t made written records, better? Many oral records also turned out to be just as accurate, provided they have been corroborated by scientific evidence. Many tribes have knowledge and wisdom unknown or unthought of by arrogant civilised and pampered individuals. An American Christian missionary was de-converted when a Praha tribe member from Brazil asked him if he had seen Jesus. When he replied “no”, the tribe member quipped why would he believe Jesus is god if the missionary had not even seen him? The tribe’s philosophy live in the moment, unlike the Western society always thinking of the future and past, striving for status symbol and material wealth. The Praha tribe may not have running water or huge houses, but they live their life carefree.
You think playing Civilizations game with its oversimplified digirtal cartoon tech tree makes you an expert on anthropology to judge others. No, it just makes you a donkey’s cunt for doing so.
Read up on Boasian anthropology and it states that no cultures are inherently better or worse than another.
Ok, I disagree. Thanks Franz Boas.
The Western capitalist and individualistic value of material consumption is totally not destroying the collective humanity by the result of environmental destruction in pursuit of profit. A totally superior culture indeed. Amirite?
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“To be is to do” -Socrates
“To do is to be” -Jean-Paul Sartre
“Do be do be do” -Frank Sinatra
“DO THE DEW” -Mountain Dew
Baby shark do do do do do do…
Sorry don’t hate me
Holy shit does this instance have a mod? What a fucking shit show over such a positive picture.
Happy indigenous people day.
I already banned people in this thread, but I didn’t remove the comments as they were part of a discussion that was at least in part not total trolling.
I noticed! Sorry I doubted your work. I think Jerboa was failing to block people properly as well.
Being alive for the sake of being alive doesn’t do much to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates. Those are down from pre-industrial levels because incredibly smart people have worked incredibly hard over the last few hundred years.
Yeah, I’m inclined to generally agree with this; what she left out is that now most people can live past 30 now and not die from a bacterial infection after scraping their leg.
I would add that the ideal is likely somewhere in the middle between the extremes of “living off the land and using every part of the bison” and “grinding away your soul until you collapse on the Walmart floor.” Both are too far towards their respective ends of the spectrum.
Disgusting libshit, fetishising indigenous cultures as these perfect things.
Imagine having such a reaction to a positive message.
Maybe reevaluate your values.
Sorry mate, I don’t enjoy racism.
You sure? I mean using the term libshit is pretty telling…
That I’m a leftist? Yeah it is.
Looks like someone escaped from the Hexbear echo-chamber and hasn’t realized yet that their phrasing is virtually indistinguishable from right-wing trash.
You’ve never met a leftist before have you? Welcome to outside your rightwing life.
are you really this naive
So you self label as a leftist then post some obviously negatively received “opinions” in an effort to make real left leaning folks look bad?
Poor guy’s playing 2D chess.
Haha sure mate.
Think you will find that my original comment is positively upvoted and received. Its just you right wingers upset that you got called out in the comments having a whinge.
You have -46 downvotes.
Is that what you call it? Here I’ve been telling everyone you’re a disappointment 🤷♂️
Racism? Which part of that is racist?
Or take blood pressure medication at least.
Or don’t.
I’m not your mom.
The world might be better off without you, if you happen to forget the meds.
How on earth do you make the jump from “some indigenous cultures believe this cool thing” to “fetishizing indigenous cultures as these perfect things”
Like, I don’t think they’re saying it’s true because some indigenous cultures believe it - and those specific indigenous cultures are to be trusted as a moral authority.
They’re just saying that some cultures believe this thing and they agree with that belief.
I guess I can’t know for sure what she meant without being able to ask her, but there’s no reason to assume she was making an extremely weird claim when that obviously isn’t necessarily true.
But I guess if you are willing to jump to that conclusion, you will see claims like that everywhere, and maybe that makes it seem like a safe assumption that that is what she’s saying.
(When I say “maybe,” I really do mean maybe. I’m not under the impression that I know everything about you, lol. I’m just exploring a possibility that there’s no real way for me to ever confirm or falsify. Just thinking out loud for curiosity’s sake.)
It contains the word “indigenous” so their brain jumps to “must hate”.
More like must protect. This sort of view of indigenous peoples is left-over colonialist mentality that has no place in the modern world.
Not really, the point is that you don’t have to work yourself to the bone, or always be trying to climb that next rung in the company ladder to validate your existence. Your existence doesn’t need to be validated by metrics based in money.
Just existing and living your life is okay. That’s not something to sneer at. Rather, you should ask yourself why you are so triggered by that idea.
Right.
And imagine just saying “relax and don’t make work your life” instead of “Indigenous people were perfect and have no desire to achieve anything “
Ones encouraging. The other is well racist.
That’s not at all what the post said, not even remotely. Contrasting their belief system with western belief system doesn’t anywhere in there imply they are perfect.
i agree. the post was phrased weirdly like white ppl are at fault
No we don’t not agree.
This has nothing to do with “white people” or fault.
i misunderstood your comment.
Problem is not everyone interprets it that way. Some people take it as an excuse to sit on their ass smoking weed and playing video games all day while they leech off someone that’s too kind to kick them to the curb.
I think yiu also missed the point of the quote.
You can’t “just exist” without being a burden on someone else. You have to put in some work to get at least the basics of survival. Food and shelter require a stable income.
Wow that is some straight brainwashed shit. I guess you can just suckle off big daddy gates, musk, bezos take your pick.
Quick little reminder to others reading this, some native American tribes gave eachother homes and food because they wanted their fellow man to be comfortable and most didn’t have any form of currency. Just good will towards your fellow human.
That’s great and all but where’s the food and shelter coming from these days? I certainly don’t know anyone willing to give it to me for nothing and I don’t have anything to spare for anyone else. Someone has to work to produce it. We’re not living in a hunter-gatherer society anymore. How many people are you supporting?
That’s a rather empty way to live one’s life. While purpose isn’t an objective mandate from the heavens, it can be found within oneself, and struggling towards that ideal is where human beauty truly lies.
Struggling, eh?
I for one loathe your world of eternal unnecessary struggle.
That is fine - not everyone is willing or able to attempt building a future. I, for one, wish for a permanent universal mark that our species at one point was intelligent.
Well struggling to support billionaires’ insane greed is not a mark of intelligence…
Literally nobody said it was.
It is the current global struggle, what you’re talking about is a niche side-thing as a justification for struggle in general.
?
What is that even supposed to mean?
The current global struggle is to enrich the few, 8+ hours a day, every day. It is a struggle to maximize production and marketing of garbage
It is not a struggle to improve the world…
Bet her idea of being one with nature is a picknick in central park lmao
Europeans fucked everyone in the ass.
I hate doing 9-5 and hate myself. FML
Bro Europeans aren’t responsible for everything. If todays folks in your country wanted to do things differently then nothings stopping you
If todays folks in your country wanted to do things differently then nothings stopping you
US “anti-authoritarian” interventionalism has entered the chat. Just look at Vietnam, the Philippines, Hawai’i and Latin America.
Gotta blame whitey somehow
Bruh we started it now we need to finish it.
nothings stopping you
