I never quite fully realized until today, walking around on campus, how alienated we are as American citizens...

I never quite fully realized until today, walking around on campus, how alienated we are as American citizens. Looking around at the all the people, I got the sense that probably none of us care that we are all a member of the same nation. It seemed to me at the time extremely sad and I all at once understood all of the voices I previously ignored as being jingoistic and dogmatic. I am sincerely depressed about the future of this country and am worried about how it has become a receptacle for unscrupulous opportunists of all sorts. There is little incentive for change for the people who can enable it, and the people who recognize that this country has problems are partitioned and cannot agree on anything and refuse to listen to one another. Any books for this feel? I know the incoming replies will be something to the effect of how stupid I am for not realizing this sooner and what not, but it is like one of those things where you kind of know something for a while but it still doesn't ever emotionally register and then when it finally does it feels like a tidal wave.

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marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/1940/history.htm
resonanceaudiodistro.org/2016/12/25/the-people-vs-the-united-states/
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nice literature there, fucking american education

>Any books for this feel?

I have bouts of hopelessness myself, user. I feel like our whole society, that is, capitalist society, is in an advanced state of collapse. The world has grown alien and hostile, the news feel like a steady wave of menacing white noise. Things just happen and there's nothing I can do except stand by in terror. I find it hard to believe civic patriotism can save us anymore. I had always felt rather alienated by the left, but lately I've been feeling more sympathetic towards left wing communism, if only as the hope that everything will be alright in the end.

>To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize “how it really was.” It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger. For historical materialism it is a question of holding fast to a picture of the past, just as if it had unexpectedly thrust itself, in a moment of danger, on the historical subject. The danger threatens the stock of tradition as much as its recipients. For both it is one and the same: handing itself over as the tool of the ruling classes. In every epoch, the attempt must be made to deliver tradition anew from the conformism which is on the point of overwhelming it. For the Messiah arrives not merely as the Redeemer; he also arrives as the vanquisher of the Anti-Christ. The only writer of history with the gift of setting alight the sparks of hope in the past, is the one who is convinced of this: that not even the dead will be safe from the enemy if he is victorious. And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious.

marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/1940/history.htm

>how alienated we are as American citizens. >no one cares that we're the same nation.
Yeah that'll happen in multicultural and multiethnic societies.

>being sympathetic towards a system that has a history of absolutely slaughtering everyone that disagrees with them, while the current instantiation of goodthink commies are all identity politics obsessed morons who think they aren't doing identity politics and blame identity politics on capitalism while thinking id politics is good

You are as good as dead once the schizophrenic liars are done with you.

it's true. We are all strangers in a strange land.

resonanceaudiodistro.org/2016/12/25/the-people-vs-the-united-states/

I don't understand what your post is trying to convey

Benjamin was talking about the naive faith in progress of the german social democrats and the suicidal conformity of the stalinists following the treachery of the Molotov Ribbentrop pact, but his words are applicable to modern liberalism (in its broadest sense, which encompasses most american politics). The catastrophe is already here, it's just not evenly distributed.

>none of us care that we are all a member of the same nation
Why would it matter more than being from the same state, country, continent or world?

>how it has become a receptacle for unscrupulous opportunists of all sorts
As it was from the second it was founded?

>Any books for this feel?
Les Miserables or generally any work that goes beyond memes like nations and focus on something universal. Also obviously Das Kapital to understand, what really causes the alienation, you don't have to follow Marxist ideas or even agree with some of them, read it as you'd read any other philosophy.

If America were a company, it would be the NFL.

America is a historical anomaly and i can't wait till it implodes

This wouldn't bother you if you had friends.

tell me about it

>walking around top 20 US uni campus
>see fat hobbitlike fellow with a sign that says "free philosophical/intellectual conversation"
>he's talking with a man and a woman
>I ask them all what they're talking about
>everyone clams up, guy says he has to go and he doesn't want to tell me what the girl asked him
>I make a joke about how the conversation is apparently closer to the mystery cults than to the academy or the peripatetics
>"ooh, what do YOU know about the mystery cults? They were actually all public until roman times!"
>mentions that in greece you would have to go to a state sponsored orgy once a year
>girl gets visibly uncomfortable
>I decide to leave and half-heartedly say goodbye
>google it 30 seconds later on my phone
>"the elusinian mystery cults have been in existence since the greek dark ages (1000-500 BC)"

that fat pedantic faggot wasn't interested in anything but lording his (incorrect) knowledge over random people.

I can't tell you how depressed I am that I, a fuckin rando amateur who's read a few platonic dialogues, knows more about ancient greece in the context of a dumb joke than a guy who's fucking majoring in it. It says so much about the shittiness of the humanities in the J(US)T

we had so much money and resources--an unimaginably vast and fertile continent to ourselves--and so much brilliant anglo stock, and what became of it all? Rome 2.0 and japanese anime forums being better havens for philosophical/intellectual conversation than the fucking university itself

So having friends would cure me of the emotional despair caused by living in an identity less nation with even bleaker future projections? I don't really want to live in a community of people who don't care about their past or future. Crazy to say, I know. I must be like a crazy depressed angry undergrad that has fallen off the social grid

It would make you feel less alienated from people around you. Normies certainly don't feel the way you do.

>I must be like a crazy depressed angry undergrad that has fallen off the social grid
Aren't you?

I think you've completely misinterpreted my post and are still stuck in the dogmatic slumber I was in. I feel bad that you haven't connected with the spirit of your historical subjectivity yet

What else would anyone expect after turning universities into degree mills instead of places for education?

Most participating in NFL do profit. In Murica, maybe 5% of the population got decent lives while the rest have similar conditions to a shithole like Russia, only with even worse employer rights.

As frivolous and spooked as "respecting the flag" might sound, now you understand why rednecks care so much about people not kneeling during our anthem. It's representative of the destruction of our sense of civil pride and togetherness

pic related is a fraud and a faggot

the first chapter or two of sam huntington's "who are we?"

>we had so much money and resources--an unimaginably vast and fertile continent to ourselves--and so much brilliant anglo stock, and what became of it all?
Fuck I hate this feel.
There will never be another Hamilton, there will never be another Jefferson, or Hawthorne, or Melville. or Henry James. There will never be another justice Holmes or Story.
We are going to continue importing people from nations that could never succeed in the hopes of seeing them magically succeed here because certain political factions find it expedient. Our universities are going to be divvied up between nepotistic hedonist wasps, neurotic jews, and talentless foreign asian hacks who work 18 hours a day to get a position.

Our greatest living man of letters is genuinely surprised that there are not tens of millions of people living in the republic of ireland and once believed that the Republican party under Bush was preparing to stage a literal coup. A large proportion of our "elites" thought Obama as good a speechmaker as Lincoln. California just passed a law decriminalizing knowingly infecting another person with HIV.

What you're witnessing is the typical outcome of a late stage empire, with a few novel details. The book you want is probably Aurelius's Meditations.

america was founded on civil disobedience, be glad the niggers aren't forming an army. the time to get skeered about the disintegration of north american culture, as poster related points out () would've been before the heathen floodgates opened in the 60s, or, better yet, before whatever catastophe occurred that made the majority of US ethnic background census blocks german

>someone tells him a curious fact he didn't know
>drops spaghetti, runs home, and cries on the Internet about academia not spoonfeeding him enough bar trivia surrounding his study subject
I'm confused. Is this an elaborate bait or are you unironically mentally retarded?

>worried about how it has become a receptacle for unscrupulous opportunists of all sorts
It's literally what America was at all times in history, retard.

Yeah, that unscrupulous Lord Baltimore and those evil founding fathers.
How's your extra chromosome holding up?

t. friendless nerd with a superiority complex

This notion that Communism will fill the existential void in one's soul is precisely what makes it murderous.

Don't look towards any economic theory for fulfillment; live an enriched and altruistic life instead.

If you're sad about the modern death of nations, try your best to cultivate a strong social and family life. It's the only thing we really have, other than ourselves.

>existence of Ramanujan and Ambani implies that Indians are not largely uneducated and poor
I know I'm talking to a proverbial humanitard, but you should be able to trace faults in your logic with some mental anguish.

What a fucking idiot. Good luck getting through high school kid, you'll fucking need it.

>im right because im right
lol this is poor stuff

Economical systems affect everything else about society too. It's given that one, that promotes greed and competition is more corrosive than one promoting sharing for common good, when it comes to your connection with community.

>being this triggered
Why did you decide to be a brainlet again?

I highly suggest you read your history.

Show one example in history where the economic system didn't affect society.

>can't see textbook cherry picking even when provided with clear as day analogy
Yes, I'm beginning to feel sorry I engaged at all. Special needs education is not my specialty.

That's not the part of your statement I took issue with.

>the founding of the nation is a cherry picked event
I think your parents feel sorrier tbqh

So you're implying that countries that took a hardcore stance with capitalism like Murica or Hong Kong or Singapore have a stronger sense of community and empathy with their fellow humans than countries who attempt to soften it with humanistic bits of social market economy like they have in Yurope?

If you want to bitch about communism; I thought it should've been obvious that I didn't mean the reallife examples, since most attempts at implementing it failed to really get the idea and just went with dictatorships but with free health care and education.

Are you just being autistically contrarian or are you really an actual retard?
>genpop was always mostly unprincipled opportunists
>no! because 60 of the best and brightest were not
Literally kill yourself, deranged fag.

Social Democracies are not Communism. European countries are very Capitalist.

Competition within a society is better than murdering your own citizens, yes, but I advocate for more local and interpersonal connection based on inborn, individual motivation. It has to start from you, personally, and not anyone else.

Don't look towards any economic theories for fulfillment.

>most colonies not founded for opportunistic purposes
>nation itself was founded by great men
>nation was always opportunistic scoundrels
get it, tard?

>colonization is not opportunistic
>great founders implies high genpop morality and high ideals
Turbo imbecile.
>""""colonization is not opportunistic""""
Just end it all ASAP.

>colonization is not opportunistic
Depends on what you mean by opportunistic, you tard. In this context, we obviously don't mean pursuing religious opportunities]
>great founders implies high genpop morality
Well, it does. What massive coincidence would induce scoundrels to elects great men?
Take your time with the next post. I know the captcha probably gives you trouble.

>Social Democracies are not Communism.
Nor did anyone imply it. Communism is an untried meme at this point either way.
>European countries are very Capitalist.
They have social elements that prevent their societies from turning into dog eats dog dystopia that pure capitalist countries are. No party in Yurope would become relevant with "fuck healthcare for the poor" programme while burgers get seizures over a little more tax to prevent their poorfag neighbour from turning homeless. It's their fault for losing the game, why should you care about these people, when you have to buy another car to show how well you did?
>Don't look towards any economic theories for fulfillment.
You're not wrong of course but what you and people around you consider as "fulfilment" heavily depends on the society, which again is ruled by muh economy. Obviously some people will go further but even here, the likelyhood of that to happen and the direction, where it'll take them still will get massively affected by the society in which they are.

>one walk on campus made me write a rant stuffed with saccharine platitudes (i guess i am, alas, yet in my dogmatic, unlike thou, o the woke one) on a mongolian basket weaving forum

Well, another major power, a civilization even, have had the largest part of the best Asian real estate for ~3000 years or so.
You can look into the very precise and documented history of China to see everything unfolding in cycles over and over again.
Basically every dynasty lasts for ~300 years and disintegrates in a disaster, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Its a question of how many centuries you'll be wailing in shit, how many decades if you're very lucky. Everyone understands how shitty the situation is, but nobody has enough trust and willpower to do anything about it.

Now count how many years the US exist.
It's not that bad. Russia went through 3 cycles already (we're still stuck in the third inter-imperial shit phase), so can you. It's quite possible you too will disintegrate for 100 years or so and become someone's bitch, like some vaguely insane socialist California-Mexico (a nod to Poland-Lithuania, another nobodies who got everything for a time, or some weird Siberian hunter-gatherers the Jurchens) for example, and your greedy splinter nationlets will eat each other with glee, until another Washington appears to restore unity and cohesion.
Maybe you'll get better sooner.

>give people the opportunity to be lazy hedonists
>they take it

WHO WOULD'VE GUESSED

>Depends on what you mean
It's opportunistic in every sense of the word, hopeless retard. Read a fucking history book once in your life.
>they didn't elect a retard to represent their own interests therefore they're not opportunistic
Do you even read what you write, grade school?

America has quite literally always been a nation of immigrants accepting refugees, opportunity seekers and just plain refuse alike. Our national ethos, our economy, our policies are all about discovering and perusing new opportunities and being unbound by regulation until caught by hand. To say something like "I'm afraid our nation will soon be infested by opportunistic immoral folk" is to be retarded to the point of not understanding that it already is and already was because profit-focused business will never bound itself to some high ideals or even basic moral standards unless it wants to fail, especially not in American style economy. Fucking kill yourself again.

I know it's fashionable to troll on Veeky Forums but seriously think about this line you wrote:

>It's their fault for losing the game, why should you care about these people, when you have to buy another car to show how well you did?

This is exactly why you have to cultivate love from within and not from without. You cannot force people to do anything, either way, without opressing them or outright killing them. This is why you, user, start from within and work outwards, because we can only ever act locally. True political change will always come from individuals first, because you cannot force a populace to do anything, whether it is beneficial or not.

The buddhists figured this out millennia ago and understand how beautiful, and ultimately completely futile, it is. You really have to not worry about things outside of your control and the economic system of a country is very much outside of your control.

This is also why Communism must fail and why Capitalism is condemned to be corrupt and it's only through a harmonious synthesis of these ideas, coupled with a disciplined, principled, and benevolent adjuticating body that any kind of truly beautiful and free society could exist.

Which of course will never happen, as even Social Democracies have their fair share of corruption and opression.

This is why it must come from within. This is why you can't look towards economic theories for fulfillment.

Why are Americans always crying like pussies on the chins? I've never seen a thread made by some Kazakhstan faggot crying about how hard his life is. It's always some fat fucking idiot American.

>you're not allowed to complain or critique your circumstances if you have it better than someone
So, should we all just be silent until African children stop dying of hunger in 50-100 years?

> (You)
>>you're not allowed to complain or critique your circumstances if you have it better than someone
>So, should we all just be silent until African children stop dying of hunger in 50-100 years?

Who the fuck cares about some lazy scum from Africa?

>It's opportunistic in every sense of the word
I'm not particularly interested in what "it" is, whatever that even means. I'm interested in what your feeble mind meant. Let's take a look
> unscrupulous opportunists
Doesn't seem like you're describing Baltimore's tolerant colony or that of William Penn. Probably only Virginia fits that description, though only partly. So that takes care of that portion of your "argument."
>they didn't elect a retard
Who mentioned intelligence? I meant virtue as well. Jesus, this is sad stuff.
And that final paragraph is just a mass of cheap cliches and easy platitudes. There's nothing particularly opportunistic about the soldiers who died during the civil war, or the invasion of vietnam, etc, so there goes that little theory, along with your last shred of credibility.

Wish I could say it was a good attempt, but what's in your post could have been written by any retard, and has been written by many of them. Good night, brainlet.

>You cannot force people to do anything, either way, without opressing them or outright killing them.
Whether it counts as oppression or not, depends on the norms of society. Many slaves in ancient Greece and Rome didn't feel oppressed. Serfs in Russia often resigned to their treatment too. If you'd slapped a chick on her ass without consent couple decades ago, it'd count as perfectly acceptable and she probably wouldn't complain too much nor feel violated. All this shit is pretty fluid and affected by society, individuals just absorb the norms and move along.
>the economic system of a country is very much outside of your control.
To a point. You got your votes, your opportunities to donate, speak to other people and obviously pushing your agenda with enough publicity. The first things are open to anyone.
>as even Social Democracies have their fair share of corruption and opression.
Majority of which aren't the fault of the system but the choices the people made. With pure capitalism, the system basically begs you to step on others.

>using geopolitics- and ideology-motivated invasion of another sovereign nation with usage of brutal inhumane warfare as an example of virtuous deed
IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING

...

>College student goes off on sophomoric rant
>World turns
>
Next up: death, taxes...