I recently commented elsewhere on the sense of existence and even read a diaspora blog, and before I forget, I mirror here my thoughts for all the English-speaking world to marvel. If I were to summarize the teachings of this Zen piece, it’d be “survival implies constant self-deceit.”

One of the subjects Krossfire attacks often, and I come from the dark to contradict him, is the ethics of socialism vs capitalism or wealth redistribution vs meritocracy.

This is a debate worth having, and I can easily argue for either side, particularly since the arguments seem evenly distributed. As the antagonist on Krossfire’s article, I argued that “poor people who vote” is a scarecrow and that most people who are poor are not so necessarily because of inability but rather because of circumstance. I then counter-argued that “free market” does not exist in reality, who your parents are is more important for success than almost anything else and that in a deflationary recession is particularly important to give money away and make sure it goes to the poor.

At this point, another reader, ‘alin’, interjected with a rather grim point of view, talking about suicide. I previously covered it on this blog in 2008 (translated in 2013), then, Nastase’s Suicide Option, and even with Pepsi, but then and there I wanted to reply with Monty Python’s song from the Life of Brian. Instead, I chose to suggest he tries a more metaphorical suicide, as in “today the old alin dies and tomorrow a new one is born”, quoting Marin Sorescu:

I wanted to replace myself with a better model,
Searched for it with a candle in the dark,
Immaculate white, tall as a pine and with an aromatic bark,
Who sleeps at night like a post-crack supermodel

Who will proudly declare: one
Copy of me in the world doesn’t exist
Handsome, with a worldview that’s atheist
Can’t find him when your search is done.

Seriously, adopting a system of values that holds that you are in charge of your destiny and blaming less others and your circumstances you stand a better chance to change your life in whichever direction you wish. “All you need is positivity” – Spice Girls.

When he insisted questioning the Meaning of Life, Monty Python came again to my mind. Google has a number of suggestions, even a definition. I suggested, nonetheless, that until you get a better understanding of it, you may consider that the meaning of life is to find what is the meaning of life, i.e., it’s a personalized answer that only you can find for yourself, and finding it is obviously the first step in fulfilling it. Until you do find it, you might want to aim for moments of joy rather than general happiness.

Gratitude is a big component of joy and happiness. Until you find the meaning of life, you can find some happiness or joy in being grateful – your parents could fulfill this role quite well. Religion also helps, because through prayer, it forces you to be grateful to someone (JC, for instance) for something. Focusing on others’ achievements you will always be unhappy because “grass is always greener on the other side.”

Other small life hacks, but with counterintuitively large effects (explained at large in lh-start) are Make a change, Look for support, Exercise.

But all this talk about success vs failure hides an even greater, systemic issue, unravelled by Ivan Krastev in a conversation with Vlad Mixich (hn-krastev):

You could decide to go to the West and realize there what you couldn’t do here, or you could stay, you could be successful here, but all the while others continue to leave. The result? A critical mass does not form here and even if you are successful personally, you feel like you failed collectively. Except for Baltic countries there are very few places in Eastern Europe where there is a sense of collective success. You made it personally, but your country has failed. And this is how the disappointment with democracy is born.

*(*This article is unfinished – it was scheduled to appear in the hope that it will be finished before, but since this message is here and until it is removed, the article is to be considered work in progress*)*.

Sources / More info: krossfire, opencube, mbadea-zoso, hn-krastev, lh-start, yt-mol
Gifs: MJ, fatso, buha