*guarantee* is the tough word there. Maybe I am not looking for a guarantee, but a high probability of success? To re-use your FI is a platform from which you can either continue moving towards more fulfillment and happiness, or you can not, physical things you mentioned are a platform (or maybe it's just the base of Maslows pyramid?), and mental things are necessary to move into higher levels of fulfillment and happiness. Also, if we assume that everyone reading this forum has access to the physical things you mentioned, shouldn't we focus on what takes us beyond that platform, i.e. the mental things?BRUTE wrote: just because a focus on material/physical things doesn't guarantee sustainable happiness doesn't mean that mental things will. some basic mental development is probably necessary to be happy, just as some physical things are (water, shelter, food). brute believes that it's pretty much the exact same phenomenon, or distribution, as with material things.
I agree with this wholeheartedly.BRUTE wrote: what brute was getting at before, clearly, humans cannot take their mental/spiritual development with them, either. so brute would say that the statement "the only things helpful at time of death are mental/spiritual" is incorrect. for example, money and stuff can prevent death.
Morphine has a time and place at the end of life (or at certain points throughout life), but living high on morphine does not sound like a quick trip to sustainable happiness, maybe numbed ignorance?BRUTE wrote: brute would accept that if a human is afraid of death, or unhappy about impending death, certain aspects of mental/spiritual development could help, for example acceptance. but so could certain material things, like morphine.
Just because people talk about it more openly and more often does not mean it isn't useful. Sex in advertising has gone mainstream, but has it dropped in importance to the average human?BRUTE wrote: stoicism is just pop-cynicism for the mainstream. brute is not impressed.