The Philosophy and Opinions of Malik Shabazz

lmao

So if I don't have Facebook or twitter, should I delete my CN and my irc? Steam & skype too I suppose?

So if I don't have Facebook or twitter, should I delete my CN and my irc? Steam & skype too I suppose?

Well I don't consider CN, or any other online game, to be social media. I'm speaking more in terms of Facebook, twitter, and the like.

LOL... I would be lost without facebook when it comes to organizing my art gallery and finding new artists.

It is also the best platform to submit my own works... Thanks to FB I will be featured in a few months in a collective exhibition that features the works of some of my favorite artists of the XX century.

Thanks to FB I've worked at an exhibition as the performer of a live work of one of the most respected contemporary artists... And we have plans to do one or two collaborative works.

Thanks to FB I've hosted at home several times artists from all over the world... And received priceless art pieces many times. I have also been hosted for free whilst traveling abroad...

And I don't waste time looking at silly photos or liking nonsense...

It's simply like a bookstore... You can choose to read 50 shades of crap or William Blake.

The key here is not that you had a Facebook, but that you were following the wrong things on Facebook.

"Have you let the internet into your life?"

Zoskia, you are highlighting something about facebook that Malik is touching upon. It's how we perceive others ( as you highlight your own exciting, and grandiose life potential) it makes us think others have a more glamorous life, or "better" life than those looking at it through a screen. It may be great for you to do business on it, and to advance your career, you could do that without facebook, and use other sites or website/email. I digress on this point though.

Malik, deleting facebook, or any social media will not help. It simply wont. The consuming desire to look, read, or match your life against a hierarchy of others, be it those on the street, or your friends from school will not go away when deleting social media.

If "you" suffer from poor mental health, poor access to happiness, or do not have a good central being; deleting social media will not help. It will gloss over different problems one has with issues of self esteem, depression, anxiety, and growth.

Heck, even the complete cutting of of social media, could lead to more anxiety or depression itself.

People should not blame facebook, or social media for the lack of being in ones life. Cultivate yourself into someone who wont get depressed by seeing others happiness, life struggles with someone dying, or pictures of their children. As you see these issues all over the news, if you wish to cut yourself off from social media, stop watching media in general.

I think the issue most people have with social media (and the internet in general), rather than being "these other people are so happy and I am jealous," is actually that "these people are all so depressed and it is depressing me."

The web is by far the most popular outlet for mankind to express its social despondency, often with far more frustration and emotion than we ever display in real life. I personally enjoy being able to observe prosperity and happiness in others, just to strengthen my hope that maybe the world isn't universally as bad as I think it is. So if all one's friends on Facebook are happy people, thank God for small blessings. But unfortunately, the testimony of social media, far from being "everyone on earth is happier than me!", is actually that the majority of humans are miserable, and everyone on the internet literally debates about which human being is more miserable than another.

So yes... if all one's virtual friends on social media do nothing but link to upsetting news stories and express their opinions of the world's hopelessness, taking a break from Facebook can be a very good idea. Not watching news channels is also advisable (because those are deliberately designed to excite people for ratings).

But ultimately, while the stressed individual is taking his "media break," he also needs to find that "Answer" which allows him to maintain his hope in the face of the depressing influence of the society around him; because nobody can run forever, and eventually we all have to make our mark on the earth.

I have personally never used Facebook or Twitter... but I've been on the internet long enough to know what people mean when they say social media is depressing. I mean... look at the Boiler Room.

Zoskia, you are highlighting something about facebook that Malik is touching upon. It's how we perceive others ( as you highlight your own exciting, and grandiose life potential) it makes us think others have a more glamorous life, or "better" life than those looking at it through a screen. It may be great for you to do business on it, and to advance your career, you could do that without facebook, and use other sites or website/email. I digress on this point though.

Malik, deleting facebook, or any social media will not help. It simply wont. The consuming desire to look, read, or match your life against a hierarchy of others, be it those on the street, or your friends from school will not go away when deleting social media.

If "you" suffer from poor mental health, poor access to happiness, or do not have a good central being; deleting social media will not help. It will gloss over different problems one has with issues of self esteem, depression, anxiety, and growth.

Heck, even the complete cutting of of social media, could lead to more anxiety or depression itself.

People should not blame facebook, or social media for the lack of being in ones life. Cultivate yourself into someone who wont get depressed by seeing others happiness, life struggles with someone dying, or pictures of their children. As you see these issues all over the news, if you wish to cut yourself off from social media, stop watching media in general.

I do not perceive my life as grandiose, I simply perceive it as my life...

But, you are right... PERCEPTION is EVERYTHING.

I.e, I host for free artists involved with Hermeticism, Alchemists and Hermeticists when they travel to my country from abroad. In most cases the person whom I host is the friend of a friend of a friend of a friend.

Too many times I've been told: "you are crazy, they are going to steal something from you! They can be dangerous". Guess what... none of them ever stole a single cent from me... all of them gave me gifts in return... and interesting conversations, experiences, etc.

I do participate a lot in an internet based group of alchemists from all over the world... It's not based on Facebook, though most of us there are also "facebook friends" (and friends). I recently saw something that taught me a lesson:

I would divide the alchemists in 3 broad groups: (1) amateurs, (2) persons with experience and (3) damn geniuses.

Some time ago a person who belonged to the second group showed some practices he had done... and most of them were following a very "chemical" logic... and they were fine, but mostly missing the point.

Some persons whom I would describe as members of the third group pointed out for him the mistakes he was making and asked him to think again, even providing very pertinent classical literature on the specific subject.

This person went mad and started to accuse everyone of being a "merchant" and trying to sell him the "true secrets" of Alchemy... and mostly blamed everyone else for his own mistakes (for the records, nobody there "sells" the ancient methods... we simply exchange them in private, based on trust, friendship, loyalty, etc).

I confronted him and told him: "They are simply telling you to change your perception (about your practices), but such thing triggered in you a weird perception of everyone else... change your own perception before your perception eats you alive... because you are wasting a golden chance to learn just for being paranoid".

How is this related to facebook? It's an identical situation, even if Malik or you have no interest in "alchemy"... but you have an interest in something else, that's for sure... and that's OK (growing bonsais, literature, cinema, political theory, philosophy, etc).

A friend of mine told me something funny about the alchemy group: "this is a dating site, except that it's not about love relationships of sex".

Being addicted to Facebook leads nowhere, but avoiding it because you can't deal with the existence of other persons is a problem.

Sometimes amazing things happen in unexpected places (i.e, it happened to me in the CN forums... a Chemist got in touch with me after some posts about alchemy... and I've had very interesting conversations with him via private messages... exchanging two very different points of view... and his experience with Chemistry helped me a LOT to avoid some dangers related to alchemy -specially dangers related to the industrial lye and its contamination with mercury... or we had very nice conversations about some reactions of Antimony under certain circumstances... even if our "world views" are completely different).

Due to his comments on the Boiler Room, I am more or less aware of what kind of personality Malik has... He perceives that his life is "worst" than the life of some other persons because he's African-American... and he blames everyone because this issue has made his life "worst" (according to his own perception).

I don't like at all the ideology of the infamous "Greatest Mothers", but I can understand their ways of perceiving reality. Never saw them blaming anyone for the life they live... and it's an obvious fact that being a heterosexual female is easier in our societies than being a lesbian... and I hate more of their views... but I never saw them complaining or blaming others... and that's an excellent attitude.

HEADLINE: Facebook Harbors Underground Sorcery Cell!

BUENOS AIRES - Late last evening, the Policía Federal Argentina stormed the home of eccentric art collector and multi-billionaire Zos Kia on suspicion of collaborating with an international gold-smuggling syndicate posing as a small online community of amateur alchemists. Further investigation suggests there is also a close connection to another online organization called CyberNations, known as a meeting ground for an elite but reclusive community of political theorists and former government officials from around the world.

"We've been observing their activity for some time via their online meetings, usually conducted through Facebook" discloses Special Investigator Hector Eduardo of the PFA. "It's just lucky we caught them, as there has been a big move away from social media since the last study released by Dr. Shabazz [professor of sociology at CNU]."

Police have declined to comment on the findings of their most recent raid, but witnesses at the scene report seeing a large collection of very old books whose bindings were sealed with symbols difficult to describe.

Last nights raids follow a series of mysterious disappearances at art galleries around the country.

HEADLINE: Facebook Harbors Underground Sorcery Cell!

BUENOS AIRES - Late last evening, the Policía Federal Argentina stormed the home of eccentric art collector and multi-billionaire Zos Kia on suspicion of collaborating with an international gold-smuggling syndicate posing as a small online community of amateur alchemists. Further investigation suggests there is also a close connection to another online organization called CyberNations, known as a meeting ground for an elite but reclusive community of political theorists and former government officials from around the world.

"We've been observing their activity for some time via their online meetings, usually conducted through Facebook" discloses Special Investigator Hector Eduardo of the PFA. "It's just lucky we caught them, as there has been a big move away from social media since the last study released by Dr. Shabazz [professor of sociology at CNU]."

Police have declined to comment on the findings of their most recent raid, but witnesses at the scene report seeing a large collection of very old books whose bindings were sealed with symbols difficult to describe.

Last nights raids follow a series of mysterious disappearances at art galleries around the country.

LOL... I think I have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions... and talk to an attorney before speaking to the police.

Zoskia, you are highlighting something about facebook that Malik is touching upon. It's how we perceive others ( as you highlight your own exciting, and grandiose life potential) it makes us think others have a more glamorous life, or "better" life than those looking at it through a screen. It may be great for you to do business on it, and to advance your career, you could do that without facebook, and use other sites or website/email. I digress on this point though.

Malik, deleting facebook, or any social media will not help. It simply wont. The consuming desire to look, read, or match your life against a hierarchy of others, be it those on the street, or your friends from school will not go away when deleting social media.

If "you" suffer from poor mental health, poor access to happiness, or do not have a good central being; deleting social media will not help. It will gloss over different problems one has with issues of self esteem, depression, anxiety, and growth.

Heck, even the complete cutting of of social media, could lead to more anxiety or depression itself.

People should not blame facebook, or social media for the lack of being in ones life. Cultivate yourself into someone who wont get depressed by seeing others happiness, life struggles with someone dying, or pictures of their children. As you see these issues all over the news, if you wish to cut yourself off from social media, stop watching media in general.

Deleting your facebook is a start.

A start to what though?

A start to disconnecting yourself from the world at large and becoming a hermit

I have found that having a career that pays well, copious amounts of alcohol and some ass you can get anytime is the true road to happiness.

A start to what though?

On the road to true peace and happiness. Cutting off people you don't need and/or mean you no good will give you a much more happier life. In addition, not reading people's whiny statuses will make you much happier. Trust me.

"Misery loves company." It's a proven fact that depression and angst are both contagious. Having done some meditation, I came to the conclusion that my own depression partly stemmed from hearing other people talk about their problems.

A start to disconnecting yourself from the world at large and becoming a hermit

I've come to find that the less you have, the happier you are. I'm much happier with the small circle I have, than the 200+ friends who I don't talk to or care about. Not so much becoming a hermit, but, rather, just having less.

Also, you don't need social media to be connected to the world. If my friends or family need me, they can call or text me.

I'm way ahead of you there.

Never had a facebook or twitter or another social media account.

It would be useless: due my job it would be necessarly extremely "official" and by so very boring.

I can be myself just only when I'm with my family in real world, with few good friends in real world, or through an anonymous account on a game like CN.

I think that Malik is absolutely right: good friends are extremely worthy in life, but good friends can be, by definition, just only few people, and I mean no more than a dozen, usually about half dozen. Acquaintances and the likes are absolutely unworthy, they're just a loss of time.

I hear all my friends and relatives on average once a week, on the phone, or meeting them, and I don't need social medias for such thing.

 

Vampir.

I suspect once you're connected to one of those social media platforms and get entangled with them, it's very hard to disentangle. Facebook Messenger is but one example. I communicate with most of my regular contacts now through Messenger, for which I need Facebook. A lot of social events are also organised via Facebook - it's just too convenient.