aFireInside Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 ambition |amˈbiSHən| noun a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. I noticed that a large amount of people in the FDR community have little to no ambition. I was thinking about why this is. People here are extremely intelligent so it seems to not make sense. My theory is that as children and young adults we used paralysis as a defense mechanism. To defend our lives from the results of "ambition". Our parents, teachers, or any adult figures had ambition and we seen what there lives where like. We witnessed the lack of principles and morals. Our subconscious didn't want to become that. One way to escape that is by paralysis and by avoiding ambition. Not being ambitious in a fucken crazy environment show allot of self-worth and intelligence it says I don't know what to do yet but I sure don't want to end up like these people. 2
NameName Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 What has lead you to the conclusion that many FDRers lack ambition?
Omega 3 snake oil Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 To defend our lives from the results of "ambition". Our parents, teachers, or any adult figures had ambition and we seen what there lives where like. I can only speak for myself but my parents had fuck all in terms of ambition. I think it was my family's lack of life momentum that tripped me up (not laying blame, I'm working on myself all the time). I think the apparent lack of ambition around here, and yeah I do feel it as well, is a bit more complicated. Some contributing factors: - implosion of economy - general apathy in our culture, inability to connect and set roots, have meaningful relationships, etc. - implosion of the family. Without loving and supportive relationships i.e. partnerships we have little to base our lives on, little to move ahead with .... and of course these are all interconnected. What has lead you to the conclusion that many FDRers lack ambition? The fact that we spend time and energy posting on Internet forums about our crappy lives? 1 1
NameName Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 "The fact that we spend time and energy posting on Internet forums about our crappy lives?" I disagree, the very fact that we are on here, shows ambition. If I didn't have ambition, I'd be a democrat doing things that don't challenge me and make me strive for virtue but that is what this site does, or more what philosophy does. Most posts on here aren't "Posting about crappy lives". Most are trying to improve our lives and others. As well, they range into many topics like current events, philosophy etc. If we were to spend our lives posting about our crappy lives, we would be on Tumblr. I just disagree with the basis of this question, I think most people on this site have ambition. 1 1
RyanT Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 Been thinking about this a lot recently myself, Certainly as a child the reason I always remember being given as to why I had to live with my grandparents was basically looking after me full time was incompatible with my mother’s job as a psychiatric nurse..... So yeah very negative early experience of ambition there. On the other hand similar to Omega, My Grandparents were painfully working class, grandad had gone down the coal mines pretty much straight from school and stayed there until he finished due to ill heath 40 years later. While my grandma had worked as an auxiliary nurse for a few yeas then a school dinner lady. Throughout most of my childhood my dad worked in a warehouse driving the forklifts and picking orders....'fuck all in terms of ambition' Above all though I think the very simple and straightforward answer is...there's just no pressing need. When my gran was alive, I was tipping up £150 a month, everything after that was basically spending money. Now I've a mortgage, house insurance, gas and electric bills, council tax...and I need to eat, suddenly ambition has a bit of value in my life.
aFireInside Posted July 7, 2014 Author Posted July 7, 2014 Yeah, now that i think about it this can't be applied to everyone. What has lead you to the conclusion that many FDRers lack ambition? I have talked to allot of FDR members. Some contributing factors:- implosion of economy- general apathy in our culture, inability to connect and set roots, have meaningful relationships, etc.- implosion of the family. Without loving and supportive relationships i.e. partnerships we have little to base our lives on, little to move ahead with I don't think the economy has much to do with. Look at all the companies that where started in recessions and people rising from poverty. I agree with the rest Been thinking about this a lot recently myself, Certainly as a child the reason I always remember being given as to why I had to live with my grandparents was basically looking after me full time was incompatible with my mother’s job as a psychiatric nurse..... So yeah very negative early experience of ambition there. On the other hand similar to Omega, My Grandparents were painfully working class, grandad had gone down the coal mines pretty much straight from school and stayed there until he finished due to ill heath 40 years later. While my grandma had worked as an auxiliary nurse for a few yeas then a school dinner lady. Throughout most of my childhood my dad worked in a warehouse driving the forklifts and picking orders....'fuck all in terms of ambition' Above all though I think the very simple and straightforward answer is...there's just no pressing need. When my gran was alive, I was tipping up £150 a month, everything after that was basically spending money. Now I've a mortgage, house insurance, gas and electric bills, council tax...and I need to eat, suddenly ambition has a bit of value in my life. Right, I don't think parents are always the cause it could be other adult figure in society. If you are smart and look at there life, you wouldn't really want to strive towards that. The other users mentioned that their parents where unambitious, and ignored the fact that i said other adult figures could also give us a bad impression of ambition. "The fact that we spend time and energy posting on Internet forums about our crappy lives?" I disagree, the very fact that we are on here, shows ambition. If I didn't have ambition, I'd be a democrat doing things that don't challenge me and make me strive for virtue but that is what this site does, or more what philosophy does. Most posts on here aren't "Posting about crappy lives". Most are trying to improve our lives and others. As well, they range into many topics like current events, philosophy etc. If we were to spend our lives posting about our crappy lives, we would be on Tumblr. I just disagree with the basis of this question, I think most people on this site have ambition. Right that makes sense they have ambition when it comes to learning about self knowledge. Ambition to improve their abstract understanding of the concepts but in general i use ambition to talk about things like careers or tangible things outside of intellectual ideas. I might be wrong in doing so but that was my thought proses/
NameName Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 "Yeah, now that i think about it this can't be applied to everyone". Maybe you could put out like "An ambition quiz" and we can see the results. That would be interesting. 1
American_Crow Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 "My theory is that as children and young adults we used paralysis as a defense mechanism. To defend our lives from the results of "ambition". Our parents, teachers, or any adult figures had ambition and we seen what there lives where like. " Speaking for myself, I do suffer paralysis that has its origins in my childhood, but I don't think the adults in my childhood even remotely scared me by their demonstration of anything that could be called ambition. I witnessed a landscape of wasted lives from people demonstrating no ambitions, and I certainly did not want to end up like them. From my vantage point now, my life up to this point does look pretty wasted, and I've spent a great deal of that time in a state of paralysis. I just finished reading RTR, and I had an insight regarding ambivalence: Ambivalence results from holding two contradictory positions in equal priority. Hence if I put myself in a position in which I need to do X now, and I need to do Y ASAP, but doing Y requires that I do Z, which contradicts X, and I must do both now, the result is that I do nothing (but pull my hair out). Keeping myself in such a constant state over a long period of time normalizes this state of being. Applying philosophy to my life is helping me to sort out my priorities, and I am breaking the deadlock.
aFireInside Posted July 7, 2014 Author Posted July 7, 2014 Speaking for myself, I do suffer paralysis that has its origins in my childhood, but I don't think the adults in my childhood even remotely scared me by their demonstration of anything that could be called ambition. I witnessed a landscape of wasted lives from people demonstrating no ambitions, and I certainly did not want to end up like them. Thank you for your response. I want to be more clear and assertive with my position. ****You said people in your childhood did not scare the ambition out of you and that they did not have ambition, right ? I would argue that you are wrong because your parents had a family and most likely had a job. Doing those things are extremely ambitious even if they are not done correctly. They had ambition and that ambition got them where they are. After the fact it might seem like they have no ambition.
jacbot Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 I noticed that a large amount of people in the FDR community have little to no ambition. 200% agree with that, and i am not the only one saying it, most libertarians are dirt poor, I think Stefan made a remark about it on porkfest about Libertarians/anarchist being below middle class/poor , Sorry, I serve this from memory so i cant give you alink to youtube. About root causes.., I dont really know..., There is a lot of examples people around us who are successfull (less you live in some remote village).., I think the primary reason is a bit of seggregation seclusion what libertatians tend to do.., and also a bit of arrogance because they think they "understand how society/politics works" , problems with authority (not fitting well in academic culture). Lots of little things i think. 1
charlesp Posted July 16, 2014 Posted July 16, 2014 I wouldn't say I lacked ambition. I left college after finding it completely useless to waste 4 years and a lot of money for a piece of paper saying I could run a business. I quit college and started a business. I made smart choices, grew only by necessity, and was doing pretty well when the economy crashed. I had (have) excavation equipment and dump trucks, so the DMV is a constant joy. I discovered once the economy ran half of the heavy trucks off the road the state started to hound the half of us left twice as much to make up the revenue. Between that, constant fuel tax audits, new regulations that you're only told about when you're given a fine for it, etc...yeah I've kinda lost the drive to keep on. I went from enough money in savings to pay off my house and work at McDonalds the rest of my life if I wanted to, to behind on the mortgage and living worse off than people who say screw it and collect a welfare check. I'll live in a cardboard box before i take welfare, and I'll die in a hail of gunfire before I'm forced to buy insurance because some government douchebag "said so", so I haven't lost the fill to fight, just lost the will to keep feeding all the leeches.
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