r_harriso

Also, there were cities before industrialization. Can’t remember the names of any right now… but I pretty sure there were a few.

I’m definitely being too negative about something that is silly.

Im just tired of this kind of analysis. It’s common in ASOIAF space. there it is often done completely seriously. I spent a lot of time in that space, so I think I’m just overly sensitive.

Wow didn’t even take as much work as I suggested.

Seems like you googled where he lived and haven’t read any analysis of his works and letters.

The reason that Tolkien didn’t write an industrial revolution into the history of middle earth is that he hated industry. Hated how it destroyed bucolic village life.

Having this take on LoTR is pointless. Just an annoying waste of time.

“Obey!”

Guess you’ll never find out.

Consumer demand is not something that just appears. Demand for oil has largely been induced by decades of urban, housing and transportation planning centered around the automobile. E.G I do not want a car; I don’t like driving and maintaining one is expensive, but I don’t have a viable alternative for many trips I need to make.

Planning according to policies set in large part by auto and oil lobbyists.

It’s worse than addictive, it’s requisite for live in many parts of the US. That didn’t happen by accident.

Seize the assets, nationalize the oil industry, use the profits to pay for infrastructure.

My sympathies.

tldr; You (like many others) are having an existential crisis. The facts that previously underpinned your reality no longer seem true. Your challenge is to find some way to live authentically. What you've identified, a sense of belonging, is crucial part of living authentically for many people.

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I'm 35, and though I have a growing family, I am also nostalgic for that time in my mid 20s where I had less money, but intimate friends were close at hand. Recently, I've been having a feeling that something is "over".

The best encapsulation of this feeling I've read is from the Witcher short story "The Bounds of Reason". "... a wish, as desire, a yearning. Faith that there are no limits to possibility"

The ignorance of youth is really ignorance of an unknown future stretches out ahead. As I've aged the limits of possibility made themselves apparent. That faith in limitlessness was broken, and that break caused an existential crisis.

The single piece of advice I have is to grapple directly with the nature of the human condition. There are lots of ways people deal with this: finding a purpose, finding a community (like a real one, not one based on a comercial product), finding god. Put simply, the

I've seen a lot of nice ideas: volunteering, relocating, exposing yourself to different kinds of people, finding projects, therapy. I've found those helpful. But that might not be enough.

A crisis is also an opportunity. This is a chance to reevaluate what your life means to you, and what you want to do with the time you have.

I wish you the best.

Not bad. Confuses the trim on my robe for a hand. Pretty funny overall.

> what career path would you suggest, teacher or software developer?

Depends on what they like to do. There is a lot we can change so that people can do what they love without punishing careers that aren't directly tied to profit.