alea_iacta_est

Indeed, when the government can take away your ability to earn a living, it is communism.

Not being able to earn a living is violence.

Here you go:

For stoicism:

- "Enchiridion" of Epictetus. - "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius (my personal favorite that I keep reading over and over). - "Letters from a stoic" from Seneca.

It's not a lot of authors but they're pretty dense and should keep you busy for a long time.

For buddhism, it's a very vast subject, but I'd start with:

- "Siddhartha", this is a novel but will give you an overview on the buddhist system of thoughts. It's also very well written and inspiring.

- "What the Buddha Taught", also an introductory book on buddhist toughts. - Another introductory book is "Buddhism for Beginners".

From there, and based on your interests that you will discover along the way, go into the "suttas" which are the religious texts. You may even want to go to a time before buddhism with the vedas and the Upanishads that have so much to teach us.

There are many schools of buddhism, some closer to what we'd call a religion in the west while others purely philosophical (without any emphasis on a god). Zen buddhism is yet another category, where the teaching is based almost entirely on mediation alone but it's the exception, even if in the west we often think buddhism = meditation, but it's not so.

So, as you can see, it's more a tree than a line and you'll figure it out as you go if it resonnates with you and how deep you want to go.

Enjoy!

At 35, it's not an uncommon feeling, some call it a mid-life crisis.

The reason imo is it's an age when we start feeling our body is getting old, the feeling of "immortality" of our 20s is gone, we realize the clock is ticking.

Add to that what happens those last 2 years, the isolation, especially if you're single, and so of course it's a hard period for you.

Personally, the way I dealt with it, was through reading everything I could find about philosophy, particularly stoicism and buddhism. It helped me a lot, taught me how those feelings are unavoidable at times, how the mind create that pain and how to make it more easily manageable.

But there's no secret weapon, no magic cure, life is painful at time, and things get better by themselves as long as we don't add to it by feeling guity or thinking "it's not fair". Some realization takes time, so be patient and gentle to yourself, one day at a time.

Good luck friend.

2 years in, we don't even have the numbers of people hospitalized from covid or with covid. It's not science reportings that is dead, it's science itself.

Your last link says it all: "COVID-19 has triggered lockdown measures for billions of people around the world."

A lockdown at such a scale never happened before covid. Your "counter-fact" is incorrect.

Keep your condescending tone for your friends "my dude".

Ok so what about lockdowns then?

Yes, similar as in "if we don't do that, insert_whatever_crazy_idea_here, we're gonna overwhelm the hospitals!!!"

Because it's been the justification from day 1: "not overwhelm hospitals".

Lockdown and quarantine are very different.

And it's you who mentionned "completely novel and exotic government actions", to which I point out that it's already happened with lockdowns.

There's nothing in history that resemble what has happened in those last 2 years, whether you agree or not won't change that fact.

Let's see, those for freedom and individual choice would be more brainwashed that those against?

Interesting theory.

Oxford definition: "an earlier event or action that is regarded as an example or guide to be considered in subsequent similar circumstances."

Exotic like what, lockdowns for example? How crazy of me...