Thread by @shrikanth_krish

On attitude towards "Stress"

Stress is altogether a bad thing purely from the standpoint of modern physiology, and science

But Stress can be a good thing if you bake in human "ambition".

It is the ability to cope with "stress" that makes "upward mobility" possible

So many things that are completely deleterious from the standpoint of reason and science, start to make sense once you ignore science, and instead pay attention to "Ego", "ambition" - those irrational aspects of the human mind to which science is completely oblivious

For Science we are just descended from apes

But "ambitious" people don't see themselves as just relatives of monkeys

They see themselves as "important", "special". They seek fame, "impact"

But for Science, both Elon Musk and his maid are average representatives of Homo Sapiens

This is one area where we are lacking as a civilization

We understand a LOT about the human body, the physical world

But we don't understand "human ambition" well
Neither science nor philosophy do a good job at that

Soap operas are the best we have to understand "ambition"

To some extent, our histories, myths and religion attempt to understand human ambition

E.g. in the Hindu tradition, there are attempts to theorize the types of human nature by bringing in the concept of guNa -

Sattva, Rajas, Tamas

But Science refuses to get into all this

There is a positive contempt for "thumos" - the greek word for "spiritedness"

No wonder that "political scientists" prefer Democracy as the best form of govt - as that is a form they can relate to. It underplays "ego", "ambition"

Sure. Democracy is mostly run by ambitious people who become career politicians

But at least its basic premises downplay that. Even ambitious people "act" as though they are in it for the "service of the many" and not for furthering their careers

This likely explains why the culture of Science and "modernity" love democracy.

As democracy is fundamentally rooted in the "rule of the many" and regards ambition as dirty

Though in reality, ambitious people figure ways to work in the Democratic normal

We've discussed Science and Social science so far...

But Religion also is not much better at understanding "ambition"

Mostly the attitude of religion is one of positive dislike towards ambition

In Christianity at least, "ambition" is mostly viewed askance and as a dirty word

In religions like Hinduism, there is greater tolerance of ambition.

But even here, the "sattva" guNa is privileged more than the "rajo guNa" - atleast in Vaishnavism

All in all, the attitude of religion and tradition is one of hostility towards ambition

Hence "ambitious" people never acknowledge their ambition.

No politician says - "Hey...am in this game to make money and / or get famous"

Instead he says he is in it for "serving people"