Imagine this Bizarro situation. .

[Les Sleeth]

. . . you get a job to clean up an old house. You descend to the basement and find a single Superman comic book sitting innocuously next to the long-broken dehumidifier. You open the comic book to find a Bizarro edition of the series where Superman is in a world that is reversed. If he says yes, it means no; left is right; good is bad; Republicans care about people; Democrats understand economics.

As you read, a strange thing happens. You are consumed by a light and transported to another world, a very special Bizarro world. In this version of Bizarroness none of your normal survival skills work to your benefit. Competitiveness, intellectual ability, sneakiness, sexual prowess, salesmanship, aggressiveness, dominance . . . all of it, when attempted, puts you at a disadvantage. Your intellect doesn’t hurt you, but it doesn’t help very much either, not enough at least to let you survive.

The only thing which makes things better is what you can do with your non-emotional feeling side of consciousness. Sincerity, goodness, love, humility, charity, joy, selflessness . . . all make you wealthy, powerful, happy and successful. The richest person in the world isn’t a Bill Gates type, but the most loving human being on the planet.

Because you have been raised in THIS world, you are at such a disadvantage you find yourself on the brink of death in no time.

Can you learn to survive in such a Bizarro world?

 

[3trQN]

No, i would be too busy vomiting over the nice fluffy bunnies...

Seriously, i don't think i would last long enough to learn how to survive there. The thing is, the inhabitants of this place would be more likley to help me so i guess the question is, would the inhabitants of such a place let me die?

The reverse case would be equally interesting. If a Bizzarian ( that's an inhabitant of the Bizzaro dimension ) found himself in the mirror dimension, would He be able to survive?

It would seem to me that the latter is less likley to survive as in a non-emotional highly competative enviroment, help is less forthcomming ( an assumtion on my part that could warrent further analysis ).

 

[Les Sleeth]

Seriously, i don't think i would last long enough to learn how to survive there. The thing is, the inhabitants of this place would be more likley to help me so i guess the question is, would the inhabitants of such a place let me die?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Good answer. I should have said without others saving your sorry a**.

 

[sneez]

thats interesting question given that our concepts of those words you describe that dimension are because of their opposites which exist with us in this dimension. What i mean is definition (concept might be better word for definitions tell us nothing about the actual "thing", definitions merely tell us linguistic habits of ours) of love is meaningful only because of concepts of not-love/hate/...

how is joyfulness meaningful in a world without sadness? Can we say we are joyful when that is the default state of our existence (as in the case of those ppl in that dimension)?

well to answer the question at least i see not reason why anyone would not survive there? (we would pretend and copy behavior of others without the profound feeling of the meaning of that behavior. Forgive me my example: its like ppl going to church every Sunday being all god and spiritual while during the week being a mafia boss/president ( :d ), or doing things which are clearly prohibited by bible (or that particular belief system).

 

[Les Sleeth]

how is joyfulness meaningful in a world without sadness? Can we say we are joyful when that is the default state of our existence (as in the case of those ppl in that dimension)?

If you examine how the majority of people are, we want to feel good, and personally I think that is our nature. The problem is, we don't know how to achieve it full time. Most people have concepts about what will make them happy, from being the smartest person or the best athelete to having this or that. Personally I don't think I we need sadness to make happiness meaningful. It can work that way, I mean pain can make people stick with what helps them avoid it. But if you watch children, they can be happy over nothing. I saw a video once of a child playing in a dirt street in Africa, enjoying the heck out of himself in a slum. If a child's basic needs are met (like food), they are amazingly determined to be happy. So it seems to me the things we learn actually take us away from our original state. I know unlearning certain things has made me a lot happier.

well to answer the question at least i see not reason why anyone would not survive there? (we would pretend and copy behavior of others without the profound feeling of the meaning of that behavior. Forgive me my example: its like ppl going to church every Sunday being all god and spiritual while during the week being a mafia boss/president ( :d ), or doing things which are clearly prohibited by bible (or that particular belief system).

Well, in this Bizarro world you have to genuinely feel or you can't progress. So sincerity has to be real or you or people won't talk to you, love has to be real or you can't find a job, joy has to be real or no one will marry you, and so on.

If we had to rely just on genuine stuff like that to survive, this would be vastly different planet.

 

[sneez]

If you examine how the majority of people are, we want to feel good, and personally I think that is our nature. The problem is, we don't know how to achieve it full time. Most people have concepts about what will make them happy, from being the smartest person or the best athelete to having this or that. Personally I don't think I we need sadness to make happiness meaningful. It can work that way, I mean pain can make people stick with what helps them avoid it. But if you watch children, they can be happy over nothing. I saw a video once of a child playing in a dirt street in Africa, enjoying the heck out of himself in a slum. If a child's basic needs are met (like food), they are amazingly determined to be happy. So it seems to me the things we learn actually take us away from our original state. I know unlearning certain things has made me a lot happier.

from this point of view: what is good for taliban fighter and his worldview is not good for iranian imam's world view both of which is not good for your worldview all of which might not be good for let's say jewish tribes of 2000BC.

i don't see how we can be happy without unhappiness experience. How do you know you happy? You observe the child to be happy because you know what is to be unhappy. But if you were playing with that child on his level of knowing you would not think of urself as happy, you would just be. No satisfaction or benefit of being happy you would experience. [from brain point of view, happines is certain type of hormone level. So if you have all the time the same level of these hormones that state will not be special to you anymore...] I think there always will be an "average" for that particular person of this level and certain events/impulses can preturb these level to instigate action in you. If there always the same level you are unstimulatable (if that is a word). This same "average" is present right now in us, it does not matter if one has this average higher or lover, the importance it can be preturbed to induce action.

Understanding that those are only our relative concepts we see that these artifitial gradients in degree of goodness/happines/etc among us gives us drive/determines that goal of happines/goodness/etc

So sincerity has to be real or you or people won't talk to you, love has to be real or you can't find a job, joy has to be real or no one will marry you, and so on.

Thats irrational in my view. The "reality", for example, of joy is relative in our brain. I can make a woman belief i love her genuinly while being a con. A trained skilled public person can make you feel he is concerned.
Nowadays, i can even put perfume on and be more genuinly attractive for women. ETC...

Just like some ppl belief Earth is 4 bil yrs old, some 6000yrs old. Some ppl given the opportunity to kill unbeliever will with conviction of doing good.

I will learn how to make those ppl feel my genuinity and they will change opinion after initially rejecting me...

[note that ur planet starts to resemble uniform felling/emotions/beliefs without any gradient in degree of those. If those ppl are human that is utopia which many governments tried to put in effect. from religious to atheistic] The moment you get degree in goodness the lowest poing might be as well called "evilness" and the highest "goodness". And that what it is today, those are absolutelly relative concepts

 

[Rade]

. . . The only thing which makes things better is what you can do with your non-emotional feeling side of consciousness...love, joy, selflessness . . .

no emotion in love, joy of painting, helping others ? --not been in love much, hey. Sorry, but none of these exist in this world either. You have created in your example the world of the serial killer--one that uses the non emotional aspects of mind for own pleasure--bizarro indeed.