Thread: In a world that feels beyond control

like the petals of a morning flower I dont not know where the winds of life blows me , I accept my life whole heartedly as it is the universe's will

Though outwardly moving ,the thinking man was given the power, to control all internal impressions.

As It is the world's initiative to bestow the role and it is simply mine to receive it

What role you may ask?

The one that aligns with my moral purpose

WTF did I just read?

Originally Posted by Epictetus

like the petals of a morning flower I dont not know where the winds of life blows me , I accept my life whole heartedly as it is the universe's will

Though outwardly moving ,the thinking man was given the power, to control all internal impressions.

As It is the world's initiative to bestow the role and it is simply mine to receive it

What role you may ask?

The one that aligns with my moral purpose

Your username is why your post makes sense. I like the prose but disagree with the third line. You don't have to receive the role bestowed by the world, if anything being a thinking man (and in essence a MGTOW) is eschewing the role society aims to bestow on you. I like your post.

Originally Posted by Epictetus

like the petals of a morning flower I dont not know where the winds of life blows me , I accept my life whole heartedly as it is the universe's will

Though outwardly moving ,the thinking man was given the power, to control all internal impressions.

As It is the world's initiative to bestow the role and it is simply mine to receive it

What role you may ask?

The one that aligns with my moral purpose

Firstly, welcome back. I rather liked your previous posts back in August, and was hoping you would continue by posting about your namesake or provide us with some views and thoughts regarding Stoicism.

However, like mgtower, I have to admit this is too cryptic for me to decipher. Care to enlighten us what it means?

I agree with you 100% mgtow men choose there own role when you mention society, but I meant the universe, (u can substitute with God, etc)

Though we all believe different things and i can respect that , thanks for the feedback

everyday when you wake up in the morning you do not control what happens, lost keys , car accident, death, cancer , toothache, family death,traffic, etc and even the choice to stay and remain mgtow I believe it is up to the universe

as why does one man find it absolutely intolerable while another sees it as a release

I think the only power that is innate
To us is the power of choice and thoughts. And with those in mind we can create our own moral purpose


.hope that made sense, and I appreciate the love as well I'm glad to be back.

I don't subscribe to this thinking. There's many things I can't control in life, but there's plenty of things I can.

What I eat, how hard I work, how clean I live. That's all up to me. I refuse to be a victim of my circumstances. Yes, many things I can't control, I can try to mitigate their impacts but I don't worry about them since there's no point.

Just don't use the "universe is out of control" excuse to be lazy. Lift the weights, learn the lessons, put in the work, take care of yourself, always have a plan, and then do it all over again tomorrow.

Even how much you lift / if you are even able to lift is controlled by the universe, because its your genetics

When I say powerless I mean in external things

You control choice, whether you want to lift,
And your thoughts about whether or not it's even worth it

That's what I mean

But again I encourage challenge and debate thank you for the contribution

Originally Posted by Epictetus

everyday when you wake up in the morning you do not control what happens, lost keys, .. family death, .. etc and even the choice to stay and remain mgtow I believe it is up to the universe

Thanks for explaining - surely the choice to be MGTOW should remain intact? Unless you are implying one's faculties are impaired by some accident which is beyond our control?

Originally Posted by Epictetus

Even how much you lift / if you are even able to lift is controlled by the universe, because its your genetics

When I say powerless I mean in external things

You control choice, whether you want to lift,
And your thoughts about whether or not it's even worth it

That's what I mean

But again I encourage challenge and debate thank you for the contribution

You'll never know unless you push and find your limits. How do you truly know what is due to genetics and what is due to sheer effort and drive?

We all lack in something. Some more than others. That's fine. Luck of the draw. It's what you chose to do with it that defines who and what you are.

Originally Posted by johnsmith79

Thanks for explaining - surely the choice to be MGTOW should remain intact? Unless you are implying one's faculties are impaired by some accident which is beyond our control?

i would say the choice to remain MGTOW is as fixed as you are on it. If you view it as your purpose then regardless of what happens you shall stay steadfast in your belief. Though again everyone knows their own level of desire and aversion , and to what circumstance's they are willing to forgo those beliefs.

As for the second question
faculties can mean many things but ill assume you're given thought about mind and body. Temperament, health, body and mind are indeed influenced and impaired by un-unforeseeable external factors(universes will). quick examples would be height, disease or someone predisposed to a mental disorder, like dementia or schizophrenia , But as we are thinking beast we can can self reflect. Through that self reflection we can then decide how we make use of what we know and how to act next.

and as for "accident" i look it as it was meant to happen, but really there is no standard for what we label the events that happen in our lives, as it changes depending on where we stand on what happened.

Originally Posted by Epictetus

Though outwardly moving ,the thinking man was given the power, to control all internal impressions.

If you see a truck barrelling towards you, you will jump out of the way. Where is free will? Where is "controlling all internal impressions"?

Sounds like Stoicism, which I fully support. Most of what happens to us in life are just preferred or dispreffered indifferents.

Hence your username I suppose.

Originally Posted by Mr Wombat

If you see a truck barrelling towards you, you will jump out of the way. Where is free will? Where is "controlling all internal impressions"?

trucker barreling towards you = external outside of your control "universe"
internal impressions = choice and thought

you can choose to get out of the way of the truck when you see it, and you can think about how you feel about it(if you remain calm,cry,etc) , how to escape (moving foward, backwards,etc), again internal impression thing within you control

you may say that individual didnt have a choice in the matter, but why is it that some men throw themselves in front of trucks when they deem worthy (self deletion).

Again to reiterate internal impressions are thoughts and choices, aversions and desires, only things you can control

Originally Posted by mgtower

WTF did I just read?

That was my initial thought as well, however I continued on and learned something new today

Here is one nuance I would like to add to the discussion. The usual dichotomy is that our thoughts are within our control, and external conditions are not. However, the truth is, our thoughts are not always within our control, either. I have seen estimates that we have something like 10,000 thoughts every day. Most of them just bubble up from who knows where. We don't choose them. They just happen.

The way I see it, there are two stages. There is the original thought, which usually comes unbidden out of the subconscious or habitual programming. Then there is our decision about how to handle that thought. Do we take it seriously? Do we follow it? Do we invest energy in it? Do we get upset about it? Do we just let it pass? Do we counter it, argue with it? And so forth. The choice point comes at the second stage.

It's actually a little more complicated than that, because there is 1) deliberate thinking, which requires focus and effort, and 2) automatic thinking, the stream of consciousness that just runs through your head whether you are trying to think or not.

And here is one more nuance: the worse your mental health, the less free will you have over your thinking. For example, if you are depressed, you will be less able to choose your thoughts than someone who is feeling well. Same goes for most mental health issues.