Things Never Taught In School

• Spoilers ahead *
• Following material may considerably change your world view with risk to your health and social stability *
• Consume at your own risk. You have been warned. *

There exist truths about life that no one has taught and no one will teach in school. The reason is that pupils may not appreciate the truth and blame the teacher for enforcing those unasked truths on them. Also, those truths are not easily grasped neither by intuition nor by logic and you usually must undertake a lengthy knowledge journey to discover them by yourself.

Nevertheless, here they are, with examplary references for further detailed study. Consume at your own risk. You have been warned.

. You are nature, part of universe, an element connected to all other elements, god. Everything is in relation to all other things. Mind and matter are invariably related. (Allen Watts on Jesus and the gospel).

. The inevitable sound of the universe is the yin and yang, the up and down, the light and dark, the good and bad. You may try resist those dualities or you can embrace them and stoically act in good faith wherever you can. (Watts, Stoics, Seneca).

. The universe is out there to get you. You must (learn to) defend yourself, to fight for your ethics, protect what is good and right. And bear the consequences, too. (The Art of War - Sun Tzu, Hangman - Maurice Ogden, Harrison Bergeron - Vonnegut, Disobedience and Democracy - Howard Zinn).

. There is a war inside of you. Thought and feelings collide. They do so that you may feel the need to personally grow and evolve (Tragic Sense of Life - Miguel de Unamuno).

. Those who seek will find. Because human vices and sufferings are old stories, therefore all remedies are known (André Gidon).

. We constantly need new inputs for inspiration and personal growth. But there is more content out there than you can ever consume. You can overload your life with binging. Then you are mentally dead. The openness for inspiration is yours alone (The Death of Ivan Ilysch - Leo Tolstoy, Inspiration as a Psychological Construct - Thrash and Elliot).

. Nothing really matters except what really matters to allow you to grow personally (Giacomo Leopardi, Rules of Ageing - Robert Roseblatt, Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan).

. There only exists the meaning and direction you give your life. There is no such thing as a unifying “The Meaning of Life”. (Man’s Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl).

. Nothing will supply you with purpose and happiness more than a virtuous life of love, truth, compassion, creativity, and stoicism. Study them and you will find happiness. Consider that happiness does not come cheap. The cheap alternative is unhappiness (Nicomachean Ethics - Aristotle).

. Most humans are comparable to uneducated children, propagating their “I want, I want, I want” often until their death, disregarding the devilish consequences their egoistic desires have on others, the society, and themselves. The road of evolution is very long. Educate yourself (The experience machine thought experiment, The Examined Life - Robert Nozick, Allegory of the cave, Republic - Plato).

. Everyone just wants to be loved. Love, compassion, humility, failure culture, are the cures for a sick society. Because all rationale is based on feelings. (Jesus, Maslow, Unamuno, Aristotle)