OpenSimWorld is the directory of 3D Virtual Worlds based on OpenSimulator and connected through the HyperGrid. Learn More
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Thank you so much for sharing all your wonderful thoughts, i am really touched. In the meantime, i was kind of roasted in some hater flames... did you know I am german (lol)?.. anyway...
I love to discuss philosopical and psychological things... does that make me arrogant? I have far more education then the rest of my family, and they dont want to get in touch with anything i have learned or found out... my sister said, what is the use in writing a book or why i want to celebrate my birthday and other strange things...
there is a certain phenomenon in psycho-analysis: can happen that expecting other people reacting to you the way you are used by family or partners, can lead them to treat you the same... crazy projection phenomenon... I wonder where is the exit out of this... i watch this sometimes... if situations come again and again you know that you really need ot cope with it to end the vicious circle.
I hear that humanity goes through hard times, some believe in manmade climate catastrophy, others in the bible, others think we go to a new dimension... but something is going on... who knows how much we are manipulated by media, weather, bioweapons, politics... Frank Zappa said that politics are the amusement department of the weapon industry.... Everybody has to die one day... but not all the other days....
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I love to discuss philosopical and psychological things... does that make me arrogant? I have far more education then the rest of my family, and they dont want to get in touch with anything i have learned or found out... my sister said, what is the use in writing a book or why i want to celebrate my birthday and other strange things...
there is a certain phenomenon in psycho-analysis: can happen that expecting other people reacting to you the way you are used by family or partners, can lead them to treat you the same... crazy projection phenomenon... I wonder where is the exit out of this... i watch this sometimes... if situations come again and again you know that you really need ot cope with it to end the vicious circle.
I hear that humanity goes through hard times, some believe in manmade climate catastrophy, others in the bible, others think we go to a new dimension... but something is going on... who knows how much we are manipulated by media, weather, bioweapons, politics... Frank Zappa said that politics are the amusement department of the weapon industry.... Everybody has to die one day... but not all the other days....
The Jester sprinkles 'holy water' on his hat and it turns to vapor instantly...
Isn't ENVY one of the seven deadly sins "Sister Mary Guillotine" forced us to learn in Sunday School? Those who see virtue in pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, lust, sloth OR greed, are selfish. I know because that WAS ME when alcohol addiction controlled and nearly took my life.
If you want to experience true happiness, focus on SELFLESS things. Go out and volunteer, do something to make someone else's day better, no good deed goes unpunished. I feel bad if I miss the chance to help out at the local soup kitchen. =D
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Isn't ENVY one of the seven deadly sins "Sister Mary Guillotine" forced us to learn in Sunday School? Those who see virtue in pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, lust, sloth OR greed, are selfish. I know because that WAS ME when alcohol addiction controlled and nearly took my life.
If you want to experience true happiness, focus on SELFLESS things. Go out and volunteer, do something to make someone else's day better, no good deed goes unpunished. I feel bad if I miss the chance to help out at the local soup kitchen. =D
The interesting thing is that ‘ego’ itself is a human-made concept — a model we use to describe certain patterns of thought and behaviour. Freud, Jung and spiritual traditions don’t even mean exactly the same thing by it. We can observe things like comparison, defensiveness, self-image and status-seeking, but how do we actually know there is a separate thing called ‘the ego’? Maybe we should be a little careful about treating a theory as if it were an unquestionable fact this I started to think when I was reading replies
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Opensim runs on ego. Its everywhere. So many people with high opinions of them self that don't hold water. So why aspire to be like them? Ego doesn't trigger envy. In fact excessive ego triggers repulsion. Be happy you are not like them. Be happy with who you are!
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OpenSimWorld itself really is a showcase of rampant envy and inflated egos. Even those who use OpenSim as a 3-D chat appear to look at it as a game, a battle royale that they play to defeat the "competition".
So many people seem to have sims only to push them into the top 10 most "popular" sims. They start clubs and event locations to attract the best DJs and live performers and then the biggest audiences.
If that doesn't work (and it doesn't, what with the abundance of event locations and the need for a constant visitor stream to stay in the top 10): Here's the next freebie sim, chock-full of the newest, hottest, most state-of-the-art, premium, luxury stuff, freshly botted from SL, exclusively available only here, no mod, no transfer. Another attempt at having the next R. Lion.
If that doesn't work either, here come the alt armies, running on Radegast, often launched by a script right after the region server has come up. Or manipulated OSW beacons that always report more visitors than there actually are. Or, if they don't have the skills for either, they ask buddies even from the Hypergrid to park their avatars on their sim.
When someone complains, and Satyr sets the sim to "Inaccurate", they simply delete the sim entry and make a new one. Same upon the first review that isn't gushingly positive.
You can also look at the avatars in-world. Nobody ever immerses them into the surroundings and dresses them according to the setting or the situation. Hardly anyone even makes their avatars individual or recognisable anymore either. The only things that count are that your avatar is always 100% state-of-the-art, more so than everyone else (constantly having to upgrade an avatar to the newest hottest stuff makes permanent recognisability impossible anyway), and that your avatar is sexy, racy, slutty to the max, more so than everyone else.
German OpenSim is even worse. There's no real community. All there is ranges from petty feuds to total wars of destruction waged against those who are too "different". And in fact, quite a few feuds were actually mutual wars of destruction.
The fighting gets dirtier and dirtier. Everything seems permitted. All means imaginable appear justified. There are even attempts at carrying these wars of destruction over into real life, at destroying the real people behind the avatars.
A while ago, a German user who used to have lots of avatars under lots of names in lots of grids died a rather unnatural death. Nobody knows what exactly happened. Seriously, I actually took the possibility into consideration that this could have been the first OpenSim-related real-life murder.
Hardly anyone has friends, mostly except for the war victims. What they have instead are followers or temporary war allies at best. Once they think they no longer need their allies, they dissolve the alliance and backstab their former allies to defeat them as well.
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So many people seem to have sims only to push them into the top 10 most "popular" sims. They start clubs and event locations to attract the best DJs and live performers and then the biggest audiences.
If that doesn't work (and it doesn't, what with the abundance of event locations and the need for a constant visitor stream to stay in the top 10): Here's the next freebie sim, chock-full of the newest, hottest, most state-of-the-art, premium, luxury stuff, freshly botted from SL, exclusively available only here, no mod, no transfer. Another attempt at having the next R. Lion.
If that doesn't work either, here come the alt armies, running on Radegast, often launched by a script right after the region server has come up. Or manipulated OSW beacons that always report more visitors than there actually are. Or, if they don't have the skills for either, they ask buddies even from the Hypergrid to park their avatars on their sim.
When someone complains, and Satyr sets the sim to "Inaccurate", they simply delete the sim entry and make a new one. Same upon the first review that isn't gushingly positive.
You can also look at the avatars in-world. Nobody ever immerses them into the surroundings and dresses them according to the setting or the situation. Hardly anyone even makes their avatars individual or recognisable anymore either. The only things that count are that your avatar is always 100% state-of-the-art, more so than everyone else (constantly having to upgrade an avatar to the newest hottest stuff makes permanent recognisability impossible anyway), and that your avatar is sexy, racy, slutty to the max, more so than everyone else.
German OpenSim is even worse. There's no real community. All there is ranges from petty feuds to total wars of destruction waged against those who are too "different". And in fact, quite a few feuds were actually mutual wars of destruction.
The fighting gets dirtier and dirtier. Everything seems permitted. All means imaginable appear justified. There are even attempts at carrying these wars of destruction over into real life, at destroying the real people behind the avatars.
A while ago, a German user who used to have lots of avatars under lots of names in lots of grids died a rather unnatural death. Nobody knows what exactly happened. Seriously, I actually took the possibility into consideration that this could have been the first OpenSim-related real-life murder.
Hardly anyone has friends, mostly except for the war victims. What they have instead are followers or temporary war allies at best. Once they think they no longer need their allies, they dissolve the alliance and backstab their former allies to defeat them as well.
I guess this is why quite a number of interesting places aren't listed here, sometimes not anymore: Their owners know pretty well that they'd just attract haters.
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I believe envy doesn’t come from the heart. It comes from the ego.
It comes from that little voice inside us that says someone else has more than we do, that someone else is better than us, more successful, more attractive, more talented, or somehow more worthy.
But what if, instead of simply accepting that feeling, we stopped for a moment and asked ourselves what triggered it?
Envy can actually tell us something about ourselves.
Instead of allowing that voice of the ego to take control, we could question it:
Why do you believe this person is better than you?
What do you see in them that you admire, but haven’t developed in yourself yet?
What did they have to do to become who they are or achieve what they have?
And most importantly: what would you have to do to develop or achieve something similar?
That changes everything.
Because the moment we ask those questions, envy can become something completely different and far more constructive: admiration.
And admiration can become motivation.
Instead of resenting someone for having something we want, we can look at them as proof that something is possible. We can learn from their choices, their discipline, their mistakes, their courage, and the actions that helped them get where they are.
Then the energy we once spent comparing ourselves to them becomes energy we can use to improve ourselves.
But to reach that point, I believe we need to understand a few things.
1. We need to put the ego in its proper place.
Many of us don’t even understand what the ego is or what purpose it serves.
The ego is useful. We need it to function in the world, to create an identity, to protect ourselves, and to understand our place in relation to others. But it doesn’t need to be in control all the time.
You are not your ego.
The ego is more like a role you play in this enormous theater we call life. It is part of your human experience, but it is not your essence.
2. We need to understand that every human being has value.
Even the person you dislike.
Even the person who irritates you.
Even the person whose success makes you uncomfortable.
Their value as a human being is not greater or smaller than yours.
You are not worth more than someone else, and someone else is not worth more than you.
If we all come from the same source, then beneath our achievements, possessions, titles, appearances, and social status, our fundamental value is the same.
3. Our value cannot depend on how much we own.
Your worth is not determined by the size of your house, the money in your bank account, the clothes you wear, your position, your followers, or how much recognition you receive.
A much more meaningful measure is to look at who you have become.
How much have you overcome?
How much have you learned?
How much have you grown compared with the person you used to be?
How much value have you brought into other people’s lives?
How much have you challenged yourself to become wiser, stronger, kinder, more capable, and more conscious?
That is a very different way of measuring a life.
And perhaps the greatest change is actually quite simple:
Change the direction of your attention.
Instead of constantly looking outward and measuring yourself against everyone else, look inward.
Ask yourself:
What is this feeling trying to show me about myself?
What do I admire in this person?
What part of that can I develop within myself?
And what can I do today to move one step closer to the person I want to become?
If more of us learned to redirect comparison into self-awareness, envy into admiration, and admiration into action, I believe it would make an enormous difference, not only in our individual lives, but in our society as a whole.
Sometimes the person we envy is not showing us what we lack.
They may simply be showing us what we have not yet developed within ourselves.
*Translation and language refinement made with AI.
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It comes from that little voice inside us that says someone else has more than we do, that someone else is better than us, more successful, more attractive, more talented, or somehow more worthy.
But what if, instead of simply accepting that feeling, we stopped for a moment and asked ourselves what triggered it?
Envy can actually tell us something about ourselves.
Instead of allowing that voice of the ego to take control, we could question it:
Why do you believe this person is better than you?
What do you see in them that you admire, but haven’t developed in yourself yet?
What did they have to do to become who they are or achieve what they have?
And most importantly: what would you have to do to develop or achieve something similar?
That changes everything.
Because the moment we ask those questions, envy can become something completely different and far more constructive: admiration.
And admiration can become motivation.
Instead of resenting someone for having something we want, we can look at them as proof that something is possible. We can learn from their choices, their discipline, their mistakes, their courage, and the actions that helped them get where they are.
Then the energy we once spent comparing ourselves to them becomes energy we can use to improve ourselves.
But to reach that point, I believe we need to understand a few things.
1. We need to put the ego in its proper place.
Many of us don’t even understand what the ego is or what purpose it serves.
The ego is useful. We need it to function in the world, to create an identity, to protect ourselves, and to understand our place in relation to others. But it doesn’t need to be in control all the time.
You are not your ego.
The ego is more like a role you play in this enormous theater we call life. It is part of your human experience, but it is not your essence.
2. We need to understand that every human being has value.
Even the person you dislike.
Even the person who irritates you.
Even the person whose success makes you uncomfortable.
Their value as a human being is not greater or smaller than yours.
You are not worth more than someone else, and someone else is not worth more than you.
If we all come from the same source, then beneath our achievements, possessions, titles, appearances, and social status, our fundamental value is the same.
3. Our value cannot depend on how much we own.
Your worth is not determined by the size of your house, the money in your bank account, the clothes you wear, your position, your followers, or how much recognition you receive.
A much more meaningful measure is to look at who you have become.
How much have you overcome?
How much have you learned?
How much have you grown compared with the person you used to be?
How much value have you brought into other people’s lives?
How much have you challenged yourself to become wiser, stronger, kinder, more capable, and more conscious?
That is a very different way of measuring a life.
And perhaps the greatest change is actually quite simple:
Change the direction of your attention.
Instead of constantly looking outward and measuring yourself against everyone else, look inward.
Ask yourself:
What is this feeling trying to show me about myself?
What do I admire in this person?
What part of that can I develop within myself?
And what can I do today to move one step closer to the person I want to become?
If more of us learned to redirect comparison into self-awareness, envy into admiration, and admiration into action, I believe it would make an enormous difference, not only in our individual lives, but in our society as a whole.
Sometimes the person we envy is not showing us what we lack.
They may simply be showing us what we have not yet developed within ourselves.
*Translation and language refinement made with AI.
I see wisdom, compassion, and insight in a few posts here, and it gives me a little hope for humanity, in these trying times. Not that i would ever give up or stop trying to teach compassion, knowledge, and love for all creatures and for the Earth itself...but some of these thoughts warm my heart. I am honored to know and have met people like Rio and Aphra, and i do hope there is time yet for further conversations. Feel free to poke me or drop me a message here or in-world anytime. It gets a bit lonely sometimes if one must look in a mirror if one wishes for a truly deep, philosophical or existential conversation. *grins* hugs and handshakes to all the deeper thinkers out there, those seeking wisdom, peace, and happiness.
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I think adults can learn this later too. We are influenced by childhood, but we are not permanently defined by it. People continue learning throughout their whole lives through experience, relationships, mistakes, books, education, reflection and other people. Adults can question what they learned, change old patterns and develop completely different ways of thinking and reacting.
I also understand your meaning of ‘pretending’ better now. You meant that envy is a real emotion in contrast to many artificial feelings and comparisons encouraged by modern digital culture. My point was only that a person who genuinely does not feel much envy is not necessarily suppressing or pretending anything. Some people have learned not to measure themselves against other people in the first place.
I don’t really see smartphones themselves as something unnatural, though. Today they are basic tools for everyday life — banking, identification, communication and many other necessary things are handled through them. I think the problem is more about how certain platforms encourage constant comparison and attention-seeking, rather than the device itself. Technology may amplify comparison, but it doesn’t automatically create envy.
And I agree that teaching children emotional awareness, creativity, critical thinking and self-reflection would probably help them a lot — but childhood is only the beginning. People can keep learning and changing throughout life.
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I also understand your meaning of ‘pretending’ better now. You meant that envy is a real emotion in contrast to many artificial feelings and comparisons encouraged by modern digital culture. My point was only that a person who genuinely does not feel much envy is not necessarily suppressing or pretending anything. Some people have learned not to measure themselves against other people in the first place.
I don’t really see smartphones themselves as something unnatural, though. Today they are basic tools for everyday life — banking, identification, communication and many other necessary things are handled through them. I think the problem is more about how certain platforms encourage constant comparison and attention-seeking, rather than the device itself. Technology may amplify comparison, but it doesn’t automatically create envy.
And I agree that teaching children emotional awareness, creativity, critical thinking and self-reflection would probably help them a lot — but childhood is only the beginning. People can keep learning and changing throughout life.
Maybe some parents have not much perception for their children because they are driven by their own ways to cope with what we call reality. Do you think an adult can learn this later from another person or even practise themselves and change their mind and all the bad feelings that can come up due to lack of education?
There is a misunderstanding about my idea of pretending. It was the idea that envy is a true and real feeling in this world of artificial or pretended feelings, sometimes created by unnatural ways like for example addiction to smartphones. In this digital world we can see for example on Instagram that people compare themselves a lot with others and there can be a competition driven by envy. Most of human beings with lack of good education from their parents are in danger to get lost in our world of industries only trying to maximize profit, and taking no prisoners.
In my eyes we would need teachers and subjects in school to teach children how to use tools to cope with the reality in the future, very different to what is teached at school now. Can be mental work and much different workbooks then what they have now, meditation, creative ways of work, inventing things, creativity in general what is my profession as a certified creativity trainer.
Me personally I come from an education-free background and have read many many books to build my own world, never had a single conversation with my parents about any philosophical matter, music, art, politics, psychology and all the things that are interesting for me. As I dont have own children, I am lucky to have a chance in teaching languages and creativity to bring something useful in this world for the next generation. In my actual exhibition i have tried to create some artwork based on old real life pictures to illustrate how i did it my way to get where I am now and always trying to get better.
hop://sun.cozycomforts.net:8002/CATALEYA%20CITY/99/347/222...
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There is a misunderstanding about my idea of pretending. It was the idea that envy is a true and real feeling in this world of artificial or pretended feelings, sometimes created by unnatural ways like for example addiction to smartphones. In this digital world we can see for example on Instagram that people compare themselves a lot with others and there can be a competition driven by envy. Most of human beings with lack of good education from their parents are in danger to get lost in our world of industries only trying to maximize profit, and taking no prisoners.
In my eyes we would need teachers and subjects in school to teach children how to use tools to cope with the reality in the future, very different to what is teached at school now. Can be mental work and much different workbooks then what they have now, meditation, creative ways of work, inventing things, creativity in general what is my profession as a certified creativity trainer.
Me personally I come from an education-free background and have read many many books to build my own world, never had a single conversation with my parents about any philosophical matter, music, art, politics, psychology and all the things that are interesting for me. As I dont have own children, I am lucky to have a chance in teaching languages and creativity to bring something useful in this world for the next generation. In my actual exhibition i have tried to create some artwork based on old real life pictures to illustrate how i did it my way to get where I am now and always trying to get better.
hop://sun.cozycomforts.net:8002/CATALEYA%20CITY/99/347/222...
envy and jealousy as ego-driven reactions, but no one needs to automatically follow every reaction the ego produces. We can notice a feeling without feeding it. And some people has learnt from childhood not to constantly compare themselves with others, to appreciate what they have, and to understand that everyone has something another person doesn’t cos we are all different. So someone saying they don’t feel much envy isn’t necessarily pretending — they may simply have learned a different way of thinking
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Thank you for your comment, girly. Of course envy and jealousy should be looked on in a self reflection. They destroy relationships and have deep impact on behaviour, often crazy and irrational behaviour, can lead to hate and even murder. Usually you dont see a good side of these feelings from outside. I had the idea that you would not pretend envy or jealousy, it is a strong and real feeling coming from the ego, but it is a very true feeling, this aspect was new to me.
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