What you call nihilistic, we call realistic.
You are not being realistic. You've ignored all of the good aspects of reality, seeing only darkness. Realistic would be somewhere closer to a midpoint between a world that is all good and all bad.
You've removed yourself from your country because of that reality and yet you claim that it doesn't exist....that's interesting.
What does that have to do with anything? Mexico is more appealing in retirement than the States. The reality is that we get great weather and much better prices.
Just as a side note, my mother is not a JW and she can clearly see what's wrong with the world...so much so that she fears for the children of the current generation. She sees very little happening that inspires confidence for the future.
That's unfortunate. Does she see anything that's right with the world?
it's just being real about a situation that you can't seem to see from your present vantage point
No, you have been deceived and are calling it "
just being real." The world is not the hell-hole that you say it is. I know from personal experience, There are good people all about you living lives that they value and enjoy.
My interest is in understanding who deceived you. I have always assumed that it was your religion, but I mentioned that I had not seen this intense gloom from the other Jehovah's Witnesses. As your last comment above suggests, perhaps your grim mood is due to your upbringing.
someone who believes that we have evolved from animals might not expect any better that what zebras or raccoons can accomplish
You probably shouldn't broach scientific issues in mixed company like this (there are non-creationists here who know better). It doesn't work out well for the creationist discussing science with those who actually understand it.
We human beings are animals, whatever you think your Bible tells you to the contrary, and we evolved from other animals. That's settled science, religious pronouncements to the contrary notwithstanding. You're an animal. So am I.
In the old days things were so much simpler. We didn't have terrorism to contend with, or gun crime escalating in a country where deadly weapons are banned. We didn't have divorce rates so high
Yes, and we didn't have electric lighting at night, power tools, automobiles, or the polio vaccine, either. I'd rather be alive now than then. Is terrorism really a big problem in your life, or is this just you seizing upon something else to fear and lament?
This is what I expect from you now - a laundry list of negatives without a single acknowledgment that there is anything good about mankind, life, or the world.
You're just wrong. Life has never been so good for so many as it is right now.
Are they as happy as the drug cartels will allow them to be?
More darkness from you.
Yes, my neighbors seem happy. Why shouldn't they be? They don't live in your dark world - your bubble of gloom. They live in the real world. They go about their lives working and playing, raising their children, earning incomes, preparing food, caring for their elders, hanging laundry, and maintaining their homes just like much of the rest of the world..
The drug cartels don't interfere with the happiness of anybody except those that compete with them, and those that try to put them out of business such as the police, judges, military, politicians and journalists, as well as the families of all of the above at times.
It's a problem, but it doesn't define this country, nor discernibly affect the lives of our Mexican neighbors or ours. We wouldn't be here otherwise.
Are they as deluded as the Catholic Church leads them to be?
We each have to take responsibility for our own thoughts and beliefs. If their religion is damaging them, then they have the choice to participate in it or not, just as you do with yours.
what is interesting is that you have escaped to your own little slice of paradise in a foreign country and can somehow pretend that everyone is as happy and contented as you appear to be.
Another straw man from you. I have never said any such thing.
What I have said is that the world is not the horrible place you see, and that many people are leading happy, productive, meaningful, purposeful lives - in fact, more than ever before. Too bad you can't take pride in that like I can. You're entitled to root for such things.
You have a very distorted vision of the world IMO.
I'd say that to you.
But here's the catch. Whatever the truth of the matter, neither of us can change it much, and so we are constrained to live out the rest of our lives in this world, whatever it is. Even if there were some sense in which you were correct, and the world is going to hell in a basket, I'd still rather live life in my head than yours. My world is more beautiful, more hopeful.
You also seem to resent my happiness, as if it were inappropriate for anybody to be happy in the horrible world you see. Sorry, but I'm going to be happy anyway for as long as life is good. At age 64, retired, in good health, happily married, living in a beautiful place, and surrounded by friends, I would have to be pretty ungrateful to buy into your negativity and not appreciate how good the world is for so many.
Tell it to the homeless and those who fight in wars for their government only to succumb to PTSD and be thrown on the scrap heap when they need help on their return home. Time to see what is going on outside your bubble......or perhaps it serves you better to stay there and pretend...?
It's you that lives in a bubble, waiting for your life to end in a world that you don't like or respect, hoping for something better after that. I don't believe that I've ever seen a happy or joyous word from you.