What pains do we need to experience? You want to experience disease and death?? Well sure, go join a leper colony and you get to relish that fine health you enjoyed earlier so much more. If you feel you have too many freedoms to fully appreciate life, I highly recommend the Sudan.
And who says we find less joy in our lives? First of all that is something which is impossible to measure since you did not have the opportunity to live a half a century ago and can't do this cross-generational comparison. Second of all, speak for yourself. I enjoy my life. I enjoy waking up and knowing my computer gives me access to everything from currency markets to the nastiest porn available. I enjoy the fact that when and if I become ill, I won't have to suffer needlessly. I enjoy the fact that I can get on a plane and see foreign beauty in a desert I would be reading about 50 years ago. I enjoy knowing my friends and family in Europe can reach me anywhere at any time.
Without bad it becomes difficult to describe good, but good still exists. How did you just describe this good without living in the past to experience the bad? And, more importantly, that kind of thinking is very dangerous. You are not anyone's G-d to determine whether they need good or bad in their lives at any point. Even fifty years ago, people had the goal of bettering society to lower pain and suffering and reduce filth where possible.
Perhaps it's because I've had a different upbringing but I know that what I have is good and what I will have is even better.
-Rudey
Quote:
Originally posted by swissmiss04
Rudey, very good point! The fact that we now can easily treat diseases that used to kill us is definitely a good thing. That there are stricter laws on the books about abuse...great thing. No one should have to live a life being abused. But, to turn things around a bit, isn't life about experiencing things? Even pain, blood, sweat, tears, disappointment, rejection, filth, and discomfort are things that we should experience. It's what gives the beautiful things in life more beauty. How could we ever appreciate anything if we never had to be "tested"? That's why the older generation is all over us because we are ungrateful. And in a way we are. Our lives are so much easier (yeah they are, though maybe more complicated) than were our ancestors', yet we find so much less joy in life. In reading books like Brave New World (which I highly recommend) I see a society that medically alters people before birth to determine their lot in life. I see people medicating for every possible problem so that there is never any discontent or pain. And then I see how we are today. It scares me how similar we are. We have become such a sterile unfeeling society (not just America, but overall) that we are destroying true beauty and meaning along with our pain and suffering. And we will suffer so much more if our lives have no meaning...
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