This will not apply to most, & I most definitely hope it doesn’t … for the very few it does, do you agree? Is it really a necessity … don’t agree … or could you have done without?
I think many of us need these experiences to learn and grow.
@arghdaddy i just thought right now I should have added a 4th option on the poll reading, “I genuinely don’t know” …. I’m a firm believer (or would like to think) that there is purpose in everything & that it’ll all make sense once our current journeys is over.
Like plants, we have to crawl out of dirt and be exposed to light in order to bud. The only difference is we have free-will, and some of us will choose to not even be planted.
That sounds like a horror movie concept waiting to happen, I'm well aware. I hope you like it.
Lol I do!! You have a really nice perspective on things.
By all means pain and suffering can be beneficial. Working my way out of a state of depression and despair has given me strength and depth that I did not know was there. The free will that catloaf speaks of is true. If you really want to be better the choice is available to you. I would have to say yes to the question the OP asked.
Maybe it's because I'm tired, but I'm having trouble making sense of this. Let me see.
The question posed is apparently "Is suffering necessary?" But this is an incomplete question. Necessary for what? Asking that question alone would be like asking "is flour required"—you can't answer that! Required for what?
Another part of the image argues that suffering is necessary in order to become a better version of yourself.
Okay, but this is still incomplete.
Better for whom? How? In what ways? What's better for one person can be much worse for another! As a simple example, consider a fancy Christmas display with music and flashing lights: much better than a static display, right? Unless you're epileptic.
Fortunately, the text at the bottom of the image provides some examples of "better."
• depth as a human being • humility • compassion • cracked open ego shell
What gives a human being "depth"? Why is being "deep" better than being "shallow"? Who is it better for, and how, and why? I've been told I'm a very deep person who thinks deeply about deep questions, and I've gotta say, I don't think it's improved my social life any.
I guess humility and compassion can—to a certain extent—aid the survival of the human species. Interdependence is a good survival strategy. But that just means these qualities are good for the human race: not necessarily for the individual!
What the heck is an ego shell, and who does cracking it benefit?
These questions are not addressed in the image. Obviously. Because it's a short image meant to be read quickly, not a complete logical argument.
But the whole thing is ridiculous anyway, because whether or not suffering is necessary for the good of someone or something, it remains inevitable. Unavoidable. Ineluctable. Unpreventable. Whatever. As long as you're alive and aware, you're going to suffer. Doesn't matter whether you or anyone else needs it. You can reduce it, but you can't eliminate it.
...Unless you eliminate yourself, of course.
Eliminate your body and you eliminate your physical suffering. Eliminate your mind and you eliminate your mental suffering. Only way to do it, really.
OH BOY. Let's start at the top!
"Sometimes we go through things to become a better version of yourself. No matter how heartbreaking it can be."
False. This mindset attributes far too much value to individual experience. You happen to exist and things happen to you and around you—that's all. How one reacts to circumstances (mostly) out of their control is, ultimately, insignificant thanks to our brief lifespans. And who's to say what's better? There is no ideal state, as what is seen as ideal changes considerably depending on what time you exist, where you live, and what social circles you're subjected to on a regular basis.
"Is suffering really necessary? Yes and no."
As sentient creatures, suffering really is unavoidable. Some even say that it makes up the majority of our lives on this planet—that joys and pleasures are but brief lapses in an onslaught of inconveniences and agonies. To ask if suffering is necessary is to neglect the nature of reality, to anthropomorphize happenstance, and to seek patterns in the undefinable. It says "What I feel is unique", nevermind the 100 billion that have come before—all corpses, bones, dust, and insubstantial concepts rarely considered by the masses. And, in time, even those insubstantial concepts will have nobody to ponder them at all.
"If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being..."
Bah! Pandering tripe. An appeal to the individual, an appeal to common biases held by those who exist in the here and now, and who earnestly believe that that amounts to something despite all evidence to the contrary.
@DarrenWalker - you bring up a lot of good points … you have shared with us many times before your dynamic growing up and the treatment you received (especially coming from a very religious household) … if you can take it all back would you have changed the treatment or would you leave it as it is as you maybe feel it has made you the person you are today
@cuddles_ndream: Humans are built of genes and experiences. Change any of those things and you change the human—maybe only a little bit, maybe a lot. It's difficult to predict. Humans are complex, and the butterfly effect is a thing.
Anyway, given the option, I would choose not to create a temporal paradox.
Humans are built of genes and experiences. Change any of those things and you change the human—maybe only a little bit, maybe a lot. It's difficult to predict. Humans are complex, and the butterfly effect is a thing.
Anyway, given the option, I would choose not to create a temporal paradox. - @DarrenWalker
Well said!
@DarkLordChungus you really broke it down well!! Some see themselves as a raindrop 💧 others see themselves as part of the ocean 🌊 while others see themselves as part of the ocean that’s made up incredible amount of raindrops 🌧… your view is not a selfish one & I highly respect that.
Thanks to DCL for having already retyped it...
Personally, I struggled to get past the premise because of the grammatical incongruencies... "Sometimes we go through things to become a better version of yourself. No matter how heartbreaking it can be." Ugh! 🤦‍♀️
I understand there are those who need to put an, "everything happens for a reason" spin on things that are painful, and to a great degree I am one such person. But to be so vague in the premise above takes a shimmery "it's all good" veil and drapes it over trauma as if the(se) experience(s) have some beneficial merit as well.
I'm in the, "I could definitely have done without" camp. I'm a lot like those I spent the second half of my childhood with, except that I have a ton of issues stemming from the first half. Had I not experienced those things, perhaps I'd be even more like them and could share in their adeptness at adulting... I'd have a balanced life, I'd be far less prone to find myself spinning within and through various cycles of chaos, and instead of all the time and effort I've put into therapy and repair, I could've been actualizing some goals (vs just barely starting on them at over halfway through my projected time allotment here). Yeah ~ It'd be a hard pass on all that pain and damage for sure.
@quixotic_life ♥️
This will not apply to most, & I most definitely hope it doesn’t … for the very few it does, do you agree? Is it really a necessity … don’t agree … or could you have done without?