Why suffer?
“I suffer because I think. It really can’t get much simpler than that. Now what do I mean by this? Well, I mean that I over analyze everything.
For example, regardless of which worldview one adheres to, there really isn’t a good reason as to why the universe is, and by extension why we are. If you’re religious you can say that a creator did it for their own pleasure, and that we were created in our current form. If you’re non-religious, then you’d probably say that the universe was created by quantum fluctuations in an empty void, and through cosmological trial and error, got to us over a large span of time.
Now that we have a back story, what do we do with it? Well we use our brains to make tools and to organize ourselves into groups by similarities and differences in beliefs and abilities. These are social groups. And a network of many social groups is called a society. Now we’re getting somewhere! In these societies, people (who will adhere to a certain worldview depending on their environment and social interaction) will be subject to arbitrarily defined rules that tell them how to behave, and are enforced by threat of punishment.
Depending on how strongly they feel about these rules, some groups will try to impose their beliefs onto other groups leading to conflict. Sometimes these conflicts are more about the fact that resources that are available naturally to one group, should be available for another. If these conflicts are large enough, they are called wars. Vast amounts of resources are then dedicated to “winning” these conflicts. Are they important? It depends on who is asked.
Now, if you want to have access to resources within a society you wil need to subscribe to the arbitrarily defined value system and rules of behavior for that society. These are otherwise known as economics and law respectively. However, in order to have basic access, you’ll need to have a knowledge/skill set that you can perform repetitively in order to amass enough value to demonstrate that you should indeed have access to a resource. In order to get a job, it is beneficial to have a piece of paper (attained from a place of learning) that tells the place of work, that you meet the requirements of the job. Some of these “jobs” allow one to amass more value quicker than others. And what does this increased value offer? Well it allows one to exchange parts of their amassed value for material objects and experiences. It also bestows upon the individual “status” or a false sense of increased importance. Which often leads again to conflict.
On top of all of these things and more, if you don’t complete arbitrarily assigned goals at points in your finite time here (oh yes, there’s a time limit to all of this) then you are automatically assigned less worth by the society as a whole.
In the end, the way you live, affects how others live and will live. So be kind, accept your differences and try to appreciate the time you have on this little blue marble we call “earth”.
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