Do you know anyone...

[punkgrrrlie10]

that consistently says "life is great"? Are humans really incapable of perceiving only the good things in life or are we married to complaining about whatever may go wrong?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

I'm tired and really just taking a swing at this, but maybe it's a Western Society kind of thing....? I dunno, the grass is always greener is what they say, and I'm willing to bet that someone in Uganda or Argentina might gladly trade with us for one of our "bad days."

And I'm spent.

[Sethomas]

Many of my acquaintances who have done missionary work in Haiti tell me that as a people, they cherish life itself more than most Americans can realize. While not everyone can drive the vehicle of his choice, we are all fully capable of satisfying our material needs. We are programmed to associate contentment with materialism, and when all of our needs are met we are reminded how far we are from happiness. I think that would make us cynical as a people, at least in that regard. We have a completely wrong notion of happiness, and so we feel all the more empty when we fail to achieve it.

But then again, the chemicals in my brain are fucked up to the point that I'll bless the day when God removes me from this world. :party

[ScruU2wice]

I dont understand what your trying to say punkgirrl, are you for or against people who say "life is great"

Anyways, as alotta you might guess i have a horrible self-esteem problem. There are times i feel like everyones life is way better than mine, i envy people on tv who have succesful careers and lives. Most of the jokes i make are directed to myself. However, there are still times i stop and reflect, adn see that compared to alotta people im having a great life and i have great potential to live it out. I despise when people say life is not worth living (other than jokingly) and talk about how misreable they are for losing their b/f or g/f. Then again i guess there is no way to achieve total happiness, because when you look through your own eyes you see all the things that are just barely out of reach. Or the human tendency to always want more. I guess you should keep in a happy medium and just live your life...

[Immortal Goat]

ScrewU2wice, you do not have a crappy life. I may not know you personally, but from what I have seen on this site, you are a good person (albeit with a screwed-up sense of humor, but hey, that is 99.9% of the mockers here). Don't wallow in self-pity, because life IS great, and if you feel that it isn't, then it is YOUR job to change it. Do what you want, think how you want, be yourself. These are the keys to happiness (at least, they are for me).

[Perndog]

Life is better with each succeeding day, and if you don't think so, like Goat says, it's your own damn fault. You control your life, not other people and not circumstances.

[Sethomas]

My chemical disposition is my own damn fault? Makes lovely sense there, dude. Before you retort that I can take happy pills, I already do. All they do is dull the edge.

Don't wallow in self-pity, because life IS great

Some people can't choose to ignore the attrocities the world bears. I understand what you're trying to say, that life can potentially be wonderful, but I think that attitude tends to lead to complacency. There's too much work to be done in this life to be blind. I guess ignorance is bliss.

[Big McLargehuge]

I always say life is great, I have no personal deities but i still look at every day as a gift. Even when i feel bad i know that i should be happy just to be alive. I don't understand people who think that life is just pain and sorrow. I don't want to play point the finger but... Every religion i know treats this life as an inferior state of existance. They all hold that we are alive only to get to the next (better) state of existance. This could be why many people think that life sucks. because they feel that it is one of the inferior states of existance, I personally see life as a celebration of itself.






Bullshit.

[Perndog]

My religion is all about this life, which is my reason for feeling so good about things. I am already in the good state of existence, and I'm glad to be here.

Seth, why do the "atrocities" of the world concern you? You have a god, right? Aren't those things his problem? Or aren't they the problem of the people who are experiencing them or causing them? Basically, shouldn't you be more concerned with your own problems than everyone else's?

[The_Rorschach]

"Life is better with each succeeding day, and if you don't think so, like Goat says, it's your own damn fault. You control your life, not other people and not circumstances."

Ditto.

[Big McLargehuge]

Some people can't choose to ignore the attrocities the world bears. I understand what you're trying to say, that life can potentially be wonderful, but I think that attitude tends to lead to complacency. There's too much work to be done in this life to be blind. I guess ignorance is bliss.


You won't want to change a place you hate. Some of us are able to love life and still want to make it better. Just because I enjoy being alive doesn't mean I don't want to make teh world a better place.

[FS]

I don't know any people who are overly optimistic about the world and prance around going "yay life", but I guess it's mostly a matter of your perception of the world.

During the attacks on Iraq, my sister and her boyfriend came over, and he was glued to the TV set, cheering and laughing at missile explosions that wiped out parts of Baghdad. Granted, he's dumb as dirt and I wanted to strangle him for it, but there's another perception of the world. Some people see misery in other places and think "fuck, what a dreary world". Others see misery in other places and think "wow, I'm lucky".

[Helm]

If that's what it takes to see life as great, I think I'll pass.


Besides, to quote (or rather paraphrase) a great somebody:

"There's noone more miserable than the philosopher."

[VinceZeb]

Get your wrist straightned out, and you will cheer at explosions, FS.

[Helm]

'exposions'?

[Blue]

Life is what you make of it.

[mburbank]

Wow. Vinth climbs out of his depression pit for that? To state that unless you're gay you like people getting killed?

In any case, depending on what you mean, Pgirl, I think life is great, in the larger sense. Do you mean life at all (great) Human existance (brief, painful, but still great) the speciffic lives of individuals as percieved by themselves ( a question with as many different answers as there are people) or the life of speciifc individuals, say for the sake of argument Vinth (awful)?

[FS]

'straightned'?

[Anonymous]

I agree with Perndog, in that true happiness can be obtained simply by ignoring the plights of others.

[mburbank]

What about enjoying the plight of others? Don't rule that out.

[Anonymous]

Bah, then you gotta mix the good plight with the bad plight, and in the end, you'll wind up with inferior plightitude.

[Big McLargehuge]

I agree with Perndog, in that true happiness can be obtained simply by ignoring the plights of others.



What about those people who attain happiness by helping the plights of others?

And why hasn't anybody made a comment like "religion gives people hope" or some shit like that in response to my first post in this thread >:

[Anonymous]

What about those people who attain happiness by helping the plights of others?

Are you suggesting that people who need people are the happiest people in the woooooooooooooorld?

And why hasn't anybody made a comment like "religion gives people hope" or some shit like that in response to my first post in this thread >:

Because that privilege is reserved for you.

[Big McLargehuge]

What about those people who attain happiness by helping the plights of others?

Are you suggesting that people who need people are the happiest people in the woooooooooooooorld


Nobody's the happiest people in the world. Awesome fucking grammer :rock

[Perndog]

Religion gives people hope.

There. I said it.

[CaptainBubba]

You can rationalize or irrationalize unhappiness all you want. It doesn't make a difference as we are human and circumstances and events are going to make us unhappy. Its like convincing yourself that monsters don't exist when your alone in the woods at night. You may know there is no reason to be unhappy, but that doesn't make you happy.

Its what makes life worth living though. Our being human is the only thing that keeps sentience from destroying our minds. Sadness, happiness, anger, hunger and the like are all things we'll always experience and sometimes crave even when we know everything about them. Sadness will go away the day we are no longer human.

[Big McLargehuge]

You don't have to be happy all the time to think that life is great.

[Anonymous]

What about those people who attain happiness by helping the plights of others?

Are you suggesting that people who need people are the happiest people in the woooooooooooooorld


Nobody's the happiest people in the world. Awesome fucking grammer :rock

I can honestly say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Immortal Goat]

Get your wrist straightned out, and you will cheer at explosions, FS.

That is perhapse the stupidest thing I have seen in a Vinth post, and therefore the stupidest thing I have ever read.

Get your wrists straightened out, and you can slit them, Vince.

[Big McLargehuge]

What about those people who attain happiness by helping the plights of others?

Are you suggesting that people who need people are the happiest people in the woooooooooooooorld


Nobody's the happiest people in the world. Awesome fucking grammer :rock

I can honestly say that I have no idea what you're talking about.


Is it because i misspelled grammar? I meant that it is stupid to think that anybody is the happiest person in the world.

[kellychaos]

What about those people who attain happiness by helping the plights of others?

Are you suggesting that people who need people are the happiest people in the woooooooooooooorld


Nobody's the happiest people in the world. Awesome fucking grammer :rock

I can honestly say that I have no idea what you're talking about.

Obviously didn't catch the reference. :/

To get back on point, here's a quote from M. Scott Peck that I think applies (especially the first paragraph):

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths *. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief, noisily or subtly, that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been especially visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. I know about this moaning because I have done my share.

Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Do we want to teach our children to solve them?

* The first of the "Four Noble Truths" which Buddha taught was "Life is suffering".

I know that there are people with legitimate psychiatric concerns but some people are just "label crazy" about there problems. "Give it a name so I can assure myself it's not my fault and, thus, not my responsibility." That's such BS! People need to discipline themselves and take responsibility. >:

[ScruU2wice]

ScrewU2wice, you do not have a crappy life. I may not know you personally, but from what I have seen on this site, you are a good person (albeit with a screwed-up sense of humor, but hey, that is 99.9% of the mockers here). Don't wallow in self-pity, because life IS great, and if you feel that it isn't, then it is YOUR job to change it. Do what you want, think how you want, be yourself. These are the keys to happiness (at least, they are for me).

i know that i dont have a crappy life. but still i cant help feeling that im not "succeding" or that many people have better lives than me i try to think it away but it really doesn't help much. Its hard to not think about it... Everyone tells me i have no self-esteem and making fun of me isn't even fun anymore because i just go along and accept what there saying. Life is is good but sometimes i just dont see it like that

[Immortal Goat]

Well, what is your definition of "success"? Whatever it is, it is only yours to achieve, no one else's. As for the "making fun" part, I have learned to deal with it in different ways. I used to take it to heart, thinking that my life sucked, and the only way out was suicide (granted, I was only 12, but still). I used to believe everything people said about me. I used to take insults about me and my family personally. That was then, this is now. NOW I look at these jokes and I can laugh at them, because I know they are not true, and actually pretty funny. It takes the fun out of it for those insulting me, and I don't get upset by it. I do not expect you to master this overnight, because it took me years to figure out myself, but I hope that you are able to look past the minor details that make your life difficult and see the amazing thigs around you that make life worth living.

[Perndog]

Let's play cut and paste, where you take what everyone has said in this thread and rearrange it so people will get the point more easily.

The issue:

but still i cant help feeling that im not "succeding" or that many people have better lives than me

And the replies:

People need to discipline themselves and take responsibility.

it's your own damn fault.

[ScruU2wice]

WOW THAT SOLVES ALL MY SELF-ESTEEM PROBLEMS >:

[Big McLargehuge]

I used to have self-esteem problems, but then i relised i was a stupid faggot that everyone hated.

[Perndog]

I'm glad I helped you fix your problems. If you ever need additional support, feel free to ask :)

Just remember that I now own your soul.

Oh, and do you want serious advice? I had poor self-esteem until the middle of this summer - consciously, I thought highly of myself, but everything about my attitude told me there was something wrong with me, and I always felt I was inferior to everyone else in some way. A lot of the problem was that I spent a lot of time deprecating myself because I didn't want to seem arrogant - I know now this was a mistake. Anything negative you say about yourself, even if it's a joke (unless you're being sarcastic and saying something blatantly untrue), will damage your self-image. So stop doing that.

The other thing I did may not sound like a good idea to you or others, but it's what worked for me: I just started looking down on everyone. I didn't act superior or treat them poorly, but I told myself, "look at him, I'm obviously better than him," "that guy on TV might be successful but he's in a really worthless profession," "wow, that dude's ugly, I'm much better looking."

These days I love myself to the point of narcissism and sociopathy - consider that a negative thing if you want, but it works for me, I'm healthier and happier than I ever have been and none of my relationships have suffered.

[Ninjavenom]

Unless i'm once again realizing why i hate someone or why i should stop trying to draw things, life is generally rather snazzy. Just ignore things that don't affect you directly, and try to avoid other people's problems, and you should be golden. Being a nice guy never hurts, either, but life is a lot easier to appreciate when you're an art fag. 8-)

[punkgrrrlie10]

I don't think avoiding other people's problems is the answer, b/c then you don't have friends. Everyone has problems. It's realizing that from a stand point of eternity, none of them are as big as they seem and everything works out eventually. Running away just means you can't handle life as opposed to facing them all and taking them on. That is the meat of life.

[kellychaos]

I think the world would be a much better place if there were more spicy, barbequed pork rinds to go around! >:

[kahljorn]

Life isn't horrible because mommy wouldn't buy you a GI Joe when you were six.

I want to call drama to my life so people will care, my life is screwed up.