To Beth: Thank you.
To Psp02ls:
I am not looking for admiration, nor is the story intended to help anyone.
Then may I ask what your purpose was in having it seen by other people, rather than letting it linger on your hard drive?
Now you might say Hitler was an evil man, who really influenced history.
Actually, I couldn't care less whether he influenced history or didn't influence it. To me, the importance of Hitler is that he made many people miserable at a particular point in time. Prevented them from being happy by separating them from their families, to put it in your terms. I am an atheist, and agree with you that there is no retribution, no heaven or hell, and ultimately, everyone will die and not linger on in any way, shape, or form, and I find nothing upsetting about that. The difference between us is that to you, meaning must be eternal to be "real." I think that if something is meaningful at a particular point in time, it is meaningful then. What went on doesn't change whether the meaningfulness increases or decreases later.
I merely try to be happy in whatever ways I can. Take drugs if you want. Again I explain in my story that happiness is endorphin release which is akin to being a drug user, anyway. Take heroin if you like. I don't really care what happens to you. I'm too busy caring for myself and my loved ones. Don't kill yourself though. You'll be dead soon enough.
I'm having difficulty reconciling the two main points of your message - happiness and eventual death of everything. If everything will eventually die, then what does it matter whether you were happy or not during your life? Once you're dead, you won't care. So why shouldn't I kill myself sooner rather than later? It will make absolutely no difference to anyone in the long term. And if happiness is the ultimate good, and worth postponing death for, then why should I even care that the universe will eventually die? It will make no difference to my happiness, since my death will come much sooner than the universe's.
Imagine you were diagnosed with a terminal illness. Would you just get a big pile of drugs and sit comatose waiting for the end, or would you make the most of your time? Have sex, explore the world, make friends? Well, the human condition is a terminal illness. You will die. So choose to do with it what you wish.
You seem to be assuming that absolutely no one would pick the first choice. Unfortunately, history has shown time and again that the first choice does happen. Similarly, in your story, you give the thought experiment of a dying doctor being given the choice to either have helped as many people as possible, or to have been happy and loved, and you seem to assume that there is no one who wouldn't pick the second. Yet there are such people, because "family" and "love" do not come wrapped in "be happy" gas to the exclusion of any other emotion. It's perfectly possible to be very much loved, to know that you are loved, to be happy that you are loved, and yet be miserable at the same time because of other factors.
You think that I want what you have. Affluence is not happiness. I have no desire for money. I have no desire to own things.I have no desire to eat myself to death. I don't like modern culture very much. The cult of the celebrity. The innane things people fill there lives with. If you want to be a film star, good for you. If you want to be Tom Cruise and believe you're the best thing since sliced bread and believe in Ron Hubbard's musings, fine. But I have no real interest in the things men do. It does not impress me much. I am after a very simple existence. One where I have a family and love.
Now who's assuming? Let me assure you that in my own life, I have experienced both poverty and affluence, and know perfectly well that happiness does not correlate with one's wealth. Nor am I particularly interested in the values espoused by the modern American culture. But if, for you, all that's necessary for happiness is family and love, anything that affects your chances of losing your family and their love is a danger, and, I think, probably quite unwanted. Therefore, I think that I am not too off the mark when I say that there must be some things that you want simply because they ensure your continued security. For example, if you were forced to work 18-hour days due to poverty, you would not be able to see very much of your family.
Avita, you are an idealist. I am a realist.
I would say quite the reverse (see below).
I do not believe that humans can work together to make the world a better place. People are selfish. We don't want to pay more taxes. We don't want to pay more for goods.
And yet we are working together, for good or ill, and most of us pay taxes, and most of us accept inflation as a necessary evil. If we all truly and honestly don't want those things, then why are they happening? This is one of the reasons I think you're being a trifle idealistic.
Who wants to make the world better? What is better? Who are you to dictate what better is? Is our existence really so much better than prehistoric man would have lived?
I'm nobody to dictate anything to anyone. But if you were to ask me whether our existence is better than prehistoric people's, I would answer with a resounding YES. "So much better"? That's rather loaded, and I'm choosing not to answer that, because I'm not sure what you're asking me. My life is particularly better than a prehistoric woman's, for example. For one, I have a much longer life expectancy, and since according to you, I should want to live longer, I can definitely say that it's better that I have a longer life-span. I have other, more personal criteria, and I know that not everyone shares those criteria, which I don't mind. I do reserve the right to protest when other people try to impose their criteria on me, and I believe that everyone else has the right to protest if ever I try to impose my criteria on them. I'm lucky to be living in a time when a large proportion of the people around me do not try to impose their will on me. What makes you say that there is no difference between your existence and the existence of people from other times and cultures? Would you honestly be just as happy if you were oppressed?
I often think we are a mad species, that have climbed right up our own arses, because we think we're so special. Well Darwin, Einstein and many others have shown us that we are not special. So get over it and enjoy living.
Again, you are assuming that I can't enjoy living because I am somehow assuming that I am special. And yet, to me, of the two of us, you seem to be the one who would be unable to enjoy life. After all, your definition of an enjoyable life
has to include happiness. Mine just has to include a relative lack of pain, which is a broader and more achievable criterion. Also, it seems to me that as you are living your life, you are focusing greatly on what will happen in the future, and comparing your current life to that, and consequently, feeling somewhat disappointed in how small your life is compared to the rest of the universe. (I know I'm assuming a lot, here, too, and I don't mean to offend you with those assumptions, but these are my current impressions of you. I'm quite open to being corrected.) I, on the other hand, don't do much comparing, because I am more present-oriented (more narrow-minded, if you like), and therefore, my disappointments hinge on different criteria. Looking over my life, I can honestly say that on the whole, my satisfactions far outweigh my disappointments,
despite the fact that I have rarely been blindingly happy.
I enjoy engaging in discourse though.
Me too, and I am very interested in your reply.
