What would you do?
(aside from self-suicide. and if you had god-like powers, would you even want suicide?)
(let’s say you can only do 3 things, rather than unlimited things for all eternity)
share your suicide story
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Erase all of existence so that it never happened and never will again.
erase the most extreme pain and suffering
That seems ideal at first, bit the sad truth is that extreme suffering seems to be a necessary component of life. It’s that life-or-death suffering that pushes us (humans and animals alike) to accomplish incredible things that make life worth living. If it’s taken away then we’d all become kinda numb and unmotivated–and that itself would become a new source of suffering: a lack of drive to do anything. If we know we won’t starve, won’t be eaten by predators, won’t really suffer, then existence would become bland and horrible in its blandness.
So you see how suffering is necessary, as Buddhists accept, in order to make life what it is? My problem is I still don’t like it. Seems like a no-win situation, so I honestly believe the most merciful thing to do is erase this whole thing. Make everything vanish, both suffering & joy, because only then can everyone have peace. (Peace defined as oblivion.)
Maybe I wouldn’t feel this way if I hadn’t experienced and witnessed so much suffering. And realized it’s necessary.
just the most extreme of the negative end from happening, I didn’t say eliminate all desires and preferences completely
there will always be pain and suffering, as long as all humans and organisms have to live under the current life conditions- ie competition and survival of the fittest.
is pain and suffering “necessary”? yes and no. in THIS current world, where there is competition for resources, then pain and suffering is a consequence of competition. losers of such a game of life will inevitably suffer.
could there be LESS suffering? yes OFC. even in the US, there was less suffering in the past (from 20s-70s) when the rules against monopolies and corporations were stricter. since reagan in the 80s, americans have been f*cked and double f*cked. corporations and those will money took control of every aspect of governmentbusiness and control. anyway, point is, things don’t have to be THIS bad. Take a look at Scandinavian countries. They live MUCH better lives than we do here in the US. WHy? Bc they’ve slapped down corporations and didn’t allow capitalism to run out of control.
such a noble deed @1heart1mind. i used to wish for things like peace of earth and all that jazz. fast forward a few decades and seeing life as it is…well…it’s impossible as long as humans exist. and for that matter, animals as well (along with all other life forms). did you know that our adorable beloved dolphins engage in gang rape? yep, they do. watched documentaries on that. so “badness” is everywhere, not just in humans. i suppose the simpler answer IS to eradicate all humans.
maybe that could be my 3rd wish. 1st and 2nd would be to enrich my own life lol. for once in my life to actually have a GOOD life.
Animals do much worse things than gang rape.
exactly. which is why the more i think about it, eradicating ALL life on Earth seems the better option.
You get it, ED. Nothing can fix existence because it is literally constructed on suffering. All animal life inflicts horrific suffering, whether they do it through malice (humans) or as part of their programming (spiders). So to end extreme suffering you’d have to turn all animal life into dirt eaters, like earthworms, because afaik earthworms and small frugivorous insects are the only animal life forms that doesn’t inflict extreme suffering on anything.
I mean sure, a universe of earthworms and plant life could be harmonious and free of suffering, but there’s no place for more developed lifeforms, certainly no place for a single stinking human. Existence would be bland as fuck and even the earthworms and trees would do nothing more than perpetuate a cycle of stagnation, because to “evolve” above a state of universal harmony would men, by definition, harmony is disrupted and here comes that pesky suffering again…
I’ve actually given this question shitloads of thought for years, and really when you pick it apart, the only “good” thing a god could ever do is put existence out of its misery, erase it from ever having happened, and return everything to the nothingness it should’ve stayed all along.
I’d think eventually it can be excised or engineered out of biological life.
3 things…Id do something that hurts someone with my first thing, Id take away that person’s pain with the 2nd thing, and Id give myself unlimited money with the last thing.
I’d kill the ghosts in my head, punish the people who’ve made me suffer, and do something to make my friends happy