4 ms·
The man dying from preventable illness really should feel mighty grateful he lives in a country where he has the right to buy a gun with all that money he doesn
by zanny 8y ago
The man dying from preventable illness really should feel mighty grateful he lives in a country where he has the right to buy a gun with all that money he doesn't have.
The black teenager being bludgeoned into permanent disability by a cop should feel extra grateful the water only has iron in it and not ebola.
Humans are infinitely capable of inflicting and causing misery. Just because some are more miserable than others doesn't make some not miserable. And we are all only unto ourselves - I cannot do anything to solve the suffering of billions abroad, my influence is functionally limited to who I vote into office that has macroeconomically influential power.
And I'll keep doing my best to try getting those elected into such positions of power, using the power I have, that would work to reduce misery everywhere when they are able, but each of us is only one person usually with only the capacity to influence those immediately around us. We cannot all be changing the world at once.
- abnry 8y agoI live with a chronic illness where I can't work. My life sucks more than most people. I never said problems don't exist but it is undeniable that it could be so much worse if I lived in a different country or in a different time. If you NEVER allow yourself to be grateful for what is good in your life, you are going to INCREASE the misery you have. And that's what is missing in our culture. We goad each other online into complaining and more complaining about things that, while problems, make us forget the good we have and which robs us of happiness. There's kind of a perverse incentive to come up with the biggest "woe is me" story because it often confers a sort of status in today's culture. The fact of the matter is that in the history of all humanity, suffering is the norm. Falling asleep on a soft bed with a full belly after a clean shower with an entertainment screen is what is unusual.