We are daily slaves to the mitigation of suffering
r/Pessimism, u/neuro_space_explorer
I was in the shower this morning, taking in the unique sensation of chapped burning skin after transitioning from the cold air outside during my morning cigarette to the warm jets that blasted against my bare body, and it led me to a thought about our world.
I started to think about how much of my money and effort goes to mitigating my suffering. How much I spend every day just to exist in a quasi-comfortable state. I realized that the baseline is suffering and the only solution is to buy your way out until you get to a place where you realizes you can’t buy your way out of your own head.
Here’s a quick list off the top of my head of things I have to purchase regularly just to avoid pain:
Chapstick Lotion Sunscreen Decent soaps and shampoos Basic medications such as Tylenol and Tums Floss, toothpaste and toothbrushes Comfortable shoes Clothing of a decent quality and enough variety for all weather types A decent mattress Food and drinks, not only will I suffer without eating every few hours, eating the same foods can lead to mental suffering. Allergy medicine Heat and AC bills Alcohol, cigarettes, and weed (I concede these aren’t needed, but I still think they fit) I’m sure there is more that I’m not thinking of.
It’s crazy that almost all my time and money is spent trying to lessen this baseline of suffering that is guaranteed to all who are conscious. Many of these needs and desires are so normalized we don’t think to realize that we have to check these boxes often or suffer greatly.
Now think about all those in this world who are unable to afford anything on my list. Suffering is baseline, it is infinite and it is ever present. You can relieve it temporarily, but it will always be there, waiting for your salve to wear off.
Comments
u/Lord_of_the_Origin
The life of the body is just perpetual misery and deficiency mitigation. Animal passions and sense desires are just bait for the foolish creatures that brings them right back to square one (or zero!). Truly a pathetic existence.
u/noconceptualscheme
Recently (I.e. my entire life, lol) I’ve been dealing with some mental problems and decided to try medication again. Surprisingly, it’s been helping (less anxiety, erratic moods, less pain, urge to commit suicide etc), but it really struck me that there’s two issues here – the first is my mental and physical health, which can be worked on, improved, mitigated etc, but secondly there’s the the more fundamental issue of what I would call the negative character of being embodied, which is an intractable problem (at least, while alive).
Essentially, regardless of how well I manage my moods etc, the more fundamental issue with human life, being this body, remains. What I mean is just as you’ve outlined – my perpetual bodily needs which require obtaining resources to meet or I will suffer. The constant risk of contingent harms (eg accidents injuries etc) and the overall structure of my life as being a body subject to inescapable sickness, aging, and death.
Not only that, but everything is slowly breaking down and requires maintenance or replacement – my teeth, my car, my clothes, everything I own. My carpet, the cleaning that needs to be done. My hair and nails and facial hair. I feel like an ant constant scurrying around a mound of sand pushing up whatever side is eroding, trying to maintain the pile. Whether I do this depressed or anxious, although beneficial to myself is basically irrelevant to the overall structure of my life. The inescapable work and striving and struggle to maintain and mitigate harms and sufferings coming my way. What can even be done? Happy or sad, you still need to eat, you’re still aging, and you’re still going to die.
u/gitters1989
Perhaps,
suffering is seemingly ubiquitous because of the universe’s propensity to be neutral. I may be reaching here, but maybe the state of nature “defaults” toward neutrality and harmony of the lowest activity possible because that’s what “it” truly is.
For example, entities like you and I are dynamic energy machines. We exist because of some asymmetrical fluctuation at the inception of the universe (maybe) billions of years ago. Fast-forward now down to our resolution, we constantly need to eat, defecate, etc. (at the expense of other lifeforms btw). We will continue to do so until the energy from the Sun becomes too overwhelming, and/or depleted all together. Eventually we simply won’t be here and revert back to the state of “neutrality” as the universe tends to do anyway.
This mitigation of suffering you’re talking about is probably related to nature’s tendency to be at the lowest and simplest energy level possible. Suffering generates from this fact alone imo.