What is life, really?

[ThaumaturgicTheorist]

The result of my over thinking, but still.

Okay, I has a thing to do, so I put off a more detailed explanation of the choices:

Okay, maybe I can elaborate on the choices:

All good: the stereotypical, "cupcakes and rainbows " childish outlook, that personally, I don't think even children have. Doesn't need a whole lot of explanation.

More good than bad: Optimism in a general sense. Finding the food in most situations, being idealistic and wanting to make the world better. Believes people are ultimately good or at least non-malicious.

Neutral: Speaks for itself, though it could lead a person to either indifference or action.

More bad than good: Caution, cynicism, and pessimism. Someone who's distrustful of people and projects, extremely aware of the suffering and strife that goes on in the world and how bad people can be and seems to either defend themselves or play along.

All bad: Humans are evil, everything is wrong and doomed to failure, everything will be bad forever. Every good thing you might encounter in your life is a lie, everyone who shows you kindness is just manipulating you for their own selfish gain, and it's the fate of every idealist (or hell, anyone with a shred of decency) to be broken, have their dreams crushed beyond repair, and mature into seeing the world realistically through shit-colored glasses. Anyone who can look upon the horror that is reality and not come out hateful and cynical is either severely deluded, or hopelessly stupid.

 

[Reborn Relic]

I would need a bit more description to answer this, since the question "what is life" could be referring to our purpose in it, or what makes something alive as opposed to not alive, or what makes something human or humanlike as opposed to not. Among other things.

So...which meaning are you using for this question?

Aaaaaand I didn't read the poll. Hold on. XD

I don't think there's a single correct answer to this. Different people have lives of different qualities, depending on who they are and what's happening to them. My guess is that if you don't put a strong value on certain things regardless of the pain or pleasure they create, a lot of suffering is in the mind, though, so the way you're going to justify an objective reading about whether life is suffering or not probably would have to involve assuming that minds can't be altered much, which is...I guess true for some people today.

On a semi-related note, I think that to a certain extent, everyone wants to be someplace better than they were before. To develop and grow, and that sometimes they create identities around certain goals of development and growth that become difficult or impossible to achieve. it can become difficult to abandon those goals if you're someone like me, for instance, because they sort of feed you and make you who you are in more ways than just having them--they can feed into your interests, intellect, and all of that, but other people seem to have an easier time changing. Ironically it's probably easier with a stronger set of emotions and sense of self, because everything around that will have a harder time fading away. XD So something that may work for a suffering person is to find something that feeds their interests, intellect and so on that isn't what they're after now, but rather is achievable given their current environment and characteristics.

 

[meowington]

I would like the option "life's indifferent".

It depends on so many things wether life's good or bad to you. Impossible to put into a rule that goes for everyone. The only certainty is that it will not be 100% good or 100% bad for anyone. Or maybe the latter even goes for some folks who got handed really bad cards.

 

[RobinSkye]

Term inputs do not compute.

 

[five sounds]

I would like the option "life's indifferent".

It depends on so many things wether life's good or bad to you. Impossible to put into a rule that goes for everyone. The only certainty is that it will not be 100% good or 100% bad for anyone. Or maybe the latter even goes for some folks who got handed really bad cards.

This.

It's chaos down here and life's gonna give it to you like DMX in some way or another, both with fortune and tragedy.

 

[Poki]

Life is what you make of it. You cant define a changing and adapting environment by a single static definition.

 

[evilrubberduckie]

42

 

[evilrubberduckie]

anyway, why is this is a poll. You cant fit this question in a poll.

 

[Qlip]

Life isn't good and/or bad, it inceptualizes good and bad. Rocks and cosmic particles don't care about shit.

 

[cascadeco]

A lot of life is what you make of it and how you perceive it. That said, I think it's a huge disservice to people if they grow up thinking it's possible for everything to be sunshiney, because it's not. It's also a huge disservice if one grows up thinking nothing is sunshiney. It's something in the middle.

There can be good things in many things. I don't think some people know how to see that. Basically, if you're looking for the negative, you can find it, and if you're looking for the positive, that's there too.

This is all spoken from a perspective of someone having the ability to choose, though. For those in third world countries or who are born into a culture where all one can focus on is survival, it will be a much harder burden. Though......those with choice have the potential burden of existential issues, so there's that.

 

[ThaumaturgicTheorist]

I've been making and abandoning a lot of threads lately, just posting whenever i think about something. But I wanted to come back to this one.

I guess what the question was asking was almost a cynicism vs idealism question. Or optimism vs pessimism. Is my recurring feeling that the world is ugly and disgusting the seeds of wisdom or just a symptom of depressed, anxious, lonely disaffection? What of people who wish for human extinction because we're nothing but a destructive plague - are they correct or is it an empty of perspective? Or simply the internet cynics proud of how negative they are and who love to laugh about how much people suck - immature behavior aside, are they perhaps right and we simply dismiss them to avoid feeling bad?

That's what this thread was trying to gauge, sort of. As to why it's a poll...bad judgement, I guess.

 

[Forever]

Can you ask next time What is love, really?

 

[Reborn Relic]

I've been making and abandoning a lot of threads lately, just posting whenever i think about something. But I wanted to come back to this one.

I guess what the question was asking was almost a cynicism vs idealism question. Or optimism vs pessimism. Is my recurring feeling that the world is ugly and disgusting the seeds of wisdom or just a symptom of depressed, anxious, lonely disaffection? What of people who wish for human extinction because we're nothing but a destructive plague - are they correct or is it an empty of perspective? Or simply the internet cynics proud of how negative they are and who love to laugh about how much people suck - immature behavior aside, are they perhaps right and we simply dismiss them to avoid feeling bad?

That's what this thread was trying to gauge, sort of. As to why it's a poll...bad judgement, I guess.

I ean,you can justify almost any answer depending on the perspective you take--though certain perspectives necessarily lead to certain answers. For instance, I could take the feminist stance that even minor things cause harm to others and should be eliminated to the extreme and say that to a certain extent, everyone is a slaver owner and a murderer because of the products we're willing to buy from the places that make them, the things we kill to make buildings, etc. When you throw in profiting from evil done previously pretty much no one can be free of some form of sin. But one could also look at these problems and view them as either fixable, not humanity's fault, or non-issues, and that would produce a different result.

Same with the planetary/sustainability perspective. We're either foolishly reckless as a species or producing a brief period of extreme prosperity that, while temporary, gives hope to anyone that knows about it. And of course, the problems involved could be fixable too.

Can you ask next time What is love, really?

Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

 

[Evo]

Life is what you make of it. You cant define a changing and adapting environment by a single static definition.

This

 

[Yama]

Life just is. Good and bad are human constructs that don't exist without us and can't be used to define the nature of life itself.

 

[Kanra Jest]

Good and bad are human constructs.

They have no substance beyond what we channel into it ourselves in accordance to our culture. This is the truth.

This is not to say our constructs are not useful. For without them we would be directionless, which gives forth chaos. They have a use.

I do believe most of our world is corrupt, because of instability, selective apathy, brainwashing, gluttony. There isn't much good in this world, yet in moments of pain it seems what could be percieved as good, more rather selflessness, comes forth as people come together to heal. I don't demonize selfishness like some do, though. I am sp Dom afterall. That is also natural (what people might consider bad). I think the two require a balance, but our world is more so imbalanced and disfunctional.

 

[ceecee]

I've been making and abandoning a lot of threads lately

Perhaps you would find more answers if you stopped abandoning threads.

 

[Mole]

Good and bad are human constructs.

They have no substance beyond what we channel into it ourselves in accordance to our culture. This is the truth.

This is not to say our constructs are not useful. For without them we would be directionless, which gives forth chaos. They have a use.

I do believe most of our world is corrupt, because of instability, selective apathy, brainwashing, gluttony. There isn't much good in this world, yet in moments of pain it seems what could be percieved as good, more rather selflessness, comes forth as people come together to heal. I don't demonize selfishness like some do, though. I am sp Dom afterall. That is also natural (what people might consider bad). I think the two require a balance, but our world is more so imbalanced and disfunctional.

When we are not feeling good, we naturally try to change this and feel good.

There are many ways of feeling good, starting with self soothing to reaching out to help others.

There are also many destructive ways of feeling good, that make us feel good for a short time then make us feel even worse.

So we need to find positive ways of feeling good and practise them. The practise is most important. It is like learning to play the piano, where practice is the key.

And once we are feeling good on a daily and monthly basis, we can start to grow and develop as a person, and perhaps learn to think critically in order to discover new things, the freshly minted, and allow ourselves to be surprised.

 

[Kanra Jest]

When we are not feeling good, we naturally try to change this and feel good.

There are many ways of feeling good, starting with self soothing to reaching out to help others.

There are also many destructive ways of feeling good, that make us feel good for a short time then make us feel even worse.

So we need to find positive ways of feeling good and practise them. The practise is most important. It is like learning to play the piano, where practice is the key.

And once we are feeling good on a daily and monthly basis, we can start to grow and develop as a person, and perhaps learn to think critically in order to discover new things, the freshly minted, and allow ourselves to be surprised.

Alot of what we do, good and bad, we do to feel good. We get something out of it. Even religious people, they get promises that appeal to their ego. Promises of heaven. Fear of hell. Ni suffering, a beautiful lie. If they put themselves in harms way to save someone, they get something out of it. If they give a gift to someone, help someone out, or donate. We feel good. Most everything in life is about getting something out of it.

 

[Mole]

Alot of what we do, good and bad, we do to feel good. We get something out of it. Even religious people, they get promises that appeal to their ego. Promises of heaven. Fear of hell. Ni suffering, a beautiful lie. If they put themselves in harms way to save someone, they get something out of it. If they give a gift to someone, help someone out, or donate. We feel good. Most everything in life is about getting something out of it.

The problem is that many of us are stuck at not feeling good. So before we can grow and develop as persons we need to learn to feel good.

And feeling good on a daily and monthly basis enables us to do good.

We can reach out and share our good feelings with others.

So the immediate question for those not feeling good is: how can I learn to feel good every day?