From: Alex Ramonsky (alex@ramonsky.com)
Date: Mon Jun 17 2002 - 03:29:24 MDT
Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
>
> And yet emotional misery is to some extent directly addressable by
> ourselves. We bring no little misery on ourselves by our own
> attitudes, fixations and fears. Patterns of thinking,feeling, doing
> can self-reinforce to our own misery. They can be difficult to notice
> and even more difficult to break. But it can be done even without
> taking anti-depressants in many, many cases.
...which is so positive and spot on IMO...
and then...
>
>
> There is nothing more miserable than a person in the "developed" world
> who has bought into the programming that all she has is never ever
> enough and that more and ever more is requried for her to be of
> worth! There is nothing more miserable than slaving away to "get
> ahead" when the bar, even the bar of what his parents wanted,
> continues to be priced higher and higher. What is more miserable than
> having to choose between being with one's children (if that is your
> deep desire) or to do the work one most believes is one's calling and
> deep desire and making enough money to pay the every growing bills?
> The notion we just have to get motivated and get a better education
> and job is clearer not sufficient to acheiving happiness or even
> comparatively less misery. We auger in more expensively but all too
> often we still auger in.
>
> - samantha
...you have answered yourself here I think...all the (admittedly
miserable) situations you outline are adjustable by attitude, optimism,
self-esteem and courage.
There are things beyond the reach of solutions, however. The worst thing
about being tortured is not physical pain (this may sound nuts) it's the
emotional trauma of having to accept that a member of your own species
can do this to you (and here's the real system-crasher) that they appear
to be enjoying it. Someone derives pleasure from your suffering, or sees
it as a good thing that you will die.
Knowing there is no way out of poverty or peer pressure is indeed
miserable. Knowing there's no way out of emotional anguish except for
death, regardless of how smart or courageous you are, surely changes
your perspective of what 'miserable' means?
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