I disagree. I'm strongly in favor of continuing this "war on suffering," if it really needs to be framed that way.
So was the Buddha. His entire goal was to reduce the suffering of himself and others.
To me and many others, reducing the suffering of others makes life meaningful.
Doing so can also create suffering for yourself, but your own suffering is not the point. Helping others is the point. If you can help others with less suffering for yourself, go ahead. No shame in getting the epidural!
Of course, in many cases short-term suffering is necessary for long-term wellbeing. We don't want to get too soft. But wellbeing is still a good goal. Let's keep going in that direction.
Wonderful piece. I think you would find both C.S. Lewis’ essay, The Abolition of Man, and more recently, Why We Are Restless by Ben and Jenna Storrey, to be deeply related to this topic. And congratulation on a second child!
I’m grateful for the teachings of my parents and religion that taught me to find purpose in adversity.
Great, thought-provoking essay. I would throw into the mix that the Latin root of “passion” is passio, meaning suffering (eg Passion of the Christ). To our youth, we proselytize “finding your passion” while altogether missing the fact that the root of passion is that which you would suffer for; by minimizing passio, in a very real way, we are removing people’s abilities to derive meaning from and connection with the world.
Suffering is bad. It's almost tautological. If you want to frame a moral or ethical theory, you have ground it in something. Why is poverty bad? Why is Guinea worm bad? Why is an earthquake bad? Why (if you're religious) is sinning bad? No matter how much deontology you subscribe to, you have anchor your moral theory to the notion that pain/suffering/dolors are things to be avoided.
When I look at the structure of the universe, I have to pray there is no omniscient/omnipotent deity, because otherwise, it is undoubtedly the greatest enemy of anything with a conscious mind. The Epicurean trilemma cannot be solved without accepting that the Creator desires great suffering.
I suppose that for some people that is enough to call suffering "good", if it is divinely intended, but I think that is a debasement of the word "good".
If there's a point where I agree with this essay is that we should inure ourselves more often to suffering, since many wonderful things are sadistically locked behind a door of pain.
This is great. Christianity teaches how suffering can bring us closer to God, and that Jesus, God incarnate, took on human form and understood human suffering in the most vulnerable ways. Suffering is not bad in and of itself, though too often people who suffer because of evildoers then turn away from God.
I certainly agree with your conclusions - that we have forced ourselves into concentrating on replacing that suffering with ailments that may or may not truly be ailments. But I also think that in not truly suffering, we don’t learn just how good the good is in our lives - essentially that we can’t recognize the sweet if we don’t know the bitter.
I have loved every article you’ve ever written, so please keep them coming as often as you are able amidst the forthcoming sleepless nights :) congrats on your second!
I disagree. I'm strongly in favor of continuing this "war on suffering," if it really needs to be framed that way.
So was the Buddha. His entire goal was to reduce the suffering of himself and others.
To me and many others, reducing the suffering of others makes life meaningful.
Doing so can also create suffering for yourself, but your own suffering is not the point. Helping others is the point. If you can help others with less suffering for yourself, go ahead. No shame in getting the epidural!
Of course, in many cases short-term suffering is necessary for long-term wellbeing. We don't want to get too soft. But wellbeing is still a good goal. Let's keep going in that direction.
Wonderful piece. I think you would find both C.S. Lewis’ essay, The Abolition of Man, and more recently, Why We Are Restless by Ben and Jenna Storrey, to be deeply related to this topic. And congratulation on a second child!
I’m grateful for the teachings of my parents and religion that taught me to find purpose in adversity.
Great, thought-provoking essay. I would throw into the mix that the Latin root of “passion” is passio, meaning suffering (eg Passion of the Christ). To our youth, we proselytize “finding your passion” while altogether missing the fact that the root of passion is that which you would suffer for; by minimizing passio, in a very real way, we are removing people’s abilities to derive meaning from and connection with the world.
Suffering is bad. It's almost tautological. If you want to frame a moral or ethical theory, you have ground it in something. Why is poverty bad? Why is Guinea worm bad? Why is an earthquake bad? Why (if you're religious) is sinning bad? No matter how much deontology you subscribe to, you have anchor your moral theory to the notion that pain/suffering/dolors are things to be avoided.
When I look at the structure of the universe, I have to pray there is no omniscient/omnipotent deity, because otherwise, it is undoubtedly the greatest enemy of anything with a conscious mind. The Epicurean trilemma cannot be solved without accepting that the Creator desires great suffering.
I suppose that for some people that is enough to call suffering "good", if it is divinely intended, but I think that is a debasement of the word "good".
If there's a point where I agree with this essay is that we should inure ourselves more often to suffering, since many wonderful things are sadistically locked behind a door of pain.
Everybody gangsta till they are 1% that dies at childbirth.
You might enjoy this post discussing the 'War on Suffering' piece - https://castaliajournal.substack.com/p/curator-5eb
Discussion about halfway down the post.
This is a brilliant essay. Hard stop. Thank you for taking the time to express it.
This is great. Christianity teaches how suffering can bring us closer to God, and that Jesus, God incarnate, took on human form and understood human suffering in the most vulnerable ways. Suffering is not bad in and of itself, though too often people who suffer because of evildoers then turn away from God.
“Westerners” now are weak and ignorant. Most Americans wouldn’t understand sacrifice and so in a real emergency would quickly fall into panic.
I certainly agree with your conclusions - that we have forced ourselves into concentrating on replacing that suffering with ailments that may or may not truly be ailments. But I also think that in not truly suffering, we don’t learn just how good the good is in our lives - essentially that we can’t recognize the sweet if we don’t know the bitter.
I have loved every article you’ve ever written, so please keep them coming as often as you are able amidst the forthcoming sleepless nights :) congrats on your second!