All the Pain and Suffering

When I was younger, I remember laying awake at nights.
I would think of all the people in the world. All the people which at that very moment had one thing on their mind. That the pain and suffering that they felt could not be eased. That in the state these people where in, the extreme anguish they felt consumed their thoughts, and there was nothing I could do to help them.

It sounds crazy, but I could 'feel' them in a sense.
Far more people than I could imagine, much less count.
And these people were at that very second feeling pain that I have never known in my life.

People in poorer countries, who are affliced with a disease as easily as we are a cold.
People who are starving and have no way of seeking help.
People who had an accident that forever changed their lives.
People who find themselves in circumstances which in no way mirror their choices in life.


As I got older, I thought less and less about this.
I believe it's because my mind's not strong enough - that it's too painfull.

Even though I now have the ability to help some of these people, these days it seems so much 'easier' to ignore it and say 'it's not my problem'.

Some of it may also have to do with the desensitizing through the media.

I'm a guy, so this isn't exactly the easiest type of thing to talk about, but what do you think?

Do we block these things from our mind because they're too painfull to think about?

Have you felt these strong feelings in the past, or even to this day?

Why do you think it gets so much easier as we get older to simply ignore these things?

Indeed it are the media overdoses on misery and there is always the great fluoride conspiracy.

I was more idealistic too once...

too bad, most people are better than they know/show themselves but we keep being divided by media, religions, politics, lies and conspiracies...

reply to post by TruthParadox


Yeah, Paradox, it's interesting you should mention this. I have felt the same way, many times in quiet moments I would consider the millions, billions of people around the world, how they must be feeling, their individual problems and anguish, and how it would be impossible for me to help them all. This is ofcourse human nature, but we should all be cognizant of others, and think outside our own minds once in a while.

reply to post by Grey Magic


Exactly.
Just like saying the pledge of allegiance every single day makes us 'forget' what it means.
Just like all the people who follow a religion so closely, that they forget the very words that once had meaning in their lives.

It's a bit ironic, because you'd think it would have the opposite effect.

But when pain and misery is painted to be the 'norm' in much of the outside world, we forget what pain and misery really is.
It seems that only in times when we ourselves feel such pain do we remember what it is that some people go through on a daily bases.

I think it has everything to do with getting older and nothing to do with a conspiracy. When you're young you have absolutely nothing to worry about (usually). A paper due, a boyfriend/girlfriend issue, getting your drivers' license. These are not problems. You only think they are because you have never experienced real problems when you're younger. Young people who have experienced real problems know that these so-called problems are really no more problematic than a pimple.

So as you're young and have no real problems to contend with like you do when you're older, such as a job, rent/mortgage, spouse, car payment, credit score, property value, investments, career track, etc, you have all the time in the world to think about the starving kids in Africa.

When you get older you have to try and keep yourself from starving and that takes precedence over people you'll never meet and can only do so much for anyway. It takes so much mental fortitude just for people to drag themselves to a job they probably hate just so they can eat and live that they don't have the mental strength to care about too much else.

Originally posted by TruthParadox
When I was younger, I remember laying awake at nights.
I would think of all the people in the world. It sounds crazy, but I could 'feel' them in a sense.

Very interesting post! I often have wondered why nature would put up a barrier between our personal feelings and those of others. Perhaps this barrier can be penetrated, especially when we are young?

Why can we not feel the sensations experienced by another person? We know intuitively that the pain they feel is EXACTLY like the pain we feel. However, their pain can never actually touch us, except through some secondary channel (like empathy, or language.) Likewise, whatever sensation you feel is YOURS ALONE, and is never passed beyond yourself directly.

Why is that? And does it have to be? Or is it possible that we can actually FEEL the sensations (not just pain, but perhaps other sensations) experienced by other individuals?

Very interesting, when I was around 14 yrs old my father gave me some books, science, philosophy, but one was about ashwitz SP.? concentration camp. I got around to reading it and it took me a weekend. I could not fathom what I was reading. Was this real? I asked my dad if it really happened and he told me about the war. He told me that Hitler exterminated people for thier religion and other reasons.
I would not be able to sleep right for a month or so. I felt humans were capable of almost anything. I was scared. months later I decided that if anyone tried to hurt me I would do anything in my power to defend myself. One day I was walking down the hall in school and a black guy grabbed the pen from my shirt pocked, he was much bigger than I and had several friends. I turned to him and asked him for my pen. Next thin I knew I was in the floor being kicked and punched by 3 or 4 big guys. I woke up in an ambulance and had a few broken ribs and my face was not very pretty.

I learned violence is real, and when out numbered avoid it at all costs.

reply to post by tommyb98201


Interesting post.
I believe we all hit that wall when we're growing up where we realize that this world isn't what our parent's painted it to be. Of course it's not their fault, they were just trying to protect us, but it's still difficult to come to terms with what some people will do to others for the most insignificant reasons like a person's beliefs. As if they felt that threatened by what another person thought.

And you're right, violence is real and will always be in our world.
The only thing we can do is avoid it - or learn judo .

Arrogance is the right of youth. The young feel limitless in their goals and invincible in their convictions. This I believe is biological. The young have the most to gain from the future, and so have the most reason to change it, and so benefit more from optimism.

I believe as we get older, we begin to feel we have more to lose. We also develop a greater understanding of just how complex the world can be, and become further entangled in those complexities. Some of this I believe is due to personal fear. Some is simply out of the instinct to protect our own families and to put their best interests first. I believe it is how we are 'programmed', so to speak, either through aggressive manipulation of society or passive biology.

But I don't believe this makes us helpless. It can seem so hopeless looking at the world and seeing the total suffering that exists. This is difficult to overcome psychologically. And I believe it to be a symptom of being an American, where the assumption is that Americans have it so well that we should be looking elsewhere in the world to apply our charity. But if we narrow our focus, change can happen. We should begin with ourselves and move outward from there, in small steps. As much sympathy as I feel for the world's starving masses, it benefits me more to live within a strong community. By street, by town, by city, by state, the world can change.

[edit on 14-10-2008 by TravelerintheDark]