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Try and prove me wrong on this...
#71
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
(August 5, 2014 at 3:34 pm)Pickup_shonuff Wrote:
(August 5, 2014 at 3:01 pm)Mozart Link Wrote: The fact that this life is basically pure luck (fortune) and that whether a person lives a happy life or a life of suffering is basically pure luck and that they have basically no choice in the matter is complete bullshit. Innocent people should choose how they want to live and choose whether they wish to suffer or not. The fact that innocent people who suffer from things they have no choice in the matter such as diseases and mental illnesses and are people just simply considered "unfortunate" in the eyes of the universe while people who are spoiled and don't have such suffering and live happy lives are considered "fortunate" is what makes this life (universe) utterly pathetic and worthless. The "true" life (universe) would allow us to completely choose the way we want to live and consider us as human beings and grant us an afterlife and a God. As for making the best of my life as it is, there is no pleasure whatsoever that I can even use in making the best of my life at all.
You're right that the Universe, and as far as we know, our earth, is the source of all misery, pain, injustice, sorrow, etc. But it is also the source of all love, compassion, joy, etc. You can always focus on the negatives but there's a lot of positives to focus on too. Think about what you're capable of doing for others given that you have a keen sense of the misery so many must endure (including yourself). You may not have the pleasure in life that you think you deserve, but I bet you sure as hell have a lot of empathy, and who knows, perhaps you might even find a small amount of pleasure in exercising it through service to others? (Please don't think I'm being presumptuous in what you do or don't do, I'm merely trying to offer a different perspective than the one you're giving).
Perhaps I would eventually gain pleasure through helping others despite my anhedonia, but this anhedonia has even taken away all feelings of empathy as well.
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#72
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
You just got to accentuate the positive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3jdbFOidds

Because somewhere over the rainbow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I

La la la la la:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRvGZffXhfk

Don't let the dream die:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5Kwf_nNmGI

Because it is a mad world:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4

And apparently you no speak americano!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWAIZmoDm8w
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#73
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
Wtf...lol.

Ok well um. I guess then...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lxtPe8GC3I
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
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#74
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
There really is only one truth to life on earth.
"The law of the jungle"

How many thousands of perfectly happy mammals die everyday so we can have a cheeseburger for $1 between 12:00 and 1:00pm.

Nothing is wrong or right or good or bad in the natural universe.
These are labels we put on them.
For everything you feel or don't feel, there are countless others much worse off.
Life has only one agenda ...to survive at all cost!

Everything else is an absolute bonus.
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#75
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
(August 5, 2014 at 3:01 pm)Mozart Link Wrote: The fact that this life is basically pure luck (fortune) and that whether a person lives a happy life or a life of suffering is basically pure luck and that they have basically no choice in the matter is complete bullshit. Innocent people should choose how they want to live and choose whether they wish to suffer or not. The fact that innocent people who suffer from things they have no choice in the matter such as diseases and mental illnesses and are people just simply considered "unfortunate" in the eyes of the universe while people who are spoiled and don't have such suffering and live happy lives are considered "fortunate" is what makes this life (universe) utterly pathetic and worthless. The "true" life (universe) would allow us to completely choose the way we want to live and consider us as human beings and grant us an afterlife and a God. As for making the best of my life as it is, there is no pleasure whatsoever that I can even use in making the best of my life at all.

I don't think happiness is luck. I think happiness is a choice.

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#76
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
Here is another argument of mine I wish to vent about as well:

I am having something far worse than depression in which I feel completely numb all the time 24/7 and can't experience any degree of pleasure whatsoever no matter what I do or how I think. This is something that remains there all the time everyday and is not getting better and I'm not even sure it will get better and if there might be a strong possibility that it will never get better. This is how I feel about it and how much I value pleasure:

Being alive is superior to being dead as long as you have pleasure. Therefore, since pleasure is emotional life, that makes it superior to being numb (emotionally dead) in which you have nothing more than mere thoughts and duty in life. Pleasure is the absolute and defining life force of "living" and a living thing that defines you as a living person and is what makes you a better and superior person (in comparison to yourself) because anyone would know just how good of a experience pleasure is and how much it makes life worth living and is the only thing to me that makes life worth living.

So even if you were a psychopath and killed many people, as long as you have all the pleasure in the world, that would make you a far better and superior person than if you were someone who is depressed and emotionally numb and helped and cared for other people. Again, this would only be in comparison to yourself and not comparing yourself to other people as there is no comparing yourself to others anyway.

Another convincing argument for the radical reasoning I just made above is that thoughts and such without pleasure are nothing more than any other part of the brain for biological functions (such as parts of the brain responsible for movement, breathing, etc.). But pleasure is your emotional well-being here and is the only thing that makes your life worth living and is the only thing that allows you to make the best of your life. So this is why I come to the conclusion that living your life through pleasure (even if you were a psychopath) would be the only best thing here (only for you though) in this situation as opposed to living your life feeling numb and depressed and helping others being nothing more than mere biological functions (thoughts and actions). It would be better for you as a person because you would, again, be nothing more than mere biological functioning without pleasure regardless of how much you chose to help others and regardless of how much these helped individuals look up to you and admire you. They would have a pleasurable sense of high value and worth towards you, but you will not even be allowed to have a pleasurable sense of value and worth towards yourself in helping others and in them admiring and looking up to you.

But, however, it would be better for other people if you chose not to be the psychopath and instead chose to be numb and depressed and help other people. So even if you did choose to become the lesser (nothing) person with nothing more than mere biological functions, you would be able to help other people suffering which is obviously a great thing.

As for tying to make the best of your life and helping others and such having no pleasure (being nothing more than biological functioning), I would unfortunately have to say good luck on that. You will soon find that you are nothing as a person without pleasure regardless of how much you help others, regardless of who you are as a person and what your attitude is in life, and no matter what you do in life. You would find that life is completely worthless. As a result, you would then go to drastic measures to try and get your pleasure back such as electric convulsive therapy and wishing that you would rather be in a hospital bed with cancer and many other horrible things to happen to you at the same time--as long as it meant having your pleasure back.

Also, as for people who give such "advice" such as: " I am 53 and have never had pleasure in my life, I am used to it," this is not the type of advice I need as I am an emotionally sensitive human being and not some robot who would be fine living a life without pleasure. Robots are fine living a life without pleasure because that's what they are--emotionally insensitive functioning machines. But I, on the other hand, am an emotionally sensitive human being who is not fine living a life without pleasure and will never be fine with such a thing because, again, I am a sensitive human being and will forever remain a sensitive human being.

In a way, people who give such "advice" are robots themselves because if they were truly a caring sensitive human being and truly cared for my emotional well-being (pleasure), they would instead offer me hope and comfort that I will once again experience pleasure instead of simply just giving the cold insensitive message of just getting used to it.
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#77
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
Where's House MD when you need him!
It almost sounds like you have a rare condition or something which is playing havoc with a part of your brain responsible for the pleasure emotion.

I cannot even think of anything else to suggest.
Words on the internet isn't going to do squat in your case.
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#78
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
(August 4, 2014 at 4:50 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote:
(August 4, 2014 at 4:47 pm)Mozart Link Wrote: If my lack of ability to experience pleasure were permanent and there is no way I could do anything to make myself feel more pleasure in life, then they would feel devastated. Intelligence (thoughts and such) are nothing more than mere biological functions such as breathing, movement, etc. But pleasure is your emotional well-being here and is what makes your life worth living (as I argued in my opening post). So for them to feel happier knowing that I am reduced to nothing more than mere biological functions (which would, again, be intelligence and such with no pleasure) than if I were to be retarded and happy would make no sense.

Welp, you got more than just that one post to which to respond. Especially love the part about consciousness being "nothing more" than brain states and chemistry, while "pleasure" is somehow special.

Seriously man, the more you talk the more I think of
.[Image: Hedonism-Bot.jpg]
I am now going to prove how pleasure is the most important part of the brain. Many people who are depressed or have little to no ability of experiencing pleasure are suicidal. But, for example, if you were to disable any other part of their brains instead such as their intelligence or memory, etc., they would not feel suicidal. Of course, if you were to disable any part of their brain that is necessary to live, they would die, but they wouldn't feel suicidal.

Now why is it that they would feel suicidal if they were to lose their pleasure? It would be because pleasure has such immense value that one would be lead to suicide if they didn't have it. But they wouldn't feel suicidal if they were to lose any other part of their brain because it would have virtually no value in comparison to pleasure. Very few people would have virtually no value towards pleasure and would be fine living their lives with no pleasure. Such people would be those who never had pleasure to begin with and never knew what it even felt like to have it in the first place. If they did though, they would feel suicidal. If not suicidal, then they would at least feel very depressed not having it.
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#79
RE: Try and prove me wrong on this...
I think it's a little simplistic to equate suicidal feelings with loss of pleasure or loss of comprehension of it. There are many factors that might drive a person to the act, as I know from personal experience.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
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