The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
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How do you come to terms with the immense amount of suffering in the world?
First, I'm curious if most here would agree that the sum of suffering in the world is greater than the positives of existence, assuming we're just summing up the valence of every second over every human lifetime and not imposing a post facto judgment about purpose or meaning making it all worth it or somesuch. I mostly conclude this from 1) the commonplace observation that pain is more intense than pleasure and 2) despite living an immensely fortunate life, comparatively, I don't find it all that easy, so I can only imagine that what 99% of the world experiences.
And even if you don't agree that the balance of human experience integrated over time is negative, surely no one would disagree that there is, overall, tremendous suffering, and much of it is utterly pointless. There is no need, I think, for me to belabor the cruelties visited upon man by nature and by his own kind. (And that is even before we get to the suffering of animals.)
Here are the possible responses I can think of:
None is very satisfying. (1) may be the pragmatic thing to do but it's an intellectual cop-out. (2) seems to be a popular sentiment in these parts, but I find it spiritually unsatisfying - not enough somehow, even if correct. (3) seems to lead to the conclusion that if offered the chance to press a button to make the world vanish, I should press it, but it seems most are revolted by this idea so I assume that most don't subscribe to it. (4) I am constitutionally unsuited for. (5) seems unlikely to make a difference to the big picture, and in any case I'm too selfish for that. Maybe we're back at (2). Which now feels like a post-rationalization rather than an actual attempt at a good response.
I think response 2 is directionally correct, but it can be combined with other approaches for a more beneficial outcome. You can only focus on a very small amount of the world's data your lifetime. You have to focus on things that are relevant to you. For instance, if you thought about every food (down to the specific plant/animal) in the world before deciding what to eat then you would starve to death because it is too much data to process. With suffering it is just not relevant to focus on most of it, and doing so will drain you of precious resources that you need to address the much more localized suffering.
It is axiomatic that an individual human can only impact a very limited amount of suffering. Once that boundary is chosen it becomes much more manageable. You can do local things that will have an impact on alleviating suffering for others and for future generations (e.g. helping preserve a piece of public land). Also, don't intentionally do things that will cause suffering for others. There is only so much you can do, and the rest of the suffering is out of your control.
You can also expand on response 1. There are techniques that allow you to think about suffering without being as bothered by it. Those include meditation, therapy techniques, Stoicism, psychedelics, and teachings that help you focus on appreciating the present moment (e.g. Letting Go by David Hawkins, or The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle).
Finally, the suffering might serve some purpose that you don't know. Maybe it is needed to teach new people a lesson that they would not be able to learn if the suffering was eliminated. Maybe the suffering is needed to motivate humans to take actions that will lead to a better future world. Maybe suffering is needed so that non-suffering can be properly appreciated.
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Mix of 2, 4, 5 in my opinion. The way I see it: First secure maximum "least suffering"-ness for yourself and those close to you, then devote the rest of your energy to reducing general suffering in whatever way appeals most to you.
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This is what I did. when Effective Altruism made it clear that spending a thousand dollars on myself was the equivalent of letting a random African child die of malaria, I had a choice of either becoming an EA and donating 10% of my income towards mosquito nets or admitting that I did not actually care about Africans; I shrugged and chose the latter. I have enough on my plate just trying to care about the suffering of me and mine, anyway.
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