~ by Hénock Gugsa ~
Whew ... this is really NOT a topic one can delicately wade into without simply drowning from the weight or import of it, or from just being stung on all sides by the invisible and the abstract?
To begin, we accept the principle of antagonistic dichotomies in our discussion. We have Government vs the Governed, producers vs customers (users), pain vs medication, prescribed medication vs self-medication., etc., etc. All of these dichotomies are either everyday aspects of life that preoccupy us every minute of every hour, or they are undercurrents that swirl around us all the time.
To say that our senses have long been or have of late come under the effect of some sort of rotary file that dulls, blunts, desensitizes, or deadens us is not at all off the mark. However, do we really need any (new) research to validate the reality of our perilous condition? Plenty has been written about the topic from many angles by academicians, theologians, philosophers, authors, and everybody else. Some have made it all too complex and hardly utile while others have actually opened our eyes with their incisive clarity and wit. It won't surprise you much that I prefer the latter because they are easily understood but still profound. In my opinion, they have boiled things down to Life and the Fear of Death, or Mortality to be concise. Their wisdom, however, is easily applicable to a wide array of situations.
Here are examples of perennial agitators who have depth, passion, and wit: George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Mark Twain, Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, and George Bernard Shaw ....
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===> "A normal human being does not want the Kingdom of Heaven: he wants life on earth to continue. This is not solely because he is 'weak,' 'sinful' and anxious for a 'good time.' Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise. Ultimately it is the Christian attitude which is self-interested and hedonistic, since the aim is always to get away from the painful struggle of earthly life and find eternal peace in some kind of Heaven or Nirvana. The humanist attitude is that the struggle must continue and that death is the price of life." - George Orwell, "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool"
===> "The meaning of life is that it stops." - Franz Kafka
===> "Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a fever-dream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain; a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats, humiliations, and despairs -- the heaviest curse devisable by divine ingenuity; but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man's best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free." - Mark Twain, "Letters from the Earth" (Crest Books, 1963)
===> "Ignore death up to the last moment; then, when it can't be ignored any longer, have yourself squirted full of morphia and shuffle off in a coma. Thoroughly sensible, humane and scientific, eh?" - Aldous Huxley
===> "If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry." - Ernest Hemingway
===> "Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one's heart; but death is a splendid thing -- a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces." - George Bernard Shaw
_________________________________
** My personal take on the topic ! **
Most of the time I am just angry and frustrated at the whole frame of mind of American society, its passion for quick fixes, or permanent solutions all the while denying or ignoring some basic, simple tenets of life ...
1 - The so-called experts, doctors, fixers, etc. are all humans. They are fallible, they are not gods! Theirs is not the last word on the matters at hand. So let us stop worshiping these people. They are no more and no less than vendors of goods and services.
2 - The goods and services out there on the market are not guaranteed to be faultless. Else why would all that medicine they are hawking on TV come with warnings of side effects or causes for even worse ailments!
3 - Doctors order unnecessary tests and referrals. I believe the whole exercise is all for naught whether they find anything wrong or not. If results are positive, more tests, some drugs, and more tests. If results are negative, more tests for some other related or unrelated possible ailments. In the mean time, you are wiped out financially, and sent to the poor house, depressed, hopeless, and sick! So why not ignore the doctors more, and accept your mortality?!
4- Common Sense should be our guide in most things. But there is also the oft-neglected knowledge gathered from personal experience. For instance, I discovered quite a while back that my own saliva is a healant for some skin irritations or sores. It works for me, I stopped buying Blistex or its brothers on drugstore shelves. I deducted that saliva must be good for something or else why would animals use it so much?
To begin, we accept the principle of antagonistic dichotomies in our discussion. We have Government vs the Governed, producers vs customers (users), pain vs medication, prescribed medication vs self-medication., etc., etc. All of these dichotomies are either everyday aspects of life that preoccupy us every minute of every hour, or they are undercurrents that swirl around us all the time.
To say that our senses have long been or have of late come under the effect of some sort of rotary file that dulls, blunts, desensitizes, or deadens us is not at all off the mark. However, do we really need any (new) research to validate the reality of our perilous condition? Plenty has been written about the topic from many angles by academicians, theologians, philosophers, authors, and everybody else. Some have made it all too complex and hardly utile while others have actually opened our eyes with their incisive clarity and wit. It won't surprise you much that I prefer the latter because they are easily understood but still profound. In my opinion, they have boiled things down to Life and the Fear of Death, or Mortality to be concise. Their wisdom, however, is easily applicable to a wide array of situations.
Here are examples of perennial agitators who have depth, passion, and wit: George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Mark Twain, Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, and George Bernard Shaw ....
_____________________________________
===> "A normal human being does not want the Kingdom of Heaven: he wants life on earth to continue. This is not solely because he is 'weak,' 'sinful' and anxious for a 'good time.' Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise. Ultimately it is the Christian attitude which is self-interested and hedonistic, since the aim is always to get away from the painful struggle of earthly life and find eternal peace in some kind of Heaven or Nirvana. The humanist attitude is that the struggle must continue and that death is the price of life." - George Orwell, "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool"
===> "The meaning of life is that it stops." - Franz Kafka
===> "Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a fever-dream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain; a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats, humiliations, and despairs -- the heaviest curse devisable by divine ingenuity; but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man's best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free." - Mark Twain, "Letters from the Earth" (Crest Books, 1963)
===> "Ignore death up to the last moment; then, when it can't be ignored any longer, have yourself squirted full of morphia and shuffle off in a coma. Thoroughly sensible, humane and scientific, eh?" - Aldous Huxley
===> "If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry." - Ernest Hemingway
===> "Dying is a troublesome business: there is pain to be suffered, and it wrings one's heart; but death is a splendid thing -- a warfare accomplished, a beginning all over again, a triumph. You can always see that in their faces." - George Bernard Shaw
_________________________________
** My personal take on the topic ! **
Most of the time I am just angry and frustrated at the whole frame of mind of American society, its passion for quick fixes, or permanent solutions all the while denying or ignoring some basic, simple tenets of life ...
1 - The so-called experts, doctors, fixers, etc. are all humans. They are fallible, they are not gods! Theirs is not the last word on the matters at hand. So let us stop worshiping these people. They are no more and no less than vendors of goods and services.
2 - The goods and services out there on the market are not guaranteed to be faultless. Else why would all that medicine they are hawking on TV come with warnings of side effects or causes for even worse ailments!
3 - Doctors order unnecessary tests and referrals. I believe the whole exercise is all for naught whether they find anything wrong or not. If results are positive, more tests, some drugs, and more tests. If results are negative, more tests for some other related or unrelated possible ailments. In the mean time, you are wiped out financially, and sent to the poor house, depressed, hopeless, and sick! So why not ignore the doctors more, and accept your mortality?!
4- Common Sense should be our guide in most things. But there is also the oft-neglected knowledge gathered from personal experience. For instance, I discovered quite a while back that my own saliva is a healant for some skin irritations or sores. It works for me, I stopped buying Blistex or its brothers on drugstore shelves. I deducted that saliva must be good for something or else why would animals use it so much?
======================================================
* posted in a recent exchange with a friend on Facebook.
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