Or is this just one of those things you’re not supposed to think too hard about?

(Edit) lmao, people who’ve never heard this mantra whenever you say that maybe there should be less suffering in the world… I envy you.

  • TheFogan@programming.dev
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    1 month ago

    Suffering isn’t good, but good can come from suffering, but certainly doesn’t always.

    A harsh breakup can lead to personal growth.

    A loss of a job could lead to a better job and possibly better money management strategies.

    But a kid born into abject poverty in an undeveloped villiage, spends his whole life scraping by in suffering always hungry until succumbing to a slow painful death – no good, no meaning.

    Mostly the idea that suffering is good is more common in religious ideologies that need an excuse to explain why their powerful god doesn’t step in and fix things.

    • dysprosium@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      This is basically saying too much suffering is bad (succumbing to hunger). But a little (harsh breakup) can be good.

      So this doesn’t suggest suffering is bad after all. If good can come from suffering, then suffering cannot be necessary bad.

      • naught101@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        No, it’s not. It’s saying that any amount of suffering is bad, but a tolerable amount of suffering can have good secondary effects (but this is not guaranteed, it’s circumstantial). The secondary good doesn’t mean that the bad part didn’t happen.