Suffering Is Not a Requirement of Morality (The Religious Content Free Edition!)

Note: Hello Vocal. Another reminder to my moderator friends that I goofed the first time I submitted this and included religious content. What a doofus right? Definitely should have read the rules before pulling out the old wallet and shelling out 99 smackaroons for a membership. Oh well, lesson learned. No worries though as I have removed any and all reference to any of that silly religion stuff and present to you now a fully religious content version free edition! Enjoy!

One of the most unfortunate aspects of much Western thought is the belief that somehow suffering is not only good for us, but it is also a requirement of morality. This belief is so pervasive that we barely notice it, yet throughout the culture, countless and long cliched adages singing the praises of suffering abound. These include such classics as “you need to take your medicine”, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” “no pain, no gain” and on and on and on. Even something as seemingly innocuous as “eat your vegetables” takes on a moral tone as the implication is that we must suffer through eating a food we often dislike, not only because it is good for our health, but also because it is good for our moral character. While the evidence is clear that vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet, there is zero evidence that eating them has any moral implications. Non vegetable eaters can be, and often are just as moral, or more so, than their vegetable eating counterparts. Much of this veneration and fetishization of suffering can be laid at the feet of that one group of people with that one guy who suffered a lot when he died. He not only died he died a painful, long, slow, suffering death. But, in the end, that was a good thing, that is one of the things that made him so special, so good, so moral. That guy showed us that suffering was the way to salvation and morality. And yet, I hate to presume to speak for that dude, but if you were to ask him if he would have preferred to save mankind without enduring all that suffering, undoubtedly he would have said yes. Nobody (at least no sane person), not even that fella, wants to suffer. He chose to suffer, not because he wanted to, but because he had to, at least if you believe that one super popular book that has accounts of his life and death. And, would he have been a less moral person, a less good person, for saying that, for answering in that manner, for saying he would prefer not to suffer? Of course not, he would have been the exact same good person he always ways. My point here is not to beat up that one group of people though it very much deserves a beating from time to time, but rather my point is that that guy did not choose to suffer because he thought it would make him a better person, a more moral person, suffering was forced on him because he was a moral person, a good person (depending on your point of view of course.) And yet somehow over time that message has gotten completely flipped on its head. That seemingly obvious point has been lost. Suffering does not make you a good person or a better person or even a worse person, it makes you the same person you always were but suffering. And suffering, no matter what kind of person you are, really, really, sucks. The fact of the matter though is that we live in a society which fundamentally, truly, at its core, believes we must suffer, we have to suffer, and that it is a good thing. A thing which, if we want to be moral, or even if we just want to advance in life, must be endured, or even sought out.

The negative effects of this mode of thinking are many. When we accept suffering as a moral good we fight less hard to end it when we encounter it. In fact, for many people, suffering is viewed in such a positive light that they actively encourage it or at least act in ways that actively encourage it. A great example is the terrible treatment of persons suffering from chronic pain conditions, not only at all levels of the medical establishment, but from friends, families, and strangers alike. This most often manifests as pain shaming which along with fat shaming are aspects of two of the last socially acceptable, and even actively encouraged prejudices, prejudice against the-obese, and prejudice against those in pain. Much of pain shaming stems from the belief that pain sufferers are weak both physically and morally. They should “buckle up” and deal with it. However, another strand of pain shaming grows from the belief that they should actually treat their suffering as a good thing as it is helping to build their moral character. This line of thinking links up nicely with the misguided belief that we should withhold medically indicated pain management medications not because it is the best thing for the patients long term health, but because they are viewed as “immoral” (drugs, especially drugs that relieve suffering and are abused, are of course immoral), while suffering is viewed as moral.

Sufferphilia negatively impacts our decision making in so many different ways. It brings nothing positive into our lives to accept, expect, or to seek out suffering. We must reject suffering at every turn. We must seek to reduce it at every chance we get, both our own and most especially other persons. We must speak up against those who endorse suffering as a positive thing and show those who might listen a better way. I do not believe suffering is an unfortunate fact of life that we all have no choice but to endure. I refuse to believe that, and I will never believe that.