On Fear and Suffering

Author's preface: Special thanks to writing colleague Samantha Drobac for inspiring this post with some questions she posed in response to two recent articles addressing the twin topics of fear and suffering. You can find more of her writings at my former home on Medium.com here. Also check out her fantastic publication on Medium No Echo which can be found here. She is credited with the "Q's" and "A-SD's" in the below. Sam's full piece where these questions and her answers first appeared can be found here.

Q: Is fear or suffering necessary for life other than the obvious function it is supposed to serve when it comes to survival?

A-SD: No. It’s not necessary. However, most of the time we don’t have a choice on the matter because fear and suffering is part of life.

A-EJ: I totally agree, neither are necessary beyond that obvious survival function. I also agree that they are a part of life and most of the time we do not have a choice. However, some of the time we do have a choice. And the times when we do have a choice we should always choose to avoid or reduce suffering (and fear) for ourselves and most importantly for others. And, we should act in ways and support people, causes, ideas, etc. which will have the effect of increasing the number of times we will have the choice to avoid/reduce suffering and reduce the number of times when we will have no choice. The main point I want to make is that suffering is a part of life, but it does not have to be, does not always have to be. If we as humans choose to work together to reduce/eliminate suffering we eventually could or at least we could reduce it to a very, very small amount. However, we have not chosen to do this, and do not seem on the brink of making such a choice. The reasons for this are many, but at least some, and even perhaps a majority, are built upon the notion that suffering is actually good for us. This belief mostly comes from our various religious traditions, not from any rational discussion or study of the topic. I contend that suffering is never good for us, even if it may appear to be so. That it might be good for us is an illusion or a deception, supported by thousands of years of ingrained religious and moral traditions, handed down from our ancestors, and forced upon us like a yoke from which there is no escape. Escape is possible, but only if we choose to try and break free.

Q: Should people seek out suffering?

A-SD: This is very interesting because I don’t see how it could be avoided anyway since suffering mostly happens as life unfolds.

A-EJ: No, they should not, in fact they should do the exact opposite of that as I described above. They should avoid suffering for themselves and more importantly seek to reduce it for others to the extent possible in any given situation.

Q: Is suffering a requirement to build character?

A-SD: Well…I would say, it is a way to build a certain type of character.

A-EJ: Yes, I would agree it builds the type of character of a person who accepts that suffering is required to build character. I do not agree however that it is a requirement to build any other type of character or any other positive trait whatsoever. In fact I believe it only adds negative traits to any given character even if it may appear that it is not doing so or that it is adding positive traits. This is an illusion or deception and the illusion is supported by thousands of years of human history and our varied religious traditions which all embrace suffering as a way to build character. I contend they are all wrong, in fact they are wildly wrong. Suffering, like its counterpart fear, brings nothing positive to the table, only negative. Any appearance to the contrary is only short lived and/or a complete illusion. We are trapped by this illusion because our ancestors foisted it upon us just as their ancestors did. Why the first people believed suffering was a good thing is very simple, because their lives were completely and totally enveloped by it. If they did not put a positive "spin" on suffering they would have been driven mad by it. When your whole life is built upon something, and there is no way out, you must, as a human being, "try to make the best of it" or your misery will only increase. They recognized this, maybe not consciously, but at least subconsciously, so suffering became a "good" thing. A way to build character and moral virtue etc. They had no idea how corrosive that idea would become over time, how destructive. How could they have known? All they knew was that they suffered and here was a way to understand it and make it less painful and horrible than it actually was. And for the very few, the elite, who suffered perhaps a little bit less than the vast, vast majority it was a Godsend. Why question why some have so much (and suffer less) and others have so little (and suffer more) when the people with less who suffer more are actually the blessed ones, the good ones? Thus content and proud of their suffering misery there was much less chance of any sort of uprising or rebellion against those who suffered less often at the expense of those who suffered more. That same dynamic is at play today in countless places around the world. It does not have to be, and it should not be. It will only be stopped when we, each and everyone of us, recognizes and faces down the illusion. When we all together decide that we will not tolerate or accept suffering or fear. That we will do everything in our power to end them both, once and for all.

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