Posted by jay on May 6, 2005, at 18:51:07
In reply to How do we know anything?, posted by alexandra_k on May 5, 2005, at 22:02:36
Well, when you lose your child; your wife; all your money; your career; your best friends; that is reality kicking me in the face, and at that time, didn't really care if the world blew up...and any trivial questions irritated me. (Back THEN...1997 or so..) I know this is kinda religious...but it reminds of my situation and what somebody said to me...about the story of Job. (I am agnostic by the way..but...) You know the story..."God" comes and takes away all of these things from the poor guy to test his "Faith"....and a friend answered with "I think He took it a bit too far.." At that time, I was only disgusted with the world, asking mentally to people "Why are YOU alive and NOT THEM??!!". I was very angry...something I HAD to get over.
Existentialism really antagonizes somebody who has lost someone close to death...and even dying people themselves. I don't know if you know of Maslow's Hierarchy or not, but when your basic needs are not met, your physiological needs,.like you are starving, in horrific pain, or are homeless etc..you can't really move on as a human being towards the other goals of love, esteem, and eventually self-actualization. The need for self-actualization is "the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming."..or so say's Maslow.
Anyhow...I just think that there are answers, and often we overlook them. When reality rubs your face in it, we can still find answers, but just may have to take a different route.
Jay
poster:jay
thread:494272
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050503/msgs/494665.html