Posted by Dinah on August 6, 2006, at 5:23:14
In reply to Re: people in Rowanda... Dinah, Gabbi-G, Phillipa, posted by Jost on August 5, 2006, at 23:39:39
I believe it wasn't so far off field, since the availability of choice was proposed as the downfall of western society and the happiness therein. I happen to disagree.
I also find it hard to believe struggle and hardship, the increased possibility of losing ones' loved ones to preventable diseases, famine, or war somehow makes one happier.
I think I reject the concept that Western civilization and even materialism breeds unhappiness.
I was just saying so lightly.
I could say so less lightly if you like.
There's no virtue in suffering. There's no romance in poverty. My great great however greats who lived in the coal mines and were likely to die there weren't inherently happier than I am. My even greater greats who watched their villages burn over the fights of their feudal lords didn't have a lock on happiness either. All of them were at the mercy of exterior forces. None of them had the luxury of choice. They probably felt impotently angry at the vagaries of fate and the people in power who regarded them as objects, and ones not nearly as valuable as their horses or dogs. I don't think that breeds contentment.
I don't think it's *right* to think of the ills of modern western society in anywhere near the same terms of a country with say 20% infant mortality rates and adults living on starvation level, famines, plagues, a government so corrupt that international aid to the peoples get diverted (not that that doesn't happen here, but at least there is some basic safety net), civil wars, genocide.
There likely are happy people in those circumstances. Life goes on everywhere. People fall in love and get married and have children and have personal victories large and small. Which is why I brought up disconnection in modern society.
But even then I feel ashamed to even consider in the same thought the idea that I don't know my neighbors' last names as I hop into my nice air conditioned car and drive to tow grocery stores to get my favorite brands, and the plight of the common peoples of third world countries.
I chose to say so lightly, in terms of Prego and Ragu. I'm sorry if you considered that a diversion from the serious nature of this discussion. I shall show proper probity henceforth.
A chastened,
Dinah
poster:Dinah
thread:674015
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060806/msgs/674217.html