| Question Home |
Position:Home>Philosophy> Life without an antagonist...How sad!?Question: Life without an antagonist!.!.!.How sad!!? As we live we face many struggles ( death, old age, sickness, sorrow, etc!.!.) We often fancy our lives without them and think at would be better no!? But really would it!?
What would life be like without grief to lighten our joy, haters to exalt our loved ones, death to brighten our lives!. In many different religions there are demons to illuminate angels, and devils to invigorate saints!. So what would life be without haters!? Horrible!? Better!? and WHy!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I answered this question once in an academic paper, and my answer remains the same today!. I'm still in the middle, as I am on most difficult questions, because there's usually some merit to both sides!. Many poets, thinkers, and religious leaders have opined, since man found a way to record his thoughts into words, that the "flavor" of life comes from the struggle!. That to know good we must know evil, to know sweet we must know sour, and so on!. I think this is true to a degree!. If you've never seen the night, how would you know what the day was!? You wouldn't, life would be a continous existence in the light!. Even the darkness, sometimes, has its virtues!. If the sun never set, we'd never see the stars!. People always claim to want immortality and invincibility, and I'm often reminded of the old warning, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!." I remember my younger days, when I would enable video-game "cheats" to grant my character invincibility!. It was fun for about 10 minutes, but once I realized there was no chance of dying, no risk of injury, I was bored out of my mind and would quickly turn off the codes!. I myself am agnostic, but sometimes I can't help getting the impression that god or natural evolution or whatever you want to call it has resolved certain questions with a lot more wisdom and a lot more ability than we would if they were left to us to answer!. Still, there are certain things that strike me as innately good or evil, without the need of juxtaposition!. Maybe it's a mind trick that I'm playing on myself, to think I can distinguish certain acts or scenarios from the rest!. Nevertheless, I think something like a young girl being brutally raped in an alleyway is entirely unecessary!. I can't see how any rational person could view something like that and think, "Hmmm, I guess that could be good or evil, time and experience will tell on this one!." At the same time, a really great meal, or a loving embrace seem innately good!. Both of them satisfy some deeply rooted desire that seems programmed into us, one for physical sustenance and the other for emotional well-being!. In sum, do we need some "antagonism" so we appreciate, or at least don't come to take for granted the valuable things in life!? Experience teaches me yes!. Must that antagonism be in the form of heinous acts of violence or heartbreaking misery or hatred!? Probably not!. Solution: People should focus on living well, and treating one another with love and respect!. The "struggle" we need to keep things interesting is already a part of life, whether we'd have it or not!. We don't need to go out of our way to add conflict!. It seems that the darkest shadows stem from human deeds, and that, we have the power to end, if we find the will!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I am so over the "we need pain to understand pleasure" theory!. I can eat chocolate cake and know that it is utterly delicious without having to follow it with brussel sprouts - equally one can enjoy getting lucky in love right out of the shoot, no pain required!. Pain's function, in my estimation, is to get us up off the couch!. When we are happy in life and love we have no impetus to move on - we could wallow in it for the rest of our lives - but moving on and growth are key to our existence (when we stop growing we stagnate)!. Pain and discomfort enter into our lives to pry us away from the comfy ruts we get into - and the stronger the pain usually indicates how utterly lovely our existing situation has been (we will put up with a lot for those we truly love - often nothing seperates us except serious issues and pain)!. So, yes - we would lose something in our lives without pain!. We would never complete our mission without it for we would stop too long to smell the roses!. But it is not at all necessary for us to understand, accept or enjoy joy or love!. Peace!Www@QuestionHome@Com I can't see life without the full spectrum, but I would just like to see not so many Haters around!.!.!.!. Life naturally provides us with all of this full range and plenty of grief and hardship to spare!. The function of religion seems to be to dull our pain a bit and give us some companionship so we can endure!.Www@QuestionHome@Com What happened to all those haters!? Did we kill them!? If so, we've also killed ourselves!. No matter how bad life can be at times, it will always be a miracle!. We should try to remember that more often, because some people are no longer here to experience it at all!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It would be sooooooooooooooooo boring!To enjoy the good in life,you have to suffer the bad,yadda,yadda,yadda!.At least that's my take on your question!.Yin +yang,light + dark,love +hate you can't have 1 with out the other,and so on into perpetuity !Www@QuestionHome@Com We would not understand how lucky we all are, and never truly live!. Read my poem!? http://answers!.yahoo!.com/question/index!?!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com It would be boring!.!.!. There wouldn't be any difference to emotions!.!.!. therefore we couldn't know that we're happy, or sad!. Because that would have always been!.Www@QuestionHome@Com we would not know hardships and the bad things of the world!. we cannot know happiness until we know griefWww@QuestionHome@Com |