Is the World Cruel?

Ree Zen

The world is not all cruel. The world contains teddy bears and fluffy stuff. But there are also real bears that would rip your lights out. But that's not the bear's fault. It is just trying to survive. And when I think about what I do when I get hungry, I'm really no less savage. For the big football game today, I may have 20 chicken wings. That is 10 chickens that I will indirectly destroy, and not consume most of them. As I write this, I definitely feel guilty, but I know I will find a way to turn a blind eye on this reality and just enjoy my wings.

I will begin today's justifications by reiterating the deterministic quandary I find myself in. I'm a DNA based organism that is required to consume other DNA to live. Amongst the DNA molecules I need, some essentials can be acquired and consumed from the bodies of other DNA organisms. In fact, consuming these can be more efficient for me and releases pleasure feeling to my consciousness.

I can become a vegan, but I would have to damage other DNA based organisms to survive anyways. And I'm not alone. The earth is filled with living organisms preying on one another to survive. All of them must. Is this system based on cruelty, or is cruelty a silly notion that melodramatic humans make up? Is there something else at play?

Down The Rabbit Hole

↪Ree Zen

The other DNA based organisms don't have nerves and brains which are responsible for the transfer and experience of suffering. In any event, more plants are fed to the animals you eat than you would eat directly.

At least you're feeling guilty about it. Most people go straight to rationalisation.

Andrew4Handel

I think life makes us face a suicide dilemma. I am in it myself at the moment. Do I want to experience more of this? Apparently I didn't choose to come into existence then I have to decide how I feel about endorsing existence and it's continuation.

Definitely a cruel dilemma I would say.

Andrew4Handel

I would say judging nature to be harmful would be factual and irrefutable. This is one reason I am opposed to vegetarianism and veganism. It portrays humans as an anomaly in nature. Don't feel guilty about being human. You didn't choose it. Many religions have popped up to try and justify the human angst about their condition.

Tom Storm

I can become a vegan, but I would have to damage other DNA based organisms to survive anyways. And I'm not alone. The earth is filled with living organisms preying on one another to survive. All of them must. Is this system based on cruelty, or is cruelty a silly notion that melodramatic humans make up? Is there something else at play? — Ree Zen

Nature does what it does. It is human beings who ascribe values. From some points of view nature could be understood as cruel and violent. As meaning making creatures with an indefatigable drive to build meaning systems and values, humans will always find a way to see in nature a justification for nihilism, social-Darwinism, or evidence of God's glory.

javi2541997

Is this system based on cruelty, or is cruelty a silly notion that melodramatic humans make up? Is there something else at play? — Ree Zen

I would not say if "cruel" is the exact but "selfishness". The humans, in their period of progress and evolution, made a lot decisions destroying others just to improve their lives.
We tend to be dangerous, yes. But I guess we are "cruel" when all those enjoy making harm to others.
I think you do not need to feel "cruel" just because you eat animals, you are human and that's our necessities. Do not get into the fake thought of "feeling better because I am vegan and I am not eat animal or species"

180 Proof

↪Tom Storm

:up:

"The world seems cruel" only to those who absurdly expect the world to care for them.

Experience teaches us that the world is not a nursery. — Sigmund Freud

Play the cards you're dealt as well as you're able until you have to fold 'em.

theRiddler

It's greed/lack of imagination. It is cruel, if not malicious. The people at the top just want more and more money, influence, and prestige. People at the bottom work their way up for the same cause: MORE money. The richest are all born into wealth. They say they're "job creators," as though it's charitable to enslave millions to make all this "wealth" that is polluting the planet. In order to succeed, you must have greed.

Agent Smith

Internet meme on life stages:
1. Birth
2. What the hell is this?
3. Death

:rofl:

Ever wonder about the fact that some people can't, literally and figuratively, afford laughter! I know I can't, but I'm one of those guys who live well beyond their means. Call me a fool if you will!

Thanks to almighty god, I've been so preoccupied about getting out of holes I dug myself into, I haven't had time for the luxury of being cruel. Even then, I was mean to some. I sometimes feel, contrary to the problem of evil, that there's too less of suffering in the world. We seem content enough to be cruel to each other.

Judaka

↪Ree Zen

The world can't be cruel, you can only tell us it is.

What I would say is that the "world" or "life" are too big, too much is going on, our focus skews things too greatly. But I would say that if aliens came to Earth and treated us, humans, like we treat any other species, we'd call them monsters. Our morality is super convenient and allows us to act with great cruelty. I don't think many humans are motivated by cruelty, we just don't really care that much. Just like you with your chicken wings, you don't want a massive network of chicken slaughterhouses committing unspeakable cruelties on these animals year in year out, but you also want your chicken wings, and the latter is more important. I'd say that's kind of evil, we're evil ^o^.

Tim3003

Cruelty as a term cant be applied to the world. It applies to an act: an act is cruel if it is needlessly and vindictively harmful. Cruelty is perpetrated knowingly by an individual with moral choice; so it cant apply to animals, only us humans..

I have to admit this puts us meat-eaters in a dodgy place. Is it cruel to kill and eat animals if it's not necessary? You could however argue that if the animal is well-cared for and humanely killed there is no cruelty involved..

Ree Zen

You could however argue that if the animal is well-cared for and humanely killed there is no cruelty involved — Tim3003

My preference would be that the animal was well cared for and died of old age. I'm not a rancher, so I don't have access to animals that died of old age. As I understand it, older animal meat is not as tender as younger animal meat. Some people also say that younger animal meat tastes better. I'm willing to try eating only older animal meat if I could find a good source. But its kinda rough that out pallets crave not just meat, but younger meat: Veal, lamb, and baby back pork ribs. Lobsters are theorized to be immortal, but we kill them regularly.

But we can also take a step back and say that what we think is morality is just a social construct- but maybe it is more than that

Apparently I didn't choose to come into existence then I have to decide how I feel about endorsing existence and it's continuation. — Andrew4Handel

This world has good and bad. If you find enough good, it is worth a little bad.
When I die, I will become plant food, and the plant will become animal food. But the fact that we have the time to bullshit with each other in this forum is proof that its not all bad: and this existence is better than nothing.

Play the cards you're dealt as well as you're able until you have to fold 'em. — 180 Proof

- well put.

Is the World Cruel?

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