Happiness and purpose in life isn't given freely. Happiness is purchased with blood and tears generated through struggle. What is so valuable about happiness that justifies its cost paid through suffering? If a candy bar cost $1000, nobody would spend days working to afford that single candy bar; it wouldn't be worth the cost. Why is happiness so valuable that any cost is deemed justifiable?When people say "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem", they are saying that you don't know the future, that you may be happy in the future, and that suicide prevents that from ever happening. In other words, the only way to guarantee that you will never be happy is to commit suicide. What stops you from turning that around? If the only way to guarantee that you will never be happy is to commit suicide, is it not correct to say that the only way to guarantee that you will never be unhappy is to commit suicide? Life requires suffering; death requires nothing. Life requires you to be uncomfortable, and to struggle, and to suffer in hopes that things might get better. Death requires nothing from you. How do you gain the desire and will to endure suffering in hopes that it will purchase happiness and fulfillment for yourself, and why should you? Does happiness live up to its asking price, or is it an overpriced commodity that's not worth the effort?
>>34817361>is it not correct to say that the only way to guarantee that you will never be unhappy is to commit suicide?No. The only precedent for the duration of consciousness is eternity. There is no rational reason to believe that your unhappiness will end when your life ends.>Does happiness live up to its asking price, or is it an overpriced commodity that's not worth the effort?Not only is it absolutely worth it in every sense, but the price is not actually that steep. The happiest men in history were all able to achieve it with very little. It didn't require money, status, fame, or debauchery of any kind. All it takes is introspection and wisdom. Everyone is capable of becoming happy as a consequence of their own thoughts. Nothing else can make a man happy, because nothing else is within a man's power to directly control.
>>34817361Just keep grinding to make as much money as possible to ease the pain of retirement as much as possible
>>34817361Striving for happiness in the way you have described us funneling the goal of happiness through a social convention. Happiness is available to you now.I guarantee you if you put on a movie and started playing Tetris you would feel happiness. Happiness comes from taking pleasure in learning, problem solving and relating.I it also comes from food and pussy and weed.None of that has to be a struggle.Everybody has a nigger job.
>>34817361Happiness is completely unattainable. You will always strive for more. Reject existence. Attain enlightenment.
What the fuck are you talking about?
>>34817406>There is no rational reason to believe that your unhappiness will end when your life ends.It's just as rational to believe your unhappiness will end when your life ends as it is to believe that it will continue. I'd argue that it's more rational because you already know what it is like to not exist, since you know what it was like before you were born, which was nothing. You experience nothingness every time you fall asleep. Nobody has experienced something outside of consciousness, but they have experienced nothing outside of it. >The happiest men in history were all able to achieve it with very little. In what sense did they have very little? Those who have little because they willingly gave up their belongings have done so with much effort. They struggle more than anybody else and they do it willingly because they believe it will lead to something better. It takes an enormous willingness to struggle to give up that which is meant to provide relief from their struggles. People who are happy with very little are only happy because they believe that happiness is worth its asking price.>Everyone is capable of becoming happy as a consequence of their own thoughts. Nothing else can make a man happy, because nothing else is within a man's power to directly control.Is it within your power to directly control your own thoughts? I really don't see how that's the case.
>>34817539>It's just as rational to believe your unhappiness will end when your life ends as it is to believe that it will continue.It isn't, because nothing in existence has ever just disappeared. When something is destroyed, it's broken down into its constituent parts. Matter and energy are never lost, so nothing that currently exists can truly cease to exist. Logic sets the precedent that consciousness must go on, it can't just end for the same reason nothing else in existence can simply go away. It's as axiomatic of a truth as the fact that something cannot be created from nothing.>In what sense did they have very little?They had very little worldly treasures, but what they had instead were spiritual treasures. That's why they were happy, they found their well-being in something that wasn't subject to misfortune or loss. It does involve work, but it's not unhappy or grueling work. It's immensely rewarding.>Is it within your power to directly control your own thoughts? I really don't see how that's the case.Of course. No one else gets to decide what you assent to as true or reject as false. Your own beliefs and thoughts are entirely under your own power. Questioning whether or not you get to control what you question is as fruitless as questioning whether or not you exist. In order to even ask that question, you're already affirming that it's true.
