Wrong. They're deluded in to thinking that working hard for someone with a better job than them for the rest of their lives will eventually earn them enough money to stop working entirely and live happily. They work for a tomorrow that doesn't come until they're too old to do anything with it. They live their entire lives miserable and exhausted. Instead of spending their free time considering how meaningless their life is now, they numb themselves with alcohol, and television that keeps reminding them how good it is to own things, and how happy they must be that they can live like this. Then, when they're old and rich enough to retire, they realize that they've already missed their entire life, and are now incapable of doing any of the things that they really wanted to. They die unsatisfied and depressed.
I remember a really intelligent writer who said things quite similarly to you. He gave this speech to a graduating class of a top college in Africa, and it really made me wonder what to expect later on in life.
Well, he also killed himself later on.
I remember a really intelligent writer who said things quite similarly to you. He gave this speech to a graduating class of a top college in Africa, and it really made me wonder what to expect later on in life.
Well, he also killed himself later on.
That's the guy. I might have warped his words around a little bit cause its been quite some time since I last listened to his speech on a youtube link.
That's the guy. I might have warped his words around a little bit cause its been quite some time since I last listened to his speech on a youtube link.
"Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself on September 12, 2008. In an interview with The New York Times, Wallace's father reported that Wallace had suffered from depression for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive. When he experienced severe side effects from the medication, Wallace attempted to wean himself from his primary antidepressant, phenelzine. On his doctor's advice, Wallace stopped taking the medication in June 2007, and the depression returned. Wallace received other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy. When he returned to phenelzine, he found it had lost its effectiveness. In the months before his death, his depression became severe."
-Wikipedia
"Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself on September 12, 2008. In an interview with The New York Times, Wallace's father reported that Wallace had suffered from depression for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive. When he experienced severe side effects from the medication, Wallace attempted to wean himself from his primary antidepressant, phenelzine. On his doctor's advice, Wallace stopped taking the medication in June 2007, and the depression returned. Wallace received other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy. When he returned to phenelzine, he found it had lost its effectiveness. In the months before his death, his depression became severe."
-Wikipedia
Geez. I don't get how people should be depressed. They should be happy that they were given a chance to live life, yet they waste it by committing suicide. Life allows you to enjoy the world until you die an old man. But it's better to die an old man than to die young. Whether you are poor or your family gets killed, don't start thinking bad thoughts, because that will only make your situation worse. You still got a whole life ahead of you and you wouldn't want to waste it.
You don't seem to understand that depression isn't just the same as feeling sad. Depression can often be caused by neurotransmitters not working correctly, basically your brain is incapable of using the chemicals that cause you to feel happy.
Love
Personal fulfillment (whatever that may mean for each individual )
These things require money. Unfortunately acquiring money requires sacrifices. The trick is to either find the proper balance or distance yourself from society and live a self sustained life (for example the man who had been living alone with his wife in done isolated part of Alaska for the last 20 years. That was one happy guy)
They should be happy that they were given a chance to live life
Most people who suffer depression realize this as well. It doesn't change the way they feel, and that realization likely makes things even worse.
Imagine where you'd have to be in life to actually put a noose around your neck and kill yourself. You think that's a result of "thinking bad thoughts"? It's a real thing and it's terrible enough to make hanging yourself seem better than living through one more day. It's one thing to not be able to understand it, but criticizing them for "wasting" a life they don't want to live is pretty fucking disrespectful.
Criticizing a person with depression just makes them more depressed, instead you should talk to them and help them out. Me having gone through depression myself, I know that having people care about you and talk to you helps a whole lot