Mama Smurf said:
Don't ignore all the other good points made that don't accuse you of judging us dude. I assure you, if there's one fact of life showing clearly in this thread, it's that feeling crappy is absolutely relative to your situation.
After all, going on what you say, people in the third world should never feel happy. After all, we have it so good that we can't feel bad. And relative to us, they have it much worst. I guess they'll never have a moments happiness.
I think there is a difference between our feelings and our actions. The poor man who is happy is happy because he appreciates something of the little that he has, however the rich man who complains is an entirely different situation. I never said thankfulness was limited to money and I wasn't arguing for us to feel equal to our status in the world, I was talking about the difference between thanksgiving and complaining. Though ultimately I see complaining as bad to some level, because even the poor man can be grateful that he lives (though being on the negative does not mean something is forbidden). However the ones on the bottom of the barrel just have SO much more right to complain, and perhaps they even should to expose the injustices that deny them basic human (and sometimes even animal) rights.
Or not. You're arguing against a basic human process that has been around forever, and will be around forever.
Not every basic human process is right or beneficial to the world around us. Clearly we see how murder is wrong, but it still happens all the time, does that mean we should forget about striving for better actions? Not complaining isn't near as bad as murder, but then I'm not even disallowing people to complain here, my purpose in posting this is not to try and control the actions of others and/or
make them stop complaining. My posts are a plead to good reason and moral conviction of the state of the world around us to strive for something better than complaining, that is all. If you disagree then you don't have to listen to me and you're free to do and say as you wish, but don't forget that I am too (well, so long as it isn't outright abusive in accordance to the forum rules).
I agree that just because something is the way it is doesn't mean we should try and change it, but unlike something like envoronentalism, there's no harm in people feeling down.
There is no harm in feeling down, but I think there may be an indirect harm in complaining. Our words direct our mindsets, and often times if we get complaining (especially in groups) we start to get in the mindset (even if non-explicitly) that we have right to more than we actually do. And time spent in self pity only worsens the original state that brought you to it because you are only dwelling on what is wrong rather than what can be done to improve it. Sometimes we can do things to change problems, other times all we can improve is our attitudes, overall though I think negative attitudes of complaint cause us to procrastinate in our constructive minds so that we forget how we can help to change the issues in life, epsecially the greater ones beyond us. It is always good to be thankful, because our thanksgiving indirectly exposes the needs of others, especially those being denied rights which they really do deserve. So if it's better, why not choose to do so rather than what is worse?
I gotta go to bed now as it's nearly 4am here, but I'll just say that to say this thread is stupid as you initially did was really harsh, given the people who have recently lost parents etc.
Actually I think the loss of a loved one is bad and in such a case you're perfectly justified in mourning. The love of our companions is a great equalizer between all people in the world.
-edited to address everything that was being said while I was busy typing-
