The title it's very Heavy Metal. And it's unsubtle, and only sort of accurate, but sort of is a starting place.
Evolution happens because of adaptation over time. Adaptations are prompted by discomfort, of which pain is a great one. Entire species have been changed over time because something hurt, and they changed behavior to avoid that pain, until it changed them down to the neurology and physiology.
They adapted to avoid hurting.
In the modern world, especially in the US, but anywhere that money can stave off nature, we have stopped evolving for the most part. We don't have to hurt for very long at all. Success is measured not only by the ability to hurt as little as possible, but to feel good. This is an evolutionary cul-de-sac; it serves no benefit for the species, and convinces successful individuals that there are answers in feeling good. They are no longer advancing, challenging themselves.
A simplistic example: how many successful musical acts only have one or two outstanding albums, before their work starts to seem trite, boring, and uninspired? Once the comfort level rises the need to excel is dulled; there's no pain or discomfort to escape.
We are surround by distractions from our discomfort, from unscripted TV shows, to a drive to buy everything all the time, to culturally ingrained notion that finding the right person will fix you. We're taught that it's good and right to feel good, and that there are no higher goals. We're taught to believe that discomfort of any type is something eradicate, medicate, and distract from.
There is no emphasis on discovering why the discomfort happened. There is no belief in finding our own part in our own suffering as a way to prevent further.
There is a whole industry that purports to promote self-examination as a way to improve, but usually the answers provided state that someone else is at fault, and that whatever we were doing was fine; the problem was someone else not letting us do what we wanted.
Bullshit. If you were stifled, as an adult, what in you led you to be so? Would it not be better to find out why you got there, and not go there again? Would it not actually improve your ability to make decisions if you were able to understand yourself?
People want to believe they're okay, even if patterns clearly demonstrate they are nothing of the kind. If someone, or some movie, or some book tells them that feeling good is an end in and of itself, then that's what they pursue. How many millions of people are walking around drinking excessively, bed jumping, buying endless shit, or trying to find someone who doesn't criticize them no matter they do, and thinking they have answers? How many people are there that at the slightest discomfort even just turn on the tv? Or find a new lover?
They treat pain as though it's a distraction.
What if the pain was really a symptom that something needed to change? Y'know, like it is in ALL THE OTHER ANIMALS.
I hurt a lot right now. Not most of the time now, but enough that I get nearly full time hours. It's a pain that is beyond anything I've experienced, even the death of people close to me. It will be a long time before I feel good. I hate that fact, but I accept it. While I hurt I will find out the whys, and know how to avoid this hurt again.
I will not have anesthetic, either chemical, or human; I know chemical doesn't work, and I don't have it in me to use anyone else now.
I also know that, when in extreme pain, the sudden absence of pain can seem like so something much more important and fulfilling. It's something that I could mistake for having answers if I pursued it. It's what I did when I was young, when I was 20 and trying to fill the void in me with girls, psychedelics, and swagger. It doesn't work. I still have all the same problems; they are now worse, and too dangerous to ignore.
I hurt. Thank Murphy. I will have real answers. I will adapt. I will evolve.
Evolution happens because of adaptation over time. Adaptations are prompted by discomfort, of which pain is a great one. Entire species have been changed over time because something hurt, and they changed behavior to avoid that pain, until it changed them down to the neurology and physiology.
They adapted to avoid hurting.
In the modern world, especially in the US, but anywhere that money can stave off nature, we have stopped evolving for the most part. We don't have to hurt for very long at all. Success is measured not only by the ability to hurt as little as possible, but to feel good. This is an evolutionary cul-de-sac; it serves no benefit for the species, and convinces successful individuals that there are answers in feeling good. They are no longer advancing, challenging themselves.
A simplistic example: how many successful musical acts only have one or two outstanding albums, before their work starts to seem trite, boring, and uninspired? Once the comfort level rises the need to excel is dulled; there's no pain or discomfort to escape.
We are surround by distractions from our discomfort, from unscripted TV shows, to a drive to buy everything all the time, to culturally ingrained notion that finding the right person will fix you. We're taught that it's good and right to feel good, and that there are no higher goals. We're taught to believe that discomfort of any type is something eradicate, medicate, and distract from.
There is no emphasis on discovering why the discomfort happened. There is no belief in finding our own part in our own suffering as a way to prevent further.
There is a whole industry that purports to promote self-examination as a way to improve, but usually the answers provided state that someone else is at fault, and that whatever we were doing was fine; the problem was someone else not letting us do what we wanted.
Bullshit. If you were stifled, as an adult, what in you led you to be so? Would it not be better to find out why you got there, and not go there again? Would it not actually improve your ability to make decisions if you were able to understand yourself?
People want to believe they're okay, even if patterns clearly demonstrate they are nothing of the kind. If someone, or some movie, or some book tells them that feeling good is an end in and of itself, then that's what they pursue. How many millions of people are walking around drinking excessively, bed jumping, buying endless shit, or trying to find someone who doesn't criticize them no matter they do, and thinking they have answers? How many people are there that at the slightest discomfort even just turn on the tv? Or find a new lover?
They treat pain as though it's a distraction.
What if the pain was really a symptom that something needed to change? Y'know, like it is in ALL THE OTHER ANIMALS.
I hurt a lot right now. Not most of the time now, but enough that I get nearly full time hours. It's a pain that is beyond anything I've experienced, even the death of people close to me. It will be a long time before I feel good. I hate that fact, but I accept it. While I hurt I will find out the whys, and know how to avoid this hurt again.
I will not have anesthetic, either chemical, or human; I know chemical doesn't work, and I don't have it in me to use anyone else now.
I also know that, when in extreme pain, the sudden absence of pain can seem like so something much more important and fulfilling. It's something that I could mistake for having answers if I pursued it. It's what I did when I was young, when I was 20 and trying to fill the void in me with girls, psychedelics, and swagger. It doesn't work. I still have all the same problems; they are now worse, and too dangerous to ignore.
I hurt. Thank Murphy. I will have real answers. I will adapt. I will evolve.
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