The media is constantly rubbing our faces in it. Suffering. The animals are all dieing. Seemingly everyone but us lucky Westerners are either working for pennies an hour, dieing of aids or being blasted away.

I am not really a well traveled person. I can't really say I know much of "non-Developed" countries.

I don't know much of nature other then we seem to be developing over everything.

Anyways, how much of the life here do you think is suffering?

I'd say about 75% of the planet

"Happiness is an illusion. Only suffering is real."

--Voltaire

I'd say about 75% of the planet

Really? That seems a little bit extreme. I wouldn't be able to justify my existence if it was that high.

I would maybe say 20-25% at most. Keep in mind its only the bad stuff that the media tells us.

20-25% at most.

I lol'd.

The same percentage of people forced to listen to god-awful teenage poetry...

OR

The total population of the third world + 35% of the second world + 5% of the first world / the total population * 100%



NOW DO THE MATH :D

MWAH XXXX

"100%"
---a Buddhist.

Really? That seems a little bit extreme. I wouldn't be able to justify my existence if it was that high.

I would maybe say 20-25% at most. Keep in mind its only the bad stuff that the media tells us.

AHAHAHA. Do you realize that a little more than half of the world lives on the equivalent of a dollar a day? Granted, that doesn't mean they're "suffering", in fact, recent studies have shown that happiness is actually higher in Third World countries, but speaking purely economically, basically everyone who isn't in the G8 or a beneficiary of an evil First-World-supported dictator in some drastically poor country.

"Happiness is an illusion. Only suffering is real."

--Voltaire

QFMFT

Happiness is merely an absence of pain.

Freud went into this real heavily.

"100%"
---a Buddhist.

Accuracy bonus.

I think EVERYONE suffers as we're ALL attached to things and experience sadness at their loss. However, people who live in Africa in small villages don't really know what it's like to live in a 2 floor house in the suburbs with running water and a fully stocked fridge, so how could they suffer from not knowing what it's like to have them? In fact, in my experience it's the people who are the most "impoverished" living in 3rd world countries that're the happiest...

When people in the developed world think of "suffering" they think of material suffering, but there are much worse kinds that we haven't been conditioned to think about because the capitalist system only spurs material, not mental or spiritual advancement.

When people in the developed world think of "suffering" they think of material suffering, but there are much worse kinds that we haven't been conditioned to think about because the capitalist system only spurs material, not mental or spiritual advancement.

I'm curious, just how mentally and spiritually advanced were those in the USSR? As you can see from the recent insurgency in Russia, the sheer volume of citizens striving to return to a communist state, my only assumption is that they were as mentally advanced as your common hussy.

I love it when 17 year old boys talk about this shit, you know nshanin is one of the richest motherfuckers on totse.

I'm curious, just how mentally and spiritually advanced were those in the USSR? As you can see from the recent insurgency in Russia, the sheer volume of citizens striving to return to a communist state, my only assumption is that they were as mentally advanced as your common hussy.
According to my parents and grandparents and some of my own vague recollections of the place, it was pretty advanced. Obviously you couldn't be very spiritually advanced in a society where secularism was essentially mandated, but the (by and large) freedom from need and possession allowed one to do what one chose and that created mental advancement.

You're only complacent when you're forced to live at a level that you can accept, and this was true for most in the USSR.

I love it when 17 year old boys talk about this shit, you know nshanin is one of the richest motherfuckers on totse.

I'm well-off but I wouldn't say I'm rich. I make $25 a week tutoring chemistry which is my weekly spending money, most of which I don't use. I also receive ~$2,000 a semester from the state, but that goes directly to savings. I live with my parents and attend a state university, so I'm in the top 5% of the world, but close to the bottom for an American college student. You should research further before you make such hasty judgments.

I'd say people in absolute poverty are suffering, those who are just poor are probably better off than most of the 'western' world.

lets get some numbers happening:

the estimates are about 12% of americans live under poverty at any given time.

80% of all people live with less than $10 a day, with half less than $2.50.

1 billion people (a sixth) have inadequate access to water, about half have no access to sanitation. 25% have no electricity.

these are raw numbers, and may not define suffering or poverty. living with $10 may be completely possible in very poor countries. the world bank (a massive dealer in death) has this to say:
"When estimating poverty worldwide, the same reference poverty line has to be used, and expressed in a common unit across countries. Therefore, for the purpose of global aggregation and comparison, the World Bank uses reference lines set at $1.25 and $2 per day (2005 Purchasing Power Parity terms).

Using improved price data from the latest (2005) round of the International Comparison Program, new poverty estimates released in August 2008 show that about 1.4 billion people in the developing world (one in four) were living on less than $1.25 a day in 2005"


so, it depends on how you define suffering. 80% of people live in a standard of living massively reduced from our own. owning a 'house' or a car and simple economic security is not a possibility. the loss of a job, or the death of a worker in a family usually has dire consequences for a family. it may not be suffering, but it sure as hell can't be fun.

a third to a quater of people are living in poverty, which means they do not have the ability to satisfy the basic elements required for sustained life. i would personally call that suffering.

i think a nice estimate would be that 50% of the world can be considered as suffering.

We need a more concrete definition of suffering if we are to try to solve this with a percentage.

Is it only people who suffer 24/7, from poverty?

Do people with disease who are otherwise genuinely happy suffering?

Is it those who are depressed on a daily basis?

100%.

http://i44.tinypic.com/106ha1t.jpg

What the fuck is suffering?

too much. but thats the way it is...theres always been suffering, and there always will be suffering...are you gonna dwell on it, act to change it, or just say fuck it and go back to youporn...? Does it really even matter in the big picture...no. then again, nothing matters using this existential logic. all that matters is your perception of what matters. Since everyones perceptions are--for the most part--very different, there can be no end to suffering of course...what one person believes he is right in doing, could cause suffering in someone else with a different view. The infinite possibility of thought is the core of the human being, as well as the curse of the human race.

Suffering? Hard to say.

Is someone who has a shitload of money, a beautiful life, but no dreams, aspirations or goals suffering? Is he happier than a person fighting for a cause they believe in, even if he knows he will probably die doing it? Or someone leaving everything behind, and going to a different part of the world to start his life anew? Or a poor person in a poor country, who knows that no matter how much he works or what he does, he will not change anything about his life? Does he not suffer on the same level as a rich person, who is going through a similar life of stagnation?

People, like you suffer....stop, rejoyce...stop complaining , and do something... you have a brain and probly in physical shape....change the world, it only takes a little orginization, and the cooperation of others....

too much. but thats the way it is...theres always been suffering, and there always will be suffering...are you gonna dwell on it, act to change it, or just say fuck it and go back to youporn...? Does it really even matter in the big picture...no. then again, nothing matters using this existential logic. all that matters is your perception of what matters. Since everyones perceptions are--for the most part--very different, there can be no end to suffering of course...what one person believes he is right in doing, could cause suffering in someone else with a different view. The infinite possibility of thought is the core of the human being, as well as the curse of the human race.
this.

100 %.

Whilst 99% are trapped in suffering a select few are engaged in spiritual consciousness and trying to escape suffering rather than euphemising it.

100 %.

Whilst 99% are trapped in suffering a select few are engaged in spiritual consciousness and trying to escape suffering rather than euphemising it.

pyschedelic revolution anybody?

Suffering is a state of mind. I'm not suffering, so I'm guessing that 100% isn't accurate. Living in poverty doesn't equal suffering though. It's all in your head whether you choose to suffer from your position in life.

People suffer as soon as they find permanent jobs so 75% isn't wrong but it's more around 25/75%