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I'm paralyzed.
My eyelids are half-way open, I can't lower nor raise them.
I can't move my neck, nor my hands, nor my legs.
Sitting in the wheelchair in the first floor, I hear noises from the upstairs bedroom.
My wife is having an affair, again.
I hear her lover suggest they do it in front of me.
Horrorstruck, I hear footsteps coming down the stairs.
I see anything. I can't close my eyes. I hear my wife moaning in ecstasy...
Waking up, feeling utterly depressed, I realize I have overslept.
It's still dark outside, and there's icy rain. It then strikes me, that i forgot to restock on coffee.
Annoyed and gloomy, I go to the shower, just to notice there's not hot water.
Instead of feeling relieve that I'm healthy, that I don't know what hunger is, that I live in a prosperous country, that I have not seen the horrors of war, of famine, of real sickness or pain, I simply feel badly for myself, although, in comparison, I'm pretty well of.
I hear people bitching about low cellphone reception, about "horrendous" gas prices, about not being able to see some retarded program on TV and I realize that I'm not even a little better.
We are upset when miracles of technology don't quite work the well we want them to.
Miracles, to whose development we have nothing contributed.
We moan and bitch and complain all day, we're never satisfied, we are just miserable without any reason.
Why can't we appreciate all the amazing things around us?
Why aren't we constantly cheerful that we are witness to miraculous technology, an unequal standard of life, prosperity and liberty which represent the culmination of millenia of human development?
I don't get it.
 
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Is it a paradox to think that the shallowness in which we live when we complain about problems such as these as though they were all-encompassing, is a true problem-- a problem as deep as lacking food? Are we starving, but for depth and colour and meaning to life instead of for food?
I think the world is beautiful, but not because of technology or liberties or abundance of food, but because of some inherent meaning to things that are shared with others or some inherent meaning that things have to me...
I guess I can understand people complaining about their cell phone and it being important to them and meaningful in some way a real problem, but I can understand people being superficial about it too-- I can't decide which is which for others though, I can only decide for myself if something is inherently meaningful or not to me.
I'm ranting a bit. its late. goodnight all.
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United Kingdom14464 Posts
I feel like an explanation is customary.
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There is more to this thread than meets the eye.
I am waiting.
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go watch the new tron movie in blueray, then you'll get it.
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Very interesting.
Didn't expect the content, but glad I read it.
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FREEAGLELAND26781 Posts
Theoretically, since Earth is the planet from the sun all inhabitants of Earth would experience... third world problems.
I kid.
On a more serious note, what you described is akin to the line of thinking I keep going back to day after day. My parents were born back when China was... dirt poor and quite third world. "Classic" Chinese success story later, and they're in America. When I reflect upon what I know about that, I can't find it in me to complain about trivialities.
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On a tangent, the definitions for third world countries is outdated and actually classifies many nations that would surprise numerous people as third world countries whilst the majority would consider the society to be generally affluent!
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I'm going to approach this as a literary piece because I like literary pieces.
You seemed to lose focus part-way through the piece. The first bit was unexpected, well thought-out, and very well written I think. After that, though, it sort of just dissolves into this ethereal reflection, which, quite frankly, has been pattered through by a lot of other people in the past.
I think there's a lot of potential in a piece like this-- it's good-- it just needs to maintain focus.
There are also some grammatical and spelling mistakes in there.
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Well I don't know about you but I don't get irritated, mad or upset at first world problems for exactly that reason. Maybe you should train yourself to stop caring about them too. It's something my mum taught me from a v young age.
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There is nothing like pleasant ambivalence so early in the morning!
I feel your war dude
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I don't really understand this "first world problem" argument. So because people are worse off than me I musn't complain about the problems in my life. What? But the argument goes both ways. There are also people who are way better off than me, so I am pretty much forced to complain or how does that work.
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There is always going to be someone out there who happens to be much worse off than you but because they can appreciate everything in their life, they are actually happier than you.
Happiness is a funny thing. Many things in life that you think will make you happy might turn out to be overrated. On the other hand, things that you thought you would be upset about can actually bring you much happiness, or at least some strange peace of mind.
In essence it is human nature to just keep wanting more. We have money and luxuries and conveniences and all these great things but somewhere inside of us we just want more all the time. You can see a homeless person on the street but that doesn't always change your idea that your life is so terrible.
Let's say you win the lottery tomorrow. You buy a new car, a mansion, whatever you want to buy, but after a while you get used to these things and you just need more money to fuel your addiction...this addiction of wanting...of being human.
Happiness is not a function of how much you have, but it depends on how much you can take what you have and use it for your own happiness. In the end, since you will always want more stuff, how happy you are does not depend on your possessions but on the ability to be happy with your life. If you have more it won't necessarily make you happy; happiness is a state of mind.
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EPT
