The Joy of Despair, con't

The point of feeling despair is not to just roll-over and die. That is not helpful. It doesn't aid the biological imperatives at the bottom of Maslow's Hierarchy. It doesn't help you eat or mate. So what is the point? Why would we feel this?

Counterintuitively, without despair, we would never find motivation to find a greater purpose in life -- to extend ourselves beyond our own selfish wants and desires. How does that work?

One will not try to escape from prison unless one knows they are in prison. What is the prison we are talking about? Selfishness.

As long as we are focused on our own selfish needs, we will never amount to anything. Ultimately, despair has the potential to force us out of our shell. By slamming into the hopelessness of achieving happiness for oneself in the long run (because you will slowly or quickly lose everything until you die), one is forced to focus elsewhere -- on the helping others achieve their goals. One's own selfish goals are limited and ultimately doomed to fail, whereas others and their needs are practically limitless. Only by working for others do we achieve greatness. Despair shows us the door.

Conflict Group Project Conflict

Okay, so far this hasn't been fun. This is where my "fish out of water" status is making things difficult. Our couldn't agree on a topic. It was clear that the conflict concerns of young people are not shared by me, nor are my interests shared by them.

Also, I know I'm more serious about taking a class and getting something out of it. When I was their age, that certainly was not the case.

My argument is that economic conflicts are such a root issue, it needs to be examined. It is key to relationship conflicts, racial and class conflicts, career conflicts and more.

There is an interesting sign/symbol conflict about money that I ran across in my own life. I have a friend from college who is a trust slug. He's never really had to worry about money. I, on the other hand, have always struggled with meager means. We worry about it in very different ways. Then one day, it struck me:

To him, money was a symbol of security. For me, it is a symbol of freedom. I want freedom and don't worry so much about security. He's the opposite. How cool is that? Same object, completely different meanings.