Darkover
Archangel
- Jul 29, 2021
- 5,573
The only true guarantees in life are suffering, decay, and death. Everything else—joy, meaning, security—is conditional, fleeting, or illusory.
All life begins in need. From the moment a living being is born, it is dependent on external resources to survive—food, shelter, warmth, safety, love. This constant dependence guarantees vulnerability.
Hunger, thirst, disease, injury, emotional pain, loneliness, confusion—these are not rare exceptions but common conditions experienced by most creatures, especially humans. Suffering is therefore not a bug in the system, but a core feature of being alive.
Even in moments of comfort, there's the underlying anxiety that it will not last. Security is always provisional. This makes even peace fragile and poisoned by anticipation of its end.
No matter how advanced we become, everything degrades over time. Entropy is an unavoidable physical law—energy disperses, structures break down, and order always slides toward disorder.
From the breakdown of our cells to the rusting of machines to the collapse of civilizations, everything we build—externally or internally—is temporary. Even love fades, memory falters, and meaning corrodes under the pressure of time.
There is no way to preserve anything forever, not even oneself.
Death is the one event no being escapes. It invalidates the permanence of any achievement, relationship, or moment of joy. You can accumulate wealth, love, or meaning—but in the end, they vanish as you do.
Every connection ends in separation. Every body fails. No technology, no faith, no willpower can change this fact. This is not nihilism; it is empirical observation.
People may argue that life also contains joy, love, and beauty. While true, these are not guarantees. They are conditional—dependent on environment, health, circumstance, support systems, and often sheer luck. Billions never get a fair chance at those things. Some suffer from birth to death without ever experiencing safety or joy.
Worse, many of the "good" parts of life require harm to others: eating life to survive, competing for limited resources, or benefiting from unjust systems. There is no universally ethical or safe path through life—only varying degrees of complicity and survival.
Objection: "But life has meaning, joy, and beauty!"
Response: Yes, some lives contain those things—sometimes. But they are not guaranteed, nor evenly distributed. What is guaranteed is that even the best lives still end in death, experience pain, and decay over time.
Objection: "Suffering makes us stronger or gives life meaning."
Response: This is a coping mechanism, not an absolute truth. Some people are strengthened by suffering; others are destroyed. Suffering does not inherently ennoble—it more often traumatizes and isolates. Any "meaning" derived is something we invent after the fact to endure it—not something intrinsic.
Objection: "But you can choose how to respond."
Response: Even that choice depends on brain chemistry, upbringing, trauma, and support—none of which are within one's control. Freedom of response is real, but limited and often inaccessible to those most deeply harmed.
Life does not promise fulfillment, safety, or happiness. It only ensures suffering, decay, and death. Everything else is a fragile possibility at best, or a privilege reserved for the fortunate few. To state otherwise is either denial, delusion, or ignorance of the sheer randomness and brutality of existence.
All life begins in need. From the moment a living being is born, it is dependent on external resources to survive—food, shelter, warmth, safety, love. This constant dependence guarantees vulnerability.
Hunger, thirst, disease, injury, emotional pain, loneliness, confusion—these are not rare exceptions but common conditions experienced by most creatures, especially humans. Suffering is therefore not a bug in the system, but a core feature of being alive.
Even in moments of comfort, there's the underlying anxiety that it will not last. Security is always provisional. This makes even peace fragile and poisoned by anticipation of its end.
No matter how advanced we become, everything degrades over time. Entropy is an unavoidable physical law—energy disperses, structures break down, and order always slides toward disorder.
From the breakdown of our cells to the rusting of machines to the collapse of civilizations, everything we build—externally or internally—is temporary. Even love fades, memory falters, and meaning corrodes under the pressure of time.
There is no way to preserve anything forever, not even oneself.
Death is the one event no being escapes. It invalidates the permanence of any achievement, relationship, or moment of joy. You can accumulate wealth, love, or meaning—but in the end, they vanish as you do.
Every connection ends in separation. Every body fails. No technology, no faith, no willpower can change this fact. This is not nihilism; it is empirical observation.
People may argue that life also contains joy, love, and beauty. While true, these are not guarantees. They are conditional—dependent on environment, health, circumstance, support systems, and often sheer luck. Billions never get a fair chance at those things. Some suffer from birth to death without ever experiencing safety or joy.
Worse, many of the "good" parts of life require harm to others: eating life to survive, competing for limited resources, or benefiting from unjust systems. There is no universally ethical or safe path through life—only varying degrees of complicity and survival.
Objection: "But life has meaning, joy, and beauty!"
Response: Yes, some lives contain those things—sometimes. But they are not guaranteed, nor evenly distributed. What is guaranteed is that even the best lives still end in death, experience pain, and decay over time.
Objection: "Suffering makes us stronger or gives life meaning."
Response: This is a coping mechanism, not an absolute truth. Some people are strengthened by suffering; others are destroyed. Suffering does not inherently ennoble—it more often traumatizes and isolates. Any "meaning" derived is something we invent after the fact to endure it—not something intrinsic.
Objection: "But you can choose how to respond."
Response: Even that choice depends on brain chemistry, upbringing, trauma, and support—none of which are within one's control. Freedom of response is real, but limited and often inaccessible to those most deeply harmed.
Life does not promise fulfillment, safety, or happiness. It only ensures suffering, decay, and death. Everything else is a fragile possibility at best, or a privilege reserved for the fortunate few. To state otherwise is either denial, delusion, or ignorance of the sheer randomness and brutality of existence.
