Discussion Pro-life as delusion

[CynicalHopelessness]

I think many of us here would agree that "happy" people are extremely rare, and pro-lifers are extremely common, so, mathematically, most prolifers would not be happy people.

My hypothesis is: being pro-life is just a coping mechanism for negative emotions.

If you postulate that "life is valuable, no matter what", that also means you as well. Since your life is already valuable, you are able to numb yourself to the fact that you're suffering and suppress it deep in your brain. Suicidal people are those who can't or won't delude themselves, so their awareness is at a higher level. I.e. we suffer the same, but we don't suppress our realization of what we experience.

People who lead less unhappy lives don't need to numb themselves as much. Therefore, somebody with an unfulfilling life would be an arrogant pro-lifer, but somebody with a somewhat decent one would at least be able to listen and think a bit about the topic, even if he still sees suicide as a horrid act. I've observed this in people whom I'd brought the topic of suicide with, that somebody who's at least content with their lives is able to think for a brief moment and consider options and freedoms, while somebody whose life is devoid of any joy would not say anything remotely logical.

You can probably see the parallel between this and prosecution of atheists in last millennia. I am quite confident the same factors of psychology were at play back then and are now.

 

[WhyIsLife56]

Even some suicidal people deny that life isn't all sunshine and rainbows. They seem to have hope or want to hope that things can get better.

 

[martha]

found this on Quora......

What was the most troubling thing you ever found in someone else's browsing history?

Dan Zap
Dan Zap
Answered before 7d


A very good friend had committed suicide.

At the time, we had lived in a shared apartment among three people.
Since he had not left a farewell letter and to find answers for the why for us, we also searched his computer.

There we discovered that he was on several forums dealing with relevant topics.

I still can't really explain why.
The fact that he had not left a farewell letter leaves you as a survivor only questioning.
Could you have helped? Could you have acted differently? Could you have recognized it? Would have ... Had ... Had ... So you only stand there with an accomplished fact and ask yourself questions that you never get an answer to.

I still don't understand it and will never understand suicides.

 

[SneekUponIt]

Depressive realism is a concept I loosely adhere to, being depressed or in a state of some kind of suffering for most of my life. Anxiety greets me sometimes when depression is subdued, usually by a medication or substance of some kind, but that very fact drives my belief in the concept even more.

Most people confuse tolerating existence with being happy is my best guess, although I don't have a 'happy' baseline to truly contend their insistence that depressed people see the world in a distorted way. I can say with utmost certainty for myself, if I have to trick my brain into being artificially happy with a medication or drug, then to me that is telling me that a chemical state of distraction is needed to buy into the idea that the world is a place where happiness isn't some rose coloured fantasy for the vast majority; though it could be a reality for a small minority.

If someone truly claims depressed people are deluded, I have an urge to get into a deep debate about this topic. I would like to ask these happy people why they need so much status, money, companionship, gadgets, etc. what is it about simple existence that doesn't make happiness spring forth naturally, or is the material just a way to buffer their lives and add to the happy that was always there? But then you have people that have more than an excess of status, money, companionship, gadgets, mansions, etc. who also commit suicide, so that also makes me wonder.

Maybe depressed people just can't be pacified by material comforts of any kind, so suicide is the rational and realistic response to not being able to escape the big picture. I never wanted a good life when I really think back, I wanted answers as to why everyone had taught me that the good life was good in the first place. I did want respect, not to be traumatized, etc, but I'm at a point I think it made my life up to this point more interesting. I have to admit, the amount of substances I've experimented with to function due to an unconscious sense of needing to belong and contribute to my society; some of them felt like they made me happy and they did make me functional for periods. Others were just a complete mindfuck, but also very interesting.

Hope this post didn't stray too much off topic

 

[Hypergang2018]

I don't believe life is inherently good or bad. Only perceptions of it exist. There are people who wish to live and those who do not. There is no one true opinion of life.

 

[TAW122]

Yes, I agree with you, pro-lifers are really just masking their own depression and oftenly when that veil of delusion, coping mechanism is disturbed (aka by bringing in depressive realism, or anything that goes against their precious beliefs), they become defensive, hostile, and aggressive. They not only want to shut the person down (censor, silence them, guilt them, etc.), but also impose and project their own view of how great life is onto the other person.

As far as religious persecution in the past, yes that is true and nowadays the persecution is set on those who don't agree with pro-lifers, which is sad. It is not only the religious that are pro-life, but also those who claim to be 'humanists' as well, meaning that they are pushing their pro-life agenda around and censoring, guilt-tripping, and even imposing their own morality of "life is great" towards the people who disagree. I encountered a few those people IRL and it was harrowing.

@SneekUponIt Good post and yes, most pro-lifers don't even bother to have an actual discussion with depressed people but are rather making it one-sided and even putting down the depressed person as being mentally ill, which only compounds things.

@Hypergang2018 yes, life is just an state of conscious existence that is involuntarily imposed on a being (animal, human, living thing). No one ever consented nor asked for life, but was imposed on at the beginning of their existence (from birth or conception).