Crushing others for an ephemeral happiness

There is hardly any pleasure in life that doesn’t come at the cost of pain/suffering or deprivation of others (remember “deprivation” is also a kind of suffering because wishing/wanting/desiring something yet not getting it brings frustration/disappointment/sadness). Almost all pleasures cause suffering to others. Let’s see a few examples.

Both A & B love/like C but C is interested in B only. So, both B & C’s pleasure will come at the cost of deprivation(suffering/pain) of A only.

Someone else must win a silver or bronze medal in Olympics for someone to win a gold medal. Not to forget that except for 3 people ALL other participants won’t even be able to win ANY medal at all, LET ALONE gold or silver.

For someone to get his/her desired/favorite university/college many others must be thrown out of the list/race simply because there are always many more applications than vacancies or seats.

For someone to get his/her desired/favorite job in the chosen/favorite company many others must be thrown out of the competition. AGAIN, simply because there are always many more applications than vacancies or seats.

You go to buy something to shop A instead of shop B. So, the income (pleasure) of the owner of shop A comes at the cost of deprivation (suffering/loss) of shop B.

For any book to hit or super hit as a best seller many other books must fail or be a flop because people are not going to waste their money & time.

For someone to become rich so many other people must become poor or middle-class. Because it’s technically literally impossible for all people to become rich simultaneously. No economy can work that way.

Any football team’s win must come at the cost of loss/defeat of the opposing team only. Simply because it’s technically impossible for both teams to win simultaneously.

For a few/some students to come into merit or distinction list many other students must fail or at least should get fewer marks in the examination. Simply because it’s technically impossible for all students to come into merit or distinction list.

Materialistic progress/development must come at the cost of the destruction of the environment and animals.

The total population on the earth 100 years ago was only around 1 billion. And average life expectancy was also around 30 to 35 years only. But there were no cures for many diseases. Now we have found many cures for many diseases, but the population has increased so much therefore, suffering also increased much more. In other words, it really didn’t make any/much difference between how was the situation 100 years ago and now.

Thus, there is hardly any pleasure in this world that doesn’t come at the cost of or involve suffering/pain/deprivation of others.

If a “truly” altruistic/selfless man decided to live a “truly” altruistic/selfless life he will have to give up/sacrifice most pleasures of life. Thus, his life will become more miserable (so it means AGAIN someone’s pleasure at the cost of suffering/pain/deprivation of someone else). There is really no escape from this cycle or loop.

It’s just like the basic scientific theory/law about energy that we all learned in our schools “energy neither can be created nor can be destroyed. It can only be converted from one form into another, while the total energy in the universe always remains intact.”

So similarly, suffering can neither be ended fully (except in the state of total extinction) nor can it be reduced. It can only be transferred from one person to another, while the total amount of suffering always remains intact in the universe.

Although it’s quite possible to see “seemingly/apparently/outwardly” that the lives of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or Shakira contain much less suffering relatively/comparatively, their suffering is “actually, in fact”, transferred to millions/billions of others. The total amount of suffering in the universe always remains as it is. It doesn’t go anywhere. It’s only “transferred” from one person to another.

As David Benatar says, “A charmed life is so rare that for everyone such life there are millions of wretched lives.”

Obviously, needless to say, such charmed lives’ must come at the cost of the wretchedness of millions/billions of others’ lives. And even those living such charmed lives eventually will fall apart with the abyss of emptiness.