A game for 4 year olds

[Brinne]

I believe that, despite EW's moral, there's nothing in physics that precludes the possibility we might eventually remove suffering altogether - ultimately it's just resources and brain and body chemicals - but even if that was impossible, I reject the thesis the game has about pursuing perfection (at least on a societal, if not individual level) because I think it's worth continuously striving towards that future, Nibirun style, for its own sake. I do not believe it would make us lose all sense of meaning and kill ourselves. Cookingway is wrong and I will eat him.

Once again, (and to be clear, I'm chiming in on mostly agreement/throwing in my two cents!) the question of how we see certain coping mechanisms with the fundamental injustices of the world is completely different depending on if we're talking on an individual level or a societal level. There can be a certain beauty and nobility to a person interpreting the horrors of their experiences in a way that makes them into a better person or help them to continue to live through their pain (though it must be noted that as you observed, this is only one possibility amongst many, as just as if not more often, those experiences can also make them worse or more toxic.) And in terms of personal grief, everyone's journey is going to be different and valid and shouldn't be policed. However, on a larger societal level? I would say it's incredibly rare at best if the "suffering is just a necessary part of life and you must simply deal with it and actually, it's good and beautiful to endure suffering" ever winds up as more than manipulative rhetoric that exists to serve the interests of those already in power and discourage the "suffering" from thinking too hard about their situations and potentially rising up and affecting change.