Has anyone ever comtemplated suicide for this reason?

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Coming to the conclusion that humans are selfish, irrational beings, and unconditional and true love can't be found in this world, thus life isn't really worth it?

I struggle with this.

yup. Ive often thought that im not "sick minded" enough to make it in this world. On the other hand, ive had to live with the shame of something i did when i was 13 that was pretty foul.

Sort of. More like that human beings aren't able/capable of helping, and instead appear very stupid going around doing stuff I can't understand.(selfish/irrational)

Guys, maybe some book by Victor Frankl could help
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl#Bibliography
Changing world, that's quite a big piece of cake for one man. Don't try to eat it all. Pick some cherries first. I have plenty of experience with this and as you see, I live. And only because I understood, that every path consists of many little steps. Don't care about the destination, just do the steps.

Too many times. And I still struggle with it, though not as badly as I used to. Human nature is just f*****g awful.

Yes, yet for some reason I still have it in my head it does not have to be that way.......but I'm just a naive idiot.

Does that apply to all humans or just some?

ruveyn

The purpose and challenge of this life, IMO, is not to find the best qualities in others but to find them in oneself.

I never thought that suicide was ever a solution to anything, so 'No' to your first question.

Even though humans are selfish, irrational, and incapable of unconditional love, life is still worth living since those same humans can be exploited for one's own personal gain.

Not really. Being selfish is a natural reflection of the humans more likely to survive having stronger self-interests. Irrational is a given since human beings are not computers. Thirdly, isn't the concept of unconditional love both selfish and irrational?

Not for the reason(s) you give, no.

There's a lot of kindness out there. It just doesn't stand out so much. Sort of related - watch the news, and it's likely bad news. This is because stuff working out how most people expect isn't newsworthy. Even - hell, especially - the most cynical rely unknowingly on an essential decency of most people.

How are people at large irrational? I mean, people across the board and around the world do stuff I don't see the appeal in, but I don't think them irrational.

Unconditional love is very difficult, but not impossible - all I'd say there is start with it yourself.

Find anything that gives you happiness and follow it (within the bounds of, you know, law and decency and such!).

Stop watching/reading the news for a while. Your view of humanity will significantly improve.

I'd say it applies to most. Maybe two thirds to three quarters of people, maybe even as high as eighty percent.

I'm not an angel, I'm not saying I'm great. I can be pretty f*cking selfish, but I do try to love unconditionally. Not even just my family, I try to love all humans unconditionally. That's not to say I don't dislike some people and I might even hate someone if they wronged me enough, but I will always try to love everyone including my enemies as much as I can. Most people seem to harbour and even take pride in their hate. Going to the Rainbow Gathering and seeing the utter lack of unconditional love and all the anger at an event held by a subculture that's all about unconditional love was pretty depressing.

But if humans are ultimately only interested in self-preservation, than maybe it's not worth it and I should just be a recluse and live in dreams.

I think most people are pretty decent in the sense they're generally harmless. I mean, walking down the street, at least here in Oregon, I rarely fear for my safety or sense malice in the air, though put me in downtown Buffalo, NY and it's a different story. But I don't think most people are really that loving, maybe to their families but it's so easy to love your family since they're basically half you genetically.

To me a good person is someone who cares about their friends and even about strangers. I admit I didn't really care about 9/11 and the Indonesian tsunami that much because they happened so far away from where I live and honestly most people who claim to, unless they were personally effected, probably don't care much either but are just afraid to admit it. Or if there care about 9/11, it's because they're patriotic and see it as an attack against all Americans and perceive themselves as victims while I always saw 9/11 as being an unfortunate thing that happened to people 2500 miles away, not to 'America'. But then again maybe I'm too emotionally damaged/numb to really be that compassionate. But I do care about people who die in such events, at least in principle even if I don't feel their pain empathetically.

I think the fact people tend to react more strongly to negativity is because humans have a mean streak. Bad news appeals to people for two reasons: for one it's like a train wreck and it allures people even if it disgusts them, and for two people can derive a smug satisfaction that they aren't as bad as Anders Brievik or James Holmes, and they can voice their vengeful violent fantasies towards them without being judged. Good news like people saving puppies might make some people say 'awww' but it doesn't sell nearly as well.

With that said I don't think humans are evil at all, just um, I don't know, most people don't really care about humanity, just them, their family and their stuff and basically to hell with everything else.

Last edited by donnie_darko on 12 Sep 2012, 11:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

What wears me out the most is family members saying that they love me/feel for me/ wish they could help me/ would do anything to help me/ would be willing to die for me but when I actually beg them for help they say no and tell me to stop being an ungratful and selfish brat.

But I don't want to be loved by myself, I want to be loved by a beautiful woman. That's all I ask really. Oh yeah and for a job I don't hate and maybe to make a positive influence on the world. =]

Because you can love yourself, that's great and stuff, but you're still lonely in the end. I think this 'love yourself' crap is pretty stupid in some ways anyways. This idea that #1 is all that matters, it's like promoting narcissism, not that you couldn't have high self-esteem but I don't really believe that loving yourself is essential to loving others.