Discussion Weakness

[Why you?]

I was talking to my mom like 10 minutes ago about books as we both like to read. Are conversation led to books like 'All The Bright Places' and 'I Was Here,' which are all books teenagers who commit suicide. She asked me, "Do you know why these kind of books are becoming popular? Because your generation is weak." Those were her exact words. After that she continued saying how her life was also tough and one day she would tell me her whole story, but that's besides the point.
People who want to kill themselves are weak.
I. Am. Weak.
I know I shouldn't really listen to her, but I completely believe her. She says that you have to convince yourself you can, and I can't do that no matter how hard I try.
But on the other hand, she read a book from a suicidal person's POV and she still doesn't understand. So, even though I don't want to, my mind is inclined towards believing her

Also, isn't it weird how your parents can always hurt you??

 

[Santiago]

I agree with her that our generation (I am 22) is weak.

I don't think suicidal people are weak.

Two different things although sometimes they are related.

 

[Astral316]

One can argue that generations have gotten weaker as we become more reliant on technology, especially technology that shapes social interaction. Following that logic, your mom's generation can be considered weak compared to your grandparents'.

CTB isn't an inherent act of weakness, just like not considering CTB isn't an inherent act of strength.

Yea, parents suck. Join the club.

 

[itistimetoleave]

I hate this notion that people who kill themselves are weak. It takes a lot of courage and guts to end your life. At the end of the day, everyone wants to live but people choose this option becoz the pain is unbearable. It doesn't mean they are weak - it takes a lot of courage to go against our survival instincts and end everything.

 

[NordNihilist]

Perhaps we are... I'd argue that the destruction of the nuclear family during the last couple of generations is part of this explanation. Millions of people are now growing up in broken families without he nurting, stable environment for the raising of children that their parents had.

 

[Meant2Die]

Your mothers comment infuriates me. Looking back at history all generations have their issues. In fact if you look at the ways the world is so fucked up today is directly linked to how her generation (and ones before) ran the country and did certain things 40-50 years ago. For ex that boys don't cry attitude, or keep a stiff upper lip, don't talk about your feelings, just keep pretending everything is fine, judging people with mental illness, racial and class inequalities.. and so many more things come from that « strong » generation. Yea thanks guys, you did great.

 

[a_strange_day]

Maybe you should remind her that they made the world you were born in, so if they think you are weak maybe they should start to question themselves.

 

[eSpJon]

I agree, still dont care what they think, its about me now

 

[LMLN]

I read somewhere that the anxiety that today's young people experience is on the same level as a 1950s psychiatric patient. Life is much more complicated now than in the past. The performance bar has been set much higher. There are pressures that are present now that have never been there before.
I say that today's young people are stronger than any other generation! I'm surprised suicide is not even more common in teenagers than it is! I have compassion for young people these days. I'm not even too old but I have a young adult child and can see the challenges he faces.
And suicide is not a weak act. I think it takes immense bravery and pain to do it.

 

[Stan]

The world itself globally saw some pretty big events which shaped the populous. Never forget what the world wars did for society. It basically reduced the population by quite a fair bit and people in some countries were used to living standard struggles because of the damage to the infrastructure. There were also many jobs available after those wars where rebuilding in one shape or another occurred. It was like some weird bushfire, everything gets destroyed and then life bounces back again. But now we are in a situation of an ever increasing population chasing jobs that are now being replaced by automation and computers, or being sent to other countries where labour is cheaper. Community spirit is dying as it is being replaced with things like social media. Real friends replaced with virtual ones. This inherently supports isolation and comparing someone who has a thousand virtual friends versus 50 of yours. I hate to sound like the old fart that I am, but we have made society weaker through what we call 'technological marvels'.

 

[Azizw126]

We are not weak, we are just lifting heavier mental emotional weight than older ones.
Human beings are not equipped to handle the fast pace life and urbanization we face in present time. In the last two decades life became rat race. People are living paycheck to paycheck, working over their limits just to survive.

 

[Why you?]

I hate this notion that people who kill themselves are weak. It takes a lot of courage and guts to end your life. At the end of the day, everyone wants to live but people choose this option becoz the pain is unbearable. It doesn't mean they are weak - it takes a lot of courage to go against our survival instincts and end everything.

I wish I could show my mom this.

Your mothers comment infuriates me. Looking back at history all generations have their issues. In fact if you look at the ways the world is so fucked up today is directly linked to how her generation (and ones before) ran the country and did certain things 40-50 years ago. For ex that boys don't cry attitude, or keep a stiff upper lip, don't talk about your feelings, just keep pretending everything is fine, judging people with mental illness, racial and class inequalities.. and so many more things come from that « strong » generation. Yea thanks guys, you did great.

U go (ur gender)

 

[Meretlein]

I would say humans in general are both mentally and physically weak (myself included), we can be brought to our knees by countless circumstances. One event can affect a person for the rest of their lives.

We're pitifully weak creatures living in an indifferent universe.

 

[notjustyetagain]

yeah, nothing screams I AM STRONG like dismissing an entire generation of children. maybe we can fart in some babies' faces for our next tour de force?

 

[TrailerTrash]

Life is so different from our parent's days. Yes, they fought hard in wars and to put food on the table ..... but now the very streets in so many cities around the world are as ruthless as a Mad Max movie. Everyone wants to screw you, get your money, take your identity, blow you up, rob you, and after extracting every bit of your personal and financial energies they would be all to happy if they could cremate you and sell the sparse heavy metals for profit. Human life is worthless - especially if you are very young or old - and even if you save enough to retire it will be spent caring/housing you until you drool to death in your sleep or on on the toilet they leave you sitting on all morning while one unqualified attendant attempts to meet the needs of 20 aged patients in wing "G" of your carefully-selected "retirement community." Look up the Hubbert curve for oil and gas resources and you'll find that energy will mostly be gone, except for unused coal, wind, and solar, within about 40-50 years. Food production on the planet cannot sustain the population once it reaches around 9-10 billion, which is expected to happen by around 2050 .... only 30 years from now. So if you're in your 20s or 30s good luck. You'll never accumulate enough money to retire, be fed, or humanely cared for as you age. Look, this isn't just a negative perspective rant (ok it is technically a rant) but instead the realities of a crowded, struggling planet.

 

[helpfulfriendonwout]

Comparing ourselves to others is counterproductive, painful and self destructive. We are what we are and do what we do because of physics and chemistry. We are what the universe made us, and we could not have chosen to have done any differently than what we did. That means that even if we are weak, that isn't anything to be ashamed of; and if our parents are stronger, there isn't any logical reason for them to be proud of that because they couldn't have chosen to be different. Choice is an illusion, and if you can't choose to be different or even do something differently, then why be ashamed of it? Why are we ashamed of what our minds produce, but not our other organs? It makes about as much sense to be ashamed of how much protein our liver produces, as to how "strong" our minds are. They are just physical things, acting out their programming within the physical laws of nature.

You are your own, unique thing, with different experiences, environment and genetics than your parents, you can't compare the two, you're not the same.

I personally use this knowledge to try and cultivate compassion towards everyone, because if people couldn't choose to do any differently than what they did, if they couldn't have chosen not to hurt me, than how does being hateful towards them make sense? Would you hold onto hate against anything else that you don't imagine to have free will? If your computer exposed all of your private pictures onto the internet, would you hate that computer like you would a lover who did the same thing? They both had an equal amount of choice in what happened. It's our imagining that people could have chosen to have done differently that's the cause of a lot of our emotional pain

Also, for those of you who aren't familiar with the concept of determinism, don't feel hopeless that you don't have free will. You can change, your life can get better. It's just that you don't have any real control over whether it does or not.

 

[Puddings]

Previous generations were stronger in different ways, but they also swept things like sexual and domestic abuse under the carpet. They didnt believe in freedoms and right of all different sexes and races and woman were sub-servant to men. In that way, maybe one can argue they are weak.

Today's generations are very much more quick fix and instant gratification and dont always persevere. One could argue that that can be seen as "weak". But today's generations are brave to speak out for what they believe in (well in my view as a 80's baby) they take firm standpoints, they address issues like mental health and workplace happiness and putting yourself first and care for yourself and not being a pushover.

That being said, people that commit suicide that are weak and generations being weak are totally different. Generations had different stressors, but suicide has always been around. Social media and information overload does contribute to burnout though.

 

[helpfulfriendonwout]

Life is so different from our parent's days. Yes, they fought hard in wars and to put food on the table ..... but now the very streets in so many cities around the world are as ruthless as a Mad Max movie. Everyone wants to screw you, get your money, take your identity, blow you up, rob you, and after extracting every bit of your personal and financial energies they would be all to happy if they could cremate you and sell the sparse heavy metals for profit. Human life is worthless - especially if you are very young or old - and even if you save enough to retire it will be spent caring/housing you until you drool to death in your sleep or on on the toilet they leave you sitting on all morning while one unqualified attendant attempts to meet the needs of 20 aged patients in wing "G" of your carefully-selected "retirement community." Look up the Hubbert curve for oil and gas resources and you'll find that energy will mostly be gone, except for unused coal, wind, and solar, within about 40-50 years. Food production on the planet cannot sustain the population once it reaches around 9-10 billion, which is expected to happen by around 2050 .... only 30 years from now. So if you're in your 20s or 30s good luck. You'll never accumulate enough money to retire, be fed, or humanely cared for as you age. Look, this isn't just a negative perspective rant (ok it is technically a rant) but instead the realities of a crowded, struggling planet.

People are generally decent, and our focus on the negative things that some people do is probably destructive to our mental health. We'd all be a lot happier if we could trust eachother.

 

[TrailerTrash]

People are generally decent, and our focus on the negative things that some people do is probably destructive to our mental health. We'd all be a lot happier if we could trust eachother.

Agreed and respected response, now if we could just find a minimum threshold of trustworthy and/or decent people ........ beyond God, this hasn't happened in my life and therefore currently deemed ..... unlikely.