Utopia
“Hold on, this paradise dream world is too perfect. This world is an illusion! Happiness is nothing without suffering!”
– the assholes who are the reason why life in The Matrix can’t be any better than the US circa 1999
It’s become a pet peeve of mine when people try to argue against the idea of Heaven or a utopian dream world because “happiness is nothing without suffering” or some such nonsense. As if whatever omniscient deity or AI responsible wouldn’t be able to consider this when designing their paradise? Really, this sort of mentality strikes me as no different from the “just world fallacy” – it suggests that the level of suffering and misfortune that exists in our world is already in perfect equilibrium with the level of happiness you’re able to extract from it. If that weren’t the case, then you can easily just imagine Paradise as similar to our own world, just without all the unnecessary suffering that results in only negative impact on our general happiness. Challenges would still exist, but they’ll never be the type of challenge that, if failed, completely locks you out of a potential path to fulfillment.
– James
