The world is getting richer and life expectance is ever increasing. Nevertheless, people found themselves “hopeless, depressed and alone” with suicide rate in the US reaching the peak of 30 years. It contributed to controversies on the role physical abundance plays on life qualities. I stick to the opinion that physical ampleness improves our life quality.
In my opinion, Physical abundance is in fact a crucial component of both happiness and meaning, and nowhere near a contributing factor to physical loneliness which-according to the TED talk’s opinion-caused by failing of individuals to gain meanings of life. The following reasons back my view.
To begin with, physical wealth renders access to existence and life, enabling them to expect future and dramatically increased the motivation of searching for meanings. Just take the example of two suicidal inmates Francl meets who “were hopeless and thought that there was nothing more to expect from life, nothing to live for.” It undoubtedly demonstrates the significance of physical necessities. Without life itself you definitely can’t expect anything, can’t attain anything to live for, and the life is undoubtedly expecting nothing from you.
Furthermore, physical significantly reduced both the will and the ability to attain the “pillows” of belonging and purpose. According to the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs[1], Biological and social needs comes in the bottom, followed by belongings, self-esteem and eventually—self-actualization. Without the basic need being satisfied, advanced are being void, floating like clouds. Pressures to make a living combined with the frustration of even the basic need not being satisfied furthermore deprived people of both the time and the energy to pursuing meanings, for they are struggling to survive, for they invest all time and energy on feeding themselves, for all their life meaning is living.
As a result, physical inadequacy surpasses both living happy and living healthy. According to the article, happy lives associates more with “taker” while meaningful lives associates more with “giver”. Nevertheless, giving fails to exist when they takes nothing and simply having nothing to give. You can’t expect a homeless saving his only bread of the day for others. It’s only when we take enough to feed ourselves that we starts giving.
In conclusion, physical abundance contributes to meaningful livings. It’s a crucial component of both happy and healthy lives and enables us to explore the deep meanings of life.
CITATIONS
[1:] http://highgatecounselling.org.uk/members/certificate/CT2 Paper 1.pdf
John's world 