“People don’t realize how much danger they are in if they don’t accept what life presents them, the questions and challenges life throws at them.
When they decide to save themselves from pain and suffering, they owe it to their nature. Thus, they refuse to pay the price of life, and therefore life often leads them astray.
If we do not accept our fate, another kind of suffering takes its place: neurosis develops, and I believe that the life we have to live is not as bad as neurosis. If I must suffer, let it be from my truth. Neurosis is a big curse! In general, neurosis is a substitute for an unconscious desire to escape, cheat life, avoid something. Man cannot do more than live what is in reality.
And we are all made up of contradictions and opposite tendencies. After much reflection, I have come to the conclusion that it is better to live with what actually happens and accept the resulting difficulties – because running away is much worse.
Today I can say that I was true to myself, I did the best I could to the best of my knowledge and conscience. I can’t say whether it was true or not. Either way, suffering was inevitable. But I really want to suffer for what belongs to me.”
– Reflections on the Life and Dreams of CG Jung by Aniela Jaffe
Jung’s opinion. I agree with that. I certainly live like this, but I have some questions. Before you judge those who spend their lives playing life, blaming others, avoiding pain, and the like, I wonder if there is a line or condition that can be created where that path is so hidden or gone that it is unrealistic to expect a person to find it.
I’m thinking especially of children growing up in a digital world where the signal is aimed at distracting them from the path of real growth and fulfillment. The environment is engineered. The algorithm does not present “questions of life”. If you offer pre-chewed answers and infinite scrolling. Pain can be prevented. Just buy this or that widget or service. The path is not just hidden, but destroyed. As a result, there will be people hostages to an environment where life is replaced by simulation.
In Jung’s model, we thrive by processing pain. There is pain in the digital world redirected into channels that lead nowhere. In short, a person’s boots do not touch the ground!
Can you see this in your life or the life around you?
