Luke died today

That feels like somewhat of a lie…

We put him down. He was suffering, yet it still feels a little wrong to me. It is still taking a life, and without verbal consent. Maybe that’s silly for a dog. Maybe I worry too much about silly things.

I think about the morality of owning a dog, of owning any living soul. We can do all that we can to make them happy, but we don’t do all that we can. Is it ultimately selfish?

But we can’t do all we can to make them happy all of the time. Dogs would get overweight real quick. We push it aside by saying we do our best sure, but we don’t put them at the top priority. We go to work, we take care of ourselves. But maybe it’s too much to ask for all or nothing.

What gets me is that they didn’t ask to be brought into the world. To live in what the Buddhists call “suffering.” I guess all we can hope for is that the life they live was is/was worth living.

I wish I gave him more treats while he could still eat treats.

…

RIP
Luke

Response to: Pleasure

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/pleasure

I remember hearing about a study where they had people hooked up to an FMRI and were doing tests. Basically, the studies showed that people prefer slight difficulty/turmoil with their pleasure. Something along the lines of "earning it." I think this is why people are reluctant to live in the box.

I think people need to feel like they deserve to be happy, along with actually feeling happy. And being the same amount of happy for too long becomes dull as well. The same stimuli, or amount of stimuli becomes normalized.

I tie this also to my theory of there being no actual free will, but there is the illusion of free will. To most, the illusion of free will is functionally free will, but to those depraved like I am, I am stuck facing this wall, this matrix -- never being able to see past the illusion.

Knowing of the box, then being trapped in it is hell. It's argued that hoping to find the box and never finding it is hell as well. But maybe having the limit be defined and having a variable comparison in light of the ideal is what allows us to have meaning? Or at least define our own meaning?