"That's what life is like. It's suffering. That's what the religious people have always said. Life is suffering. Yes. Well, who wants to admit that? Well, just think about it. Well, so what do you do in the face of that suffering? Try to reduce it! Start with yourself, what good are you? Get yourself together for Christ's sake, so that when your father dies, you're not whining away in a corner and you can help plan the funeral and you can stand up solidly, so that people can rely on you. That's better. Don't be a damn victim! Of course you're a victim. Jesus! Obviously! Put yourself together. You have to be a golden tool to fix things. And you're not. And that's the other message of the West. It's like, how do you overcome the suffering of life? How do you overcome the suffering of life is be a better person, that's how you do it. Well, that's hard. It takes responsibility. And if you said to someone: You want to have a meaningful life? Everything you do matters. That's the definition of a meaningful life. But everything you do matters. You're gonna have to carry that with you. Or do you want to just forget about the whole meaning thing and then you don't have any responsibility because who the hell cares? And you can wander through life doing whatever you want, gratifying impulsive desires, for however useful that's going to be and you're stuck in meaninglessness, but you don't have any responsibility, which one do you want? Well, ask yourself, which one are you pursuing?" more