What Is Real?
What is real is "what." Whatever can be inquired of potentially or actually is real on some level, whether potential, or actual. But here we're going to take a more particular approach. Not untrue, just particular.
"The most important statement..."
What is real is what’s apparent and what’s the most apparent thing for most people (hopefully) is that there’s one thing they would stop doing everything they’re doing to tend to if it would be apparent, meaning right in front of them, and that’s a person who is in an apparent state of suffering. This is probably going to be the most important statement you’ll ever read.
All our sense of responsibility and success hinges on this one idea. When an apparent suffering person is in front of us, for most of us every single thing shifts to this one person. We would attend to this one person over all else. What’s even more astonishing is that even if it were an animal in an apparent state of suffering most of us would drop everything for this one animal. So tell me, when the lack of exposure to this person or this animal is broken, is it not that all our definitions of responsibility and success are broken as well?
If lack of exposure is the real or apparent problem then the real or apparent solution is to eliminate this lack of exposure in our minds, our awareness, and let it seep into our values and our definitions of responsibility and success.
Is that mega-mansion or super-yacht success if you wouldn’t bat an eye to sell it in order to tend to swaths of people suffering from life-threatening hunger, sickness, lack of shelter, etc., if they were directly in front of you? When we face the Real Problem, the real wealth isn’t money anymore but the ending of suffering it can buy and that’s where economics comes in. Specifically, Real Economics.
Q&A
Why should I live as if suffering people are in front of me when they're not?
You will know what matters most when it's in front of you. Then when you realize it's a person who is in an apparent state of suffering, you'll have your answer to the question.
How can I practically live my life by living as if there are suffering people in front of me?
Eliminating the Real Problem doesn't mean eliminating your own wellbeing but the exact opposite. If you don't have your wellbeing how can you bring wellbeing to others? That means putting yours and your family's wellbeing before others. You must reach and maintain the point at which you and your family have their wellbeing and only from there can you properly tend to the wellbeing of others.
At the same time, keep yourself aligned with the Real Problem. Always try to remember what you would do if someone who was suffering was right in front of you. You would do whatever you could to tend to them, therefore don’t let the space that separates you cause you to forget what you would do for them if they were right in front of you.
There should be a balance between maintaining the wellbeing of you and your family and knowing when you and your family have it and you could now tend to others.
The standard of wellbeing expected by your family depends on how immersed they are in the Real Problem. If your family is very aware of the problem they would generally have a much lower standard of wellbeing because they would realize there are suffering people who need more attention then they do.
The space between us is also the nature of reality and to change one’s nature is difficult. Therefore don’t push yourself or others too hard meaning don’t push yourself or them to the point that you actually push yourself and them away.
How do you define wellbeing and suffering?
We define wellbeing as being healthy including happy excluding any unhealthy means towards that happiness. Included in one's wellbeing is the wellbeing of one's family as well. A branch doesn't go without the tree.
We define suffering as any good dictionary would. What’s important here is suffering that is apparent. Unfortunately we can’t tend to someone who is suffering if we don’t know that they are. Therefore we are left with only one option as of now and that’s to tend to the suffering that we know is there which is the suffering that we see or hear.
The premise of the Real Problem states that people would generally attend to human suffering over all other matters if it is both directly in front of them and apparent. However within suffering itself there are two general categories of which people would typically attend to the first before the second.
The first is a person who is suffering fatally and the second is one who is suffering non-fatally. Just as people would typically attend to the fatally suffering person before the non-fatally person and rightfully so as he demands more attention, so too the priority is to attend to fatally suffering people over non-fatally suffering people whether they are in front of us or not.
What can I practically do to ease the suffering in the world?
Do what you can do. If there is nothing you can do then let your money do and give to a charity that combats human suffering.
There are charities that may be very contributive towards ending poverty but the Real Problem primes us to focus on ending suffering before any poverty that doesn't include suffering.
A family may be poor but that doesn't mean they don't have the bare minimum essentials even if they aren't high quality. Place a poor person who is suffering in front of you and a poor person who isn’t suffering. Who would you tend to first?
When should I stop living as if the suffering were in right front of me?
When humanity has put in place a mechanism to scout the world for suffering people, tended to them, and there is not one suffering person left. Until then, it is our tendency to forget that they're that keeps them there to begin with and therefore it is this tendency which we must train ourselves to eliminate.
Really?
A lot of people in the developed world see homeless people right in front of them, why aren’t people helping them?
For a few reasons. First, their suffering is probably not apparent to those who see them which is why we stress the “apparent” part of suffering. This also includes the factor that the one suffering is not directly in front of them. Second, even if they were screaming for their life, many in the developed world generally have a negative “disgusted” connotation towards the homeless and this would prevent them from helping. Third, the "there's a lot of people here so surely someone else will help them." Fourth, drugs; which also adds to the “being disgusted” part.
There is a common conception that homeless people are drug addicts and people who haven’t been a victim of drug abuse and addiction don’t see a reason to help those who supposedly “choose to be there.” On the contrary, many if not most would veer away from anyone who they think is drugged out, especially if they’re tattered. We naturally associate drug abuse and being tattered with violence, and nobody wants to offer a helping hand if they think they’re going to get one swinging at their face in return.
Why don't people in third-world countries who see people suffering not help them?
First, because they're in a third-would country. If you live in a third-world country you're not exactly in the best position to help others when you're trying to help yourself. Second, when people are overwhelmed with their own troubles their not as motivated to help others with theirs. That's why it's important not to judge someone who ignores a suffering person. They could very well be suffering themselves but it's not apparent to others who can help them. When suffering is not apparent, in many ways it makes the suffering all the more worse. If nobody knows, nobody can care, show compassion, or lend a helping hand.
Third, who's to say that those who can help don't? Perhaps those who can help are far outnumbered by those who need it. Fourth, they may not be directly in front of them. An important factor that we continually highlight. We naturally tend towards that which is directly in front of us.
I see people in public walking right past someone suffering, why don't they help?
First, because they are in public. "There's a lot of people here, someone else will help them." Second, many are fearful or feel shame in public and fear and shame can prevent people from doing just about anything even when it comes down to their own lives. Third, it may not be directly in front of them.
Some people see thousands and know of millions of people suffering, why don't they help?
Because they are people and not one person, or a few people. When we talk about Real Economics we use the phrase "an apparent suffering person" and not "apparent suffering people" because part of the problem is that if multiple apparent suffering people, especially hundreds or more, are in front of one person, it's easy to become overwhelmed and not help at all. This is why its important to train ourselves to live as if an apparent suffering "human" were in front of us and not "humans." This is a general statement. Some may actually feel more motivated when confronted with more than one apparent suffering person.
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