Just a thought. Lots of people seem to think it should be some other way? It is what it is. Forget about fair and nice. And what is this mythical 'normal life' thing?? There seems to be a lot of 'learned helplessness' out there. Bizarre. It'll be over before you know it.

Not sure if it's that new.
It is at the core of Buddhism with the four noble truths.

1.Life is suffering
2.Understanding suffering
3.Dropping the problems which lead to suffering
4.Living without suffering

(or something like that) 😀

Harder for some than for others.

Puurrrrrrrrr-lease… the greatest hardship most people on here will face is when their hard drive crashes or their Sky+ box goes on the blink 😈

The real reason for "learned helplessness" is that we are massively spoilt little princesses who are far removed from the real struggle for life.

I couldn't help thinking in general about this when I was watching that stupid program on child labour last night. Silly well meaning girl goes to india and whisks children out of jobs that are paying for their food and shelter when they would otherwise be at home starving (rather than getting education and love like she seemed to think they would). Return them home and surprise surprise the parents can't keep them despite possibly wanting to, and other carers beat them and make them work too…

That's how hard their life is, sure it's not nice with our perception of children playing and learning until god knows what age, but in some places life is simply too hard and food/cash too scarce – the kids have to work too.

Next she'll be in ethiopia moaning about lack of creche facilities for when the parents are trying to farm.

Really. 🙄

the real struggle for life

Just out of interest, what is it?

Machiavelli: I study the world for what it is, not what I would like it to be.

Just a thought.

Did it hurt?

"the real struggle for life": Just out of interest, what is it?

I'm not claiming to be any less sheltered and spoilt than anyone else.
But I'd say anywhere that it's touch and go whether you and your loved ones will live through the day.

That's the real "life is hard" struggle for a significant number of people on this planet.

Tennyson is about right: nature, red in tooth and claw. Industrialised society has won the immediate battle against nature, leaving our cousins elsewhere on the globe much closer to the fight. However nature will win the war one day, balance being everything.

I walked into the local butcher's shop where his teenage son has started full time employment. The butcher leans over and says to me 'I don't really want him to take the shop over or stay in this business, the work is just too hard'.

Mmmm, it seems to me that everyone just wants it all handed on a plate.

Me – Just a person that's always had to work hard to earn their money!

I couldn't help thinking in general about this when I was watching that stupid program on child labour last night.

I couldn't even watch that becuase I knew it would enrage me. "Instead opf being in school, where he should be, look at him, he's chopping trees down"

a) He ain't chopping trees down, he's collecting a crop

b) OK, if he spends all day working, or all day in school, neither is going to be good in its own way, but there is nothing inherently wrong with him doing a paying job.

This is ordinary straightforward Norman Tebbit.

Whether there is a causal connection between one person having an easy life and another having a hard life is a legitimate political and social enquiry. The question of whether anything can be done to address that relationship is at the heart of progressive politics.

It is not "learned helplessness" to demand that social and economic relationships be arranged to ensure that life is not unnecessarily hard for as many people as possible. It is craven cynicism to suggest that this endeavour does not matter.

it's learned helplessness to continually complain about your circumstances, or 'hard life' without realising you can take action to change it? and also a bit daft expecting life not to be 'hard' in some way.

We seem to have bargained you down to banality in 14 moves. 😉

GrahamS you completely forget the greatest test most of us on here have to face… which tyre for…

suffering and delaying gratification. Good things come to those what work hard and are patient.