Feeling guilty and the victim mindset are different sides of the same coin here. Neither is productive.
I'm often reminding of the saying, "All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing."
Clearly there are two sides and somewhere in the middle is ideal. Question is, where do you feel that middle is?
From two comments, it is hard to see whether your usage of "you" is rhetorical or whether you mean me in particular.
The easy case is the latter and for that I'll say that, I would be rather surprised if you had an accurate idea of what kind of a life I led and how much suffering is in my day-to-day life.
Let's go to the other instance, where you are speaking in general using the rhetorical "you". Here, I agree that there is a lot of suffering in this world. I'll take a specific case of it - hunger. There are a lot of hungry people in this world: even children dying of starvation. We have only considered humans so far. Imagine a little kitten somewhere abandoned by his mother (or just lost) and crying out in hunger (I've found a few like this). The question then arises: How can you eat any meal in peace? Does anyone have a right to eat in peace as long as involuntary hunger exists? Are they "permitted" to eat without guilt or shame? What if one eats a sandwich? What if it is rice? What if it is rice and chicken? What if it's an ice-cream? What if it's chocolate fondue? What if it's a king's feast?
I was unable to see any other natural end to that line of reasoning except a monastic life. Does that mean that when a butcher buys ice-cream for his little daughter, this act should in fact give them both guilt and shame instead of joy? This is not a simple matter if you were to think about how to thresh it out by taking both sides and pitting them against each other in your mind.
I have lived among people of very "opposing" cultures (different countries). Guilt features prominently in one of them. In my view, it is a kind of abuse to foist such a mindset on a young mind and teach a child that one has to look at an activity so natural and important as eating (or sleeping) and feel guilt or shame because of it. How does this not increase suffering? If one's ideal is to work towards diminishing suffering in this world, is causing more of it (to others or to oneself) the right method? In either case, why? And then follows the rationalists question to the idealist: "Will that work?"
If I were to be entirely honest, I do not think this medium can serve well to settle this matter. If we had met in person, I'd have been happy to share a meal with you and learn where each of us is headed. Not that that would settle it of course but it is much easier to debate such matters in those circumstances. I wish you luck and hope that you find a path to what you seek.
What I dont do is pretend it is an issue that I need not take any part in resolving. Nor do I advocate a monastic lifestyle. I simply say there is a middle that is ideal, and if so, why are we not compelled to take that position less we be hypocrites?
As for me, I can go to bed in peace without worrying about world peace and world hunger. I never claimed otherwise. If one were to accuse me of hypocrisy in this matter, I'd expect some evidence before I consider the possibility that there may be a point to it.
I guess in the end, if you can go to bed in peace, does that mean nothing bothers you? Is there nothing in the world which keeps you up or night or makes you wish you could change for the better? Or are you perfectly happy with the way things are?
I took the liberty to make a few assumptions in my questions but you may also note that it is likewise with your line of questioning.
Cheers,
It bothers me because they is a single truth in the world. There is only one reality, not your view of it. Nor my view of it. In fact, the only reason we can talk and communicate effectively is because we fundamentally agree that there is an underlying truth of any situation, and only our lack of knowledge separates us from understanding each others perspective. It really does make me wonder how I can sit here and not be comfortable knowing that others lack a basic human right like Healthcare, while some say it is not a human right and you either work for it, or get lucky and happen to be born into. It's a matter of injustice from my perspective, and I can't understand why it's not for yours.
> Why is what you see "the one right way"?
Because as far as I can tell I'm earnestly seeking the truest sense of reality and what we want reality to be like. I ask questions and seek answers continually rather than just say, "whelp, that's all I need to know. My thirst for knowledge is satiated."
And thats not a knock to say you can't find what makes you happy in life and be satisfied with that. But it also doesn't mean you can't be shown a better way that still allows you to have what you want while others are taken care of even better.
> I can not answer endless questions on this medium as it doesn't seem to take us forward.
I beg to differ. I learn much from every single question I ask and I better understand what makes humans tick. It's invaluable in a way you don't have to even understand how.