No Benefit to Being good

[Eric]

I've come to the conclusion that there's no benefit to being good. You get more, have more fun and are stress/care free...things work out better for you and you get more if you look out for #1, this makes common sense - and it is true. Most of us have this conscience thing that gets "in the way." I don't know if it's how you're raised, or it's innate in some & not others.

I, however, think it is a choice. Just like most other things. It comes down to choice.
I, my whole life, I've subconsciously tried or tried to hang onto this 'being good' idea - even though it provided no immediate material benefit or other benefit that I could see. I was always told, do good and be good - even though you get no reward. "It is the right thing to do". What does that mean? Why is it the right thing to do? It sounds like an exercise in masochism and stupidity, if you ask me.

It's just like the psychiatrists & doctors/counselors, always telling you to not kill or harm yourself. They can't not bullshit you; they are not sincere - and really don't care about you or your life, but are obligated to make you prolong it.
The real reason is business and money, so they can farm you out on pharmaceuticals and have a continuing mental patient whom to treat. This is the real reason.

It's a sad sick world, but it helps to know the truth and get on side with it.

[Ghost]

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[Eric]

Even worse, those who try to do good are often punished severely.

Yes, exactly.

[Winston]

OP,
Your post sounds like one I made long ago called "Is Evil more powerful than Good? (disturbing realizations)":

viewtopic.php?t=8700

Come on Eric. You are losing it. Read "The Republic" by Plato. In it, there is a great discussion between Socrates and his pupils about why it's better to be a good man than an evil man, even if the evil man is more prosperous and rich. It's a masterpiece that will answer your questions, which were asked 2500 years ago. You need to get acquainted with these masterpieces so you will have you answers inside your own head.

Plato's "The Republic" is available for free download on Amazon.com. It's also available online for free if you Google it. You need to get acquainted with it. It answers your questions, which have been asked for thousands of years. Socrates' answers are brilliant and enlightening.

In my experience though, being 100 percent good, pious and wholesome will not make you happy, neither will being totally evil, corrupt and vile or sinking into debauchery either. A man needs a sense of moral virtue, but at the same time needs to savor the sinful pleasures of life occasionally as well. You need to find a balance in between both extremes, of being a pious monk vs a hedonist. That struggle makes you human and gives your life meaning. Study the life of Saint Augustine for example. Every great person in history lived through paradoxical inner struggles.

[ethan_sg]

The more people think this way the more it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy for society as a whole. It is the root of cynicism.

[Moretorque]

As Mike Maloney has stated in his series " The Secrets of Money " , he calls it when money corrupts civilization.

The money supply is toxic and as Steve Forbes of Forbes magazine has stated this is corrosive throughout your entire civilization.

Einstein stated that evil is not the problem but the apathy that allows it to flourish.

[cdnFA]

Being good allows you to be able to live with yourself.
It also attracts the decent and repels the ghetto hood rats.
Also allows you to look down on scum which not as important as the other two but nice.

Just this weekend the hottest chick on the planet told me that she would have dated me if I had asked her out 25 years ago. She remembered me among other things as being gentle and thought of me as a good person. Sadly I could not sack up back then [and she was extremely shy] so I did nothing and she married some hard core bible thumper nerd from church a few years later.

You can pretend to be someone else, but then when she finds out the truth she will be telling you to sod off.

I suspect I am still on Eric's block list but he really should read this. Personally I suspect that those who blame their goodness actually have other problems.
I've know plenty of completely decent guys who eventually married decent girls.

[Eric]

Dude, I think among other things. Let's stop pretending ....I'm totally f*cked.

First of all, there are a million issues. My Dad's military training is still in me...my whole life it's bothered me, I literally can't be any other way. It contributes to me being angry, having anger problems, just being a certain way that doesn't work and is very destructive. I'm angry a lot and I'm unnecessarily hard with people a lot. Just like trying too hard always going full on for the situation. I try, is there any way to undo this? I feel that my emotions were destroyed/crippled in a sense from a real young age on purpose, like emotionally stunted - that is kind of the point of the military. But it's hampered my ability to connect w/ others and form relationships. In general, it's not good.
Also man.....I just can't think any more. I am so tired. 1 hr sleep and I'm stressed out. I feel a bunch of things. That western civ. is just f***ed in general. There is so much crap left & right, who knows how to be anymore how to think/ info overload. We all don't admit, but I think we feel this way ...it's like all this shit coming in and I just feel destructed.
It's too much.
It used to be I had this way of being/feeling, that was central to me. It was very simple. Like I believed in God....was centrally a good person - but then the years of being exposed to so many things, it just does something to you. ..breaks it down, it's hard to explain.

My luck with women is null and void. I don't do anything with women. It really sucks and wish it weren't this way. I just don't mess with them. People here talk about going on dates, hooking up...meeting new girls. I don't do any of that. I don't like that I do this - but I feel inept.