Why does everyone accept life the way it is?

Post Reply New Topic

Whenever anyone questions why we have to grow up, grow old, or why do we die, everyone always answers that it is a part of life. When we are born, we are expected to be like everyone else. We are expected to go to school, get a job to support ourselves, get married, have kids, grow old, and die. Anyone who questions any of these things are told that they are a part of life as if nothing can be done about them. While you have the decision not to get married or have kids, you are still expected to grow up, find a job to support yourself, get old, and die. Everyone says that growing up, growing old, and death are inevitable. You can't control how many years you have been on this planet, but just because you are a certain age doesn't mean you have to let yourself go and not be able to do the things you used to do. I hear so many excuses from people that they are too old or that they don't have that much time left and they just accept it. Instead of accepting inveitability, why don't we do more to try and stop it or delay it instead of accepting it?

Live another 24 years and your experience will answer your question.

You have tons of people researching aging and ways to end death. I think that might be part of the confusion here - saying 'You know, I just don't feel like dying' won't change anything. Solutions to that take both research and successful implementation of medical solutions to the problem. That we haven't found a way to fix it yet shows what's all involved with the problem.

That said I think there are at least a handful of serious researchers out there, albeit perhaps known for some eccentricity, who do believe that human aging will be conquered in our lifetimes. Hopefully they'll be able to resolve cancer at about the same time, otherwise we'd just be dying from that rather than our telomeres.

I don't think we will ever be able to conquer death. We have medicine and technology that can extend our lives, but I don't think we will be able to make people live forever. To be honest, I wouldn't want to live forever. I just don't want to age and get older. Getting old and dying wouldn't be as bad if we didn't age. I think aging is what most of us fear than anything else.

Last edited by MSBKyle on 12 Aug 2017, 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think the cosmetics industry prays every night for that behavior to continue.

Maybe living forever in the same body wouldn't be desirable, just that... well... if we're to assume that there's nothing metaphysical about death we'd probably be just as safe to assume that there's nothing metaphysical about the possibility of relative human immortality either.

I don't accept life the way it is, MSBKyle.

As in, I'm way older than you, and discovered that I was an artist ... when I was way older than you.
If I had listened to the people who laughed at me,
made snide remarks questioning whether I were a "real" artist,
discouraged me because allegedly "you have to know someone to get into an art gallery"
or society in general making the nonsense claim about being "too old" ...
I would have missed out on all kinds of achievements in the art world.

As it is, I followed my dream.
And my artwork has been exhibited in art galleries, museums, solo shows, a public government building,
has won awards,
and has sold internationally.

And I'm not done yet.
I was a photographer for many years.
I only just started painting about a year ago.
Still learning, but already seeing success.

Nope, I won't accept life "the way it is" according to "normal" people.
Because I'm an artist.

You have to grow up because your genome is programmed to grow up. You have to get a job to support yourself unless there is someone out there willing to work to support you. You get old and die because no one has figured out a way to prevent these things yet. The genetic mechanisms which control aging in humans have not yet been fully understood. We know there are people who age unusually fast (progerias such as Hutchinson-Gilford progeria and Werner Syndrome (adult onset progeria)) and this is thought to be due to a defect which causes the production of progerin, which plays some role in protecting the nucleus of the cell where your genome is stored, we know healthy people also accumulate progerin, we know telomere length is associated with longevity, and we know cancer cells have biological immortality because they produce an enzyme, telomerase, which lengthens telomeres, and allows the cell to divide indefinitely, but we don't know how to significantly slow, stop, or reverse aging.

There are, however, animals that live longer than us. Some species of mollusks can live at least 400 years, and some lizards and tortoises can live to 150 years. Bowhead whales can live at least 200 years.

Some animals are biologically immortal, meaning their cells can divide an infinite amount of times or they can transdifferentiate their cells into new ones. For example, lobsters do not die from "old age" in the sense that humans do (we die from old age when our cell division slows down, causing some type of physiological failure, or ceases completely). Lobsters molt as they grow and every mold takes more and more energy. Their energy requirement to mold eventually exceeds the energy they can provide for it, and they die.

Here is an article discussion biological immortality in animals.

Biological Immortality

I passed a shop at the mall today with a lady with some strange mask on her face. If there were actually an over the counter beauty product that significantly reversed the signs of aging, it would dominate the market. The topical product known to reduce the signs of aging is retinol (brand name, Retin-A), which, in the U.S. is by prescription only. Aside from that, and simple moisterizer, and limiting sun exposure if you are light skinned, and having a healthy life style, the only other ways to reverse the signs of aging are invasive in some way. Fractal lasers, chemical peels, injections, hormones, and cosmetic surgery.

One way to help minimize visible signs of aging that people often overlook, it maintaining good oral health. When people lose teeth, they begin to develop bone loss where the teeth existed....your body takes a "use it or lose it" approach to bones, so when the tooth is lost, and the bone is no longer subjected to pressure from chewing, your body does not maintain the bone in that region. Bone loss in the upper and lower mandible can significantly alter the face and make it look older. Dental issues that affect bite can also contribute to signs of aging.

you can refuse education, growing up, getting a job.... the first will likely render you unemployable anyway....
school is a way to make a mass of people - not just an individual - ready for life in this society (actually, ready for life in an early 20th century factory-work based society). growing up is necessary for raising children - to ensure society goes on. marriage is the structure built around children, to ensure a more stable relationship - emotionalyy and financially. getting a job and supporting yourself is so that you're not a burden on society -
growing old and dying is not optional.

so... these things are all structures that keep civilizations going and propagating.
within these structures you're free, but if a large enough partof society decides to do something else, well, then the old society ends and no one knows if the new one can function.

I recently told my grandchildren we have all grown too old for each other. They have energy to burn where I cannot possibly keep up -- simple fact, not an excuse -- and life as they know it is far different than mine at their ages. In days past it had never crossed my mind that such a time might ever come, but now I also see there is virtually nothing I could ever have done to stop or delay the inevitable. Accepting life as I know it today is not easy, and I am glad my wife and I took the time and made the effort to do certain things while we still could several years ago. I had no idea how impossible those things would actually have been today, but at least I knew my aging had the potential to eventually shut me down.