Before listening to the podcast, the question posed in the title really caught my attention because it seems absurd at first but then once I started thinking about it more I started to see what causes us to suffer in life. I went on to think some people like eating really spicy food, but that causes them pain and why do people choose to raise kids when it's only bringing on more responsibility and hardships. I'd like to believe that people grow and learn from these non-ideal situations, but that's if it occurs out of your control. But I think people choose to go with situations that come with pain and suffering to feel something, like a little escape from reality or a change of pace. It also gives our lives purpose because we feel accomplished/triumphant after completing a hardship.
At one point in the podcast Dr. Bloom says, "People who do good but enjoy it and gain something from it, we don't think they're as good people. We like our people who do good to suffer." I can understand what Dr. Bloom was talking about because in the end, it's kind of like a reward earned through hard work. Or you know that all the struggle and suffering that you had to endure for that short period of time; it'll be worth it because the end goal or the reward is achieved. When one sacrifices something in order for another person to benefit, it just gives the action so much more meaning. My personal experience with this concept is practicing extra hard for basketball, suffering with all the running and conditioning, and waking up early to work out but it was all worth it in the end because we won the championship.
Sometimes suffering is not in our control/not many people choose to suffer. But when we experience illness, poverty, or the death of a loved one sometime in our lives; it shapes the person that we are. Dr. Bloom may have mentioned how he doesn't believe that people grow from these experiences. But I think that these situations that cause so much suffering or hardships make you a better person and you learn/grow from it.
I like the point you made about how people choose to suffer because they want to escape from reality. I think thats the reality of the situation. People have a need to escape from their issues or from other things going on in their life so they choose to suffer to think about something else. But the suffering doesnt have to be pain from a heartache or something similar to that. It can be physical pain. it is just any type of pain to get their mind off of their problems or to feel something else rather than what they were feeling before with the issues they were having. This is how people want to forget about their problems. Feeling any type of pain to help them forget . To help them feel better. But the way I see it is, as long as people arent hurting themselves, a little bit of suffering is okay, because its normal
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