You Don't NEED People to "Live"

Many people consider loneliness a curse, or something that prevents them from living, and that before they can live happily, they must escape their loneliness.

Look: you need only food and water TO LIVE. Now that you are alive, let your hopes and dreams take you as far as your body will allow. Once you get there, maybe the people won't seem so bad after all, but even if they are, at least you won't have let them affect your getting to where you want to go.

Edit:

Maybe you guys misunderstood the premise of my thread. I wasn't so much advocating loneliness as I was promoting individuality and self-motivation. I've read a lot of posts saying that "without people" as in without close friends "I cannot live." That is not true. What I meant by this thread was that to go out and experience life and do what YOU want to do, you just need yourself, at least to get started. It is obvious that one must interact with society to survive, but I was more talking about the people who let their loneliness paralyze them.

As I said in another thread, I am not so much lonely as I am content with being in an absence of people.

Perhaps that is all you need to keep your heat beating, but not enough to really live.

I remember learning about 'feral children' in one of my sociology classes.

The idea of a child being raised by wild dogs is not fiction; it has been known to happen many times.

A girl was found in Russia that was probably about 12; who knows how long she has been with the dogs. She barked, growled, and cleaned herself with her tongue. Years later she could not assimilate with human society.

I think the most heartbreaking case of feral children happened a few decades ago in Ohio. A man hid his daughter from his mother in their house. She lived in a dark room, strapped to a toilet. When the man died she was discovered. Her muscles were actually warped around the toilet. Many years later she still cannot speak, or take care of herself.

Babies have big eyes and small hands for a reason; it says " Do not fear me, take care of me." Human children are the most vulnerable animal on the planet and absolutly will die without care from another person.

So, unless you want to live your life strapped to a toilet, you need people to live.

eris said:

Babies have big eyes and small hands for a reason

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It's actually because they are, in fact, aliens.

Seriously. Little, tiny aliens.

In modern times if you want to take care of yourself, you need other people. You can't get food and water without money, unless you're self-sufficient. To be self-sufficient you need land (preferrably with a source of water or adequate rainfall). To get land you need money. To get money you need a job. And herein lies the need for people. Job applications require references. So do many apartment applications. To live a remotely normal life and not mooch off others in any way, you need human contacts who find you likeable.

here is an example of what happens if you refuse to be around other people and just give up on life

http://www.wftv.com/news/3643877/detail.html

480-Pound Woman Dies After Six Years On Couch

STUART, Fla. -- A 480-pound Martin County woman has died after emergency workers tried to remove her from the couch where she had remained for about six years.




Gayle Laverne Grinds, 40, died Wednesday, after a failed six-hour effort to dislodge her from the couch in her home. Workers say the home was filthy, and Grinds was too large to get up from the couch to even use the bathroom.

Everyone going inside the home had to wear protective gear. The stench was so powerful they had to blast in fresh air.

Investigators say Grinds lived with a man named Herman Thomas, who says he tried to take care of her the best he could. He has told them he tried repeatedly to get her up, but simply couldn't. No charges have been filed, but officials are looking into negligence issues.

Emergency workers had to remove some sliding glass doors and lift the couch, with Grinds still on it, to a trailer behind a pickup truck. Removing her from the couch would be too painful, since her body was grafted to the fabric. After years of staying put, her skin had literally become one with the sofa and had to be surgically removed.

She died at Martin Memorial Hospital South, still attached to the couch.

Here is a follow up article here http://www.ergogenics.org/65.html

Neighbors say they had no idea Grinds lived at the duplex, though they had seen Thomas and some children outside

Her case was so disturbing that some members of the ER crew that night sought counseling, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Grinds had been lying on a dirty burgundy-and-gray fabric couch in her living room for most of the past six years. Unwashed for months, lying in her own excrement, couch fabric intertwined with the skin of her back, Grinds screamed in pain when the rescuers, clad in protective gear, tried to lift her.

I disagree with you completely.

Maybe you are just writing this because you're trying to cheer yourself up and make yourself not feel hopeless, which is a good thing, but people do need human contact to live and remain sane.

People who truly believe with all their heart that they can live without people, in my opinion, never actually experienced real loneliness. (But I'm not saying you are one of these people, which is why I wrote the paragraph above.) You fear it the more you come in contact with it because you know how powerful it is. And the stories above that people shared don't surprise you because of it.

Luckily there's the internet now and places like this one that help combat loneliness. I've had people tell me it encourages isolation and stuff, but I received more human contact and acceptance in my life with the internet than I was able to receive without it.

Maybe you guys misunderstood the premise of my thread. I wasn't so much advocating loneliness as I was promoting individuality and self-motivation. I've read a lot of posts saying that without people as in without close friends I cannot live. That is not true. What I meant was to go out and experience life and do what YOU want to do, you just need yourself, at least to get started. It is obvious that one must interact with society to survive, but I was more talking about the people who let there loneliness paralyze them.

As I said in another thread, I am not so much lonely as I am content with being in an absence of people.

^^Yeah I suspected that was what you were really getting at with your post. It's true that you can have a vibrant lifestyle without having alot of close friends. I notice people avoid doing certain things because they feel it's awkward to do them alone, when really it's not so bad. And in the process of living life, you'll probably make friends along the way.

Uh eris, both the girl strapped to a toilet and the extremely overweight woman had someone in their lives. I think, in both those examples, those people might have actually stood a better chance if they had been totally on their own rather than having someone abusive/negligent in their lives.

^^ you can THAT having someone in their lives ? Someone who comes by once a day to give you food and then leave you alone in a dark room is NOT having someone in your life.

Thats like saying you have someone in your life because when you go to the store a real person waits on you.

Those people would have died without those people, so I doubt they would have been better off without them.

Brian said:

eris said:

Babies have big eyes and small hands for a reason

Click to expand...

It's actually because they are, in fact, aliens.

Seriously. Little, tiny aliens.

Click to expand...

Lol.


We may not need other people, but it's nice to have them around. Especially when you want to have a sandwich. I'd hate to have to grow and harvest wheat myself, to make bread. Or to have to raise a turkey and then chop it up for some sliced turkey. Cheese, I think making my own cheese would be cool.

VanillaCreme said:

We may not {i]need[/i] other people, but it's nice to have them around. Especially when you want to have a sandwich. I'd hate to have to grow and harvest wheat myself, to make bread. Or to have to raise a turkey and then chop it up for some sliced turkey. Cheese, I think making my own cheese would be cool.

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Yet again, you have misinterpreted the meaning of this thread. I emphasized in the title of this thread the word "live." By live, I mean to see the beauty in the world and life, not simply to eat food or drink beverages.

Sure, I need the milkman to bring me milk, and the farmer to grow my potatoes, but do you want to know something? Neither contribute to my inner self or my own views of the world, the good and the bad. Neither the milk man nor the farmer do anything to add to my self motivation, or to take away from it. That is something that comes from within. And by "within," I mean from myself, and by "myself," I mean I and no one else.

I don't understand why many here are only seeing the literal meaning of the word live as in:

I am man. I need food. I need water. I eat. I sleep.

Maybe it's just me, but there is more to life than just the above definition.

Well, the beauty in life tends to differ from person to person. One person might see beauty in having friends and family around. Another might see beauty in living in solitude. It depends on the person.

WerewolfChemist said:

VanillaCreme said:

We may not {i]need[/i] other people, but it's nice to have them around. Especially when you want to have a sandwich. I'd hate to have to grow and harvest wheat myself, to make bread. Or to have to raise a turkey and then chop it up for some sliced turkey. Cheese, I think making my own cheese would be cool.

Click to expand...

Yet again, you have misinterpreted the meaning of this thread. I emphasized in the title of this thread the word "live." By live, I mean to see the beauty in the world and life, not simply to eat food or drink beverages.

I don't understand why many here are only seeing the literal meaning of the word live as in:

I am man. I need food. I need water. I eat. I sleep.

Maybe it's just me, but there is more to life than just the above definition.

Click to expand...

Hi-
I hear what you're saying but I have a different perception. Of course there is more than the functional definition of "living". That is what separates us from other animals. I believe that humans are truly social beings, though. Some more social than others, but social nonetheless.

Sure, you can see life's beauty on your own. Try taking a young child to a park or outside in the rain and see what else you've been missing.

I'm an introvert and like being alone from time to time. But going from that to saying I don't need any other person to live would be a bit of a stretch. Even prisons, which hold a lot of sociopaths, use solitary confinement as punishment.

Teresa

I'd be fine living alone in the wilderness of Alaska with a plethora of rifles, a dog (or forty), and a wide-open range of land to wander.

Seriously.

No, I don't think society is necessary for me personally... but everyone is different. I'm sure that some would need that close-knit community of social contacts in order to live a fulfilled life. But others only need themselves and their thoughts, or nature, or animals.... or even ******* chess.

People are so diverse it's hard to say that any one thing applies to all people, aside from things like death.

Badjedidude said:

I'd be fine living alone in the wilderness of Alaska with a plethora of rifles, a dog (or forty), and a wide-open range of land to wander.

Seriously.

No, I don't think society is necessary for me personally... but everyone is different. I'm sure that some would need that close-knit community of social contacts in order to live a fulfilled life. But others only need themselves and their thoughts, or nature, or animals.... or even ******* chess.

People are so diverse it's hard to say that any one thing applies to all people, aside from things like death.

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I agree with you 100%.

To anyone that may be taking this thread the wrong way, this is, for the last time, exactly what I meant by it:

Ok. Here is something that cannot be argued: A lonely (as in without other people) life filled with experiences that were wonderful in the eyes of the liver, is a better life than the same person living in darkness/depression because they don't have anyone. In other words, it is better to have fun by yourself, than to not have fun at all. It is better to live life by yourself, than to not live life at all. THAT is what I meant. YES, to some having a million friends and constantly having to "catch up" and go out and hang out and etc. etc. etc. would be a great life, but I would honestly be more than content with finding a partner that I can experience life with, who loves me and whom I equally love. And have like 10 dogs I, PERSONALLY, just don't care to try to have a million people in my life. Honestly, I am getting my degree in chemical engineering to make as much money as I possibly can, while helping out the environment, and then I will take said money and go find a nice wife in Tahiti or some place exotic like that. And just live on an island in perfect tranquil peace. If that means 20 years of BS, than so be it.

Hi-
Well, ya know, living with a nice wife in Tahiti doesn't qualify as being "alone". Heck, I might even like that, and I'm straight as an arrow. Lonely is a feeling; alone is a physical state of being.
As an aside, posting your thoughts here opens yourself up to other people's truths. So don't take it personally if someone else doesn't have the same views as you do.

Teresa

mmmmmh let's see, I think I understand your point, whatever makes you be contempt wether it is a million friends or none at all. Happiness is a state of mind and it comes from inside and reaches out not from outside and reaches in? I agree 100%

WerewolfChemist said:

I don't understand why many here are only seeing the literal meaning of the word live as in:

I am man. I need food. I need water. I eat. I sleep.

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That is because in your OP you said people need food and water to live, and thats it

You edited.

But I remember.


*taps finger*

Maslow disagrees with this thread..