An unexamined life is not worth living

Today I see a saying: An unexamined life is not worth living

This sentence was originally derived from Socrates, and Socrates' dialectic was derived step by step:

A good life is the only life worth living, and only by truly understanding what is "good" and what is "bad" can we live a good life. "Good" and "bad" are not relative, they can only find absolute concepts in the process of asking questions and reasoning. Life without question is ignorant and immoral

In this way, morality and knowledge are linked!

So it can be seen that Socrates believed in knowing oneself through constant questioning, that knowing the world is the true meaning of life, and according to Plato's records, Socrates preferred to die in judgment rather than live in ignorance.

To put it more broadly, man is the measure of everything. Back to the individual, each of us is the measure of our own life value.

Because of how I live, I am not happy to live, whether there is value is only meaningful to myself, and others do not care.

Only by constantly examining our lives and judging with their own inner scales can we constantly adjust the direction of life and make ourselves happier.

It's easy to think of our own brains as a racetrack for other people's ideas, and others won't be responsible for our happiness.

Life is not spent through worldly material means, but through reason, to examine the ultimate needs of human life, thus leading to a new attitude to life. In 19 years, a lot happened, 996, Huawei employee cases, etc., and such things were immediately exposed. This has to re-examine this society, to examine itself.

The former self seems to have been hooked by some of the world's "hooks". The evaluation of others; the news that cannot distinguish between true and false every day; the small videos that can be brushed for a long time in the vibrato; various advertising messages and harassing calls in the mobile phone; the needs of customers at work and the "dealings" with different departments from time to time; whether they dare to pursue what they think in their hearts or be satisfied with the status quo and so on. If these have become a norm for most people, then the changes behind these will make us further examine our own lives.

Not long ago, a popular TV series "Little Joy" is a part of the realistic portrayal.

Unprepared financial debts; unexpected death of relatives; unplanned mortgages; fraudulent lawsuits by friends; sudden illnesses; aging parents; broken marriages; struggling entrepreneurship; unfathomed human nature...

Each of these can happen to us at any time. Even a lot of times, they come together at the same time. Many times, it is not one thing that crushes you, but everything that comes together and presses you!

Therefore, at this time, it is most necessary to re-examine life, so that it has the meaning of continuing.

It is often said that social experience and experience can make a person mature. In fact, experience and experience alone are not enough. It's like some people work for 20 years and just repeat the work of the first year 20 times. In order to grow and truly mature, we must examine ourselves and examine the past time. A person's maturity affects your attitude toward the world. For example, when we are teenagers, we always feel that there are infinite possibilities in the future and are eager to grow up; old people always remember their youth and want to start their lives again; middle-aged people are often the masters of this society, and they pay more attention to enjoying the present. Time is the yardstick of life. Measuring people's maturity is essentially letting the time scale act on people's inner world, measuring how much time has changed people's psychology.

For example, the 46-episode TV series "All Is Good" that directly faces contemporary life came out, breaking the situation of court dramas and anti-war dramas that are far from real life, and causing widespread concern and discussion from all walks of life.

This TV series gathers the original family, son preference, remarriage of the elderly, giant babies nibbling on the elderly, unemployment and job hunting, husband and wife against each other, supporting parents, company restructuring, business and sea fighting law... and a series of contemporary social phenomena.

Let the audience see the shadow of their own life more or less from a familiar story; together with the people in the play, feel the sadness and joy and the bitterness and bitterness of carrying the weight forward in the quiet of the years. While chasing the drama, we often compare ourselves or the lives around us, which can't help but trigger thinking and re-understanding of our own lives.

"A thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand viewers"! This is what Shakespeare said about his play Hamlet. Not bad! For the "All Is Good" series that is close to life, audiences of different ages and different social classes obviously have completely different views. For example, in the "grand finale" of the whole play, young people and older people have different reputations.

In 2017, the speech of the US Supreme Court justice at his child's graduation ceremony was shared and forwarded by many people.

The excerpt translates as follows (Credit to Cow Denny):

"Usually the guest speakers who come here for graduation will wish you good luck and send your blessings. I won't do that, and I'll tell you why next. ”

"For many years to come, from time to time, I bless you to be treated unjustly, so that you will know the value of justice. I wish you to suffer betrayal because it will make you feel the importance of loyalty. ”

"I'm sorry, but I'll bless you for feeling lonely from time to time, so you don't take your friends for granted."

"I wish you bad luck sometimes, so you realize the role that probability and luck play in life, and understand that your success is not exactly what you deserve, and that other people's failures are not exactly what they deserve." 」

"And when you fail, every now and then, I hope your opponents will rejoice in your failures, which will make you realize the importance of a personable competitive spirit."

"I wish you would be overlooked, so you would realize the importance of listening to others."

"I wish you just the right amount of pain to learn empathy."

"Whether I bless you with these or not, they will happen. And whether you benefit from it depends on whether you can understand from your misfortune the message they want to convey to you. ”

The theme of his sharing is "I Wish You Bad Luck", which is actually about empathy – you have to suffer to understand the suffering of others.

This is, of course, a truth.

In the film "Coffee Commune", director Woody Allen also added the second half of Socrates' sentence.

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." But the examined one is no bargain.

An unexamined life is not worth living. But what about a clearly examined life?

So, the scrutinized life will not be simple, but as the "Friends" says:

Welcome to the real world! It sucks, but you're gonna love it.