I think people who have never truely suffered in life should never talk or utter a word in social issues especially of the philosophical equation.
If you have never truely suffered in life, how do you expect to tell others what life is?
Only by expiriencing the best and worse of life can one accurately depict social issues.
Are you trying to tell people what life is?
The worst thing that someone has experienced is, well, The Worst Thing that They have experienced…
And even if the incident or issue seems comparatively trite or trivial to someone else, the depth of suffering caused may be equitable to that caused by an occurrence which someone else deems to be far more monumental.
There are common threads of sensations/ experiences which can be translated into some measure of understanding for other experiences, even if there is a disparity between the levels of intensity or ‘objective’ perception of suffering.
Also, I think the level of suffering experienced, often has a direct correlation to the ‘sensitivity’ levels a person experiences.
This can change with both circumstances and time as well as learning (‘insight’, ‘enlightenment’, ‘logical reasoning’…)
Incidentally, heightened sensitivities commonly go along side heightened levels of intellectual ability… So it’s fortunate that, intellectual ability can be used to process emotional responses and develop further emotional intelligence and insight into ones self /experiences / behaviours.
In other words: “One persons trash is another persons treasure”
Personaly I think the worst that I could experience is continual life with no possibility of losing consciousness. Other people might think everlasting consciousness as heavenly.
The whole thing is way too subjective to definitively say shit.
I was thinking more along the lines of " Who hasn’t experienced their own form of suffering?" Probably not many people. However, I certainly do agree with you that “One persons trash is another persons treasure”
Actually, I also empathise with the frustrating irony of people who do not appear to have any comparable experience of the awful situation you are going through, offering advise based on a lack of understanding with often begets flawed reasoning. Still I have found I am better off to not jump to too many conclusions, and try and be as philosophical as I am able to in the situation!
After all, it can not really be said to be a fault that they have not experienced the same situation, and it is most likely that they are offering what they perceived to be ‘help’, to the best of their ability. Again, people have different levels of ability and again genetic or societal endowment, generally can not reasonable be said to be ‘their fault’.
What I do find REALLY frustrating, is people who I think ‘should know better’. However, even then, I’m inclined to eventually come to the conclusion that, perhaps my frustration is really the result of me crediting them with more (ability/ sensitivity/ understanding etc) than they actually have.
Of course, it is somewhat empowering to conclude that something is ‘your fault’. It implies a measure of control available to you, to change the situation of future consequences.
There’s something in the proposition that people who have not suffered shouldn’t be able to philosophize that makes me shudder.
I understand what you are feeling and perhaps what I have posted in this thread may confuse people.
I guess what my post is combating is this:
Alot of idealists focus on optimism through standardization for everyone in ideals, yet many idealists leading in the philosophies of government, ethics and economics are people from ivory towers who have never really suffered in their lives where in all actuality they have no expirience of the conditions or circumstances that faces most people that they are categorizing all people under.
Does this make any sense to you?
Yes i understand. The American colonies were the result of mental as well as physical sufferings
And how do you decide what “true” suffering is?
Semantics aside. 
If a person hasn’t expirienced suffering at all, how are they to know what life is?
How are they to construct social philosophies for the entire world decrying how the world “ought” to be when infact they themselves have never expirienced suffering like the people they are commanding to obey?
When I look at people who haven’t suffered in life who go around making commands and demands out of other people they usually are the ones I distrust the most.
No, you can’t put that aside, because it’s far from being semantic.
Every single person has suffered in life. Every single person has hurt themselves in some way, or been mentally hurt in some way. A homeless person who’s happy might have suffered far less than a rich person who isn’t. You can’t definitively say how much somebody suffered, but you also can’t make blanket statements about the level of somebody’s suffering without trying to accurately gauge how much they have.
So Joker, I may be being trite but hypothetically if you were in authority you wouldnt be able to have a policy on eg 3rd world poverty as you have never suffered from starvation because of a poor rainfall or had to walk for hours in order to get clean water or even having to share atrocious conditions of living with your entire family in one room without electricity. As you have not experienced suffering like this, you do not have a right to build a foreign policy to help solve these problems? I just want to make clear what you are saying.
That is basically where I am coming from. Basically.
Ok Joker, that’s fair enough but don’t you think such a philosophy would be quite limiting. No single person can experience the full range of suffering that people in their country let alone the world may have gone through but this doesn’t stop people from being able to show compassion and empathise. eg A pretty simple example, I have never been burgled which would be a pretty terrible experience, but I think I am entitled to have an opinion about burglars? I accept that those in authority would be able to lead us better if they had a greater understanding of what life was like for ordinary citizens and the problems we face but I don’t think I would go as far as you.
I just get tired of every self proclaiming hypocritical assholes who say they will change the world where in reality they only make survival conditions worse in the end.
Most politicians and leaders have never expirienced poverty as they come from ivory towers.
Most of them have never felt desperation or scarcity.
They basically come into poor neighborhoods and settings in their expensive cars for a couple of minutes pretending they know about other people’s suffering or that they can change anything in which later on they retire to the nearest gated enclosed community.
I suppose this can be said of every government throughout history. ( One reason why I am a anarchist.)
As I recall Budda himself is often quoted as saying “all life is suffering.” However who is to determine what suffering is for someone else? Everyone in life suffers from something whether it is mental, emotional, physical or financial ails. To say one person’s opinion or experiences in life do not mean anything because someone has had a harder life than them is a bit condescending and out and out insulting.
I agree with that one!
You paint with a very broad brush here, and your generalisations are simply that. Not every politician is in it for the flash car, although some are.
If you say so.