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Debate Info

57
26
Yes No
Debate Score:83
Arguments:23
Total Votes:95
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Argument Ratio

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 Yes (14)
 
 No (9)

Debate Creator

waaykuul(325) pic



Do people truly benefit from hardship and misfortune?

Does life suck...for a reason?

Yes

Side Score: 57
VS.

No

Side Score: 26
10 points

Yes, I believe they do. I once coined the phrase; "Pain is the anvil on which character is wrought" and it seems to hold true. We often do not learn life's lessons from easy and abundant living. We also do not grow as human beings by having it all. We do, however, begin to appreciate all we have when something or someone is taken from us. The lessons we must learn through life take some time to create the caring, grateful, loving, understanding, patient, tolerant and thoughtful person we would all be blessed to become. Time and experience benefit all beings. From hardship we may learn generosity and from misfortune we may learn kindness. Life will always throw us a hand that we do not wish to play. It can be so unfair and so unyielding. All we can do is play the hand we're dealt and do the very best we can with it. As time goes by and you look behind you...you'll know which lesson can be taken from it. Good luck in the search!

Side: In the end we all will reap what we sow
5 points

very well said.

and let's not forget that nothing would be worth it if it wasn't hard to get there. If everything you wanted was handed to you on a silver platter, then what exactly do you benefit ?

when you learn things the hard way, you can truly learn from your mistakes and avoid become an ignorant mind.

Side: Yes
3 points

I agree, with exception: if the hardship or misfortune involves death, it becomes impossible to benefit.

Side: In the end we all will reap what we sow
2 points

Even in death there is something to learn, Loudacris! The lessons are not without benefit. If someone close to you passes away you may learn empathy for others. You may learn to be more forgiving of people's foibles and you may see that a bit of kindness goes a long way. Perhaps you've never told that person you loved them, and you did very much, but never told them. You will learn that letting them know that may have eased their burden and yours on the journey.

Side: Sow the seeds you wish to reap

Well, I guess you make a good argument for this debate as well:

http://tinyurl.com/5vz6vf

Side: Attitude is everything
1 point

Very well said, I agree with your thoughts.

Side: In the end we all will reap what we sow
6 points

There is always some trouble in life. For example, you may fail at certain things. But failure is the opportunity to begin more intelligently - "Better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed. And even failure may not be "failure" - as Edison said, "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Side: Failure

Attitude is everything.

Side: Attitude is everything
6 points

In my experience, people tend to come out of the crucible stronger, better people than they were before.

Side: Yes
4 points

You learn from mistakes. You get a speeding ticket (or two or three) so you learn not to speed.

Waht doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Side: In the end we all will reap what we sow
3 points

I don't particularly "believe" in misfortune. I don't think luck really exists beyond a shallow existential perspective. Everything that happens, happens for a reason and you are ultimately in control of things happening to you. Not in all cases, I mean, something things you just cannot steer clear of.

Hardship is just part of being a life form in a universe of non-life forms. Whatever comes your way, if you remember it well and survive, will help you later. It's a good thing.

Side: Yes

Yes, lets put Fannie Mae through some hardship and misfortune and you'll see a dramatic improvement from those rat bastards!

Side: Yes
3 points

Yes. When you earn something from nothing, you tend to have more appreciation for it.

Side: Yes
4 points

Some hardship is fine, but people who are repressed and abused their whole life don't end up brilliant or better off for it. How much innovation and heroism have we seen coming out of Rwanda or Darfur? People beaten into submission end up slaves or empty shells of human beings who have given up hope. They wouldn't tell you that their hunger and misfortune benefit them.

Side: No
liquidjin(20) Disputed
3 points

Too much of anything leads to trouble.

i don't think anyone can deny the benefits of water. But if you have too much of it you can die from water poisoning. This principle can apply to your argument. By stating that hardship and misfortune taken to the extreme result in slavery and hopelessness doesn't mean that it has no benefit in more reasonable situations.

Side: Yes

Well now, wait a minute.... What about McCain? He suffered quite a bit as a POW.

Side: Attitude is everything
4 points

I think challenges in life are good and help build character but i don't think that one can justify hardships and misfortune with the idea that they will benefit themselves or others in the future.

I don't think it is necessarily how one reacts to hardships but how one reacts to anything in general. We just notice and romanticize overcoming hardship while making good decisions and following proper actions without obvious hardships are not as noticeable or poetic even if they are as beneficial.

Side: No
4 points

From personal experience, it depends on the person. My sister, for instance, went through a long period of pain because she broke her back 2 times, and now thinks that the world owes her for her misfortune and has become EXTREMELY self-centered and just a plain out bitch. Whereas someone else who goes through hardships might realize that life sucks and become more optomistic about life and strive to succeed in whatever they choose to persue as a proffession or way of life. So in the end, it is a yes and a no, but because as the newer generations become more self-absorbed, more people will end up like my sister.

Side: No
4 points

you just wanted to call your sister a self-centered bitch, didn't you ?

Side: No

Your sister is in the anger stage right now. You can tell your sister, "Oh, those are the pain killers talking..." or you can tell her that God is just testing her mettle. If she gets mad, tell her that she's in the anger stage right now and that you would prefer it if she cycled through the remaining stages. If she hasn't punched your lights out by then, you have a good chance that she'll come around. ;)

Here's an example of attitude:

Keith M Wesolowski "Sir, we're surrounded!"

FishWorks "Excellent; we can attack in any direction!"

Notice that the person with the right attitude is in control.

Side: Attitude is everything
3 points

This isn't something you can generalise. By definition, people do not benefit from hardship and misfortune and whether any subsequent benefits can be said to be derivative is interpreted on a case by case basis.

Side: No
altarion(1955) Disputed
3 points

By definition of material benefit, sure! But i think that the question was referring more to like benefit on a higher, more sophisticated, kind of ghandi-like level. But sure, it does need to be seen from a case by case perspective.

Side: Yes
-2 points