«Total anesthesia» as a societal phenomenon

Abstract

The systematic struggle of Western society for the relief of any sources of suffering leads to a situation that some philosophers call "total anesthesia". The symbol of this situation is the spread of anesthesia in medicine. Technology today is the main successor of religion as a deliverer of suffering. Before the era of "total anesthesia", suffering was the most important negative reference point for social development. Suffering is a much stronger motivator and makes a much deeper impression on people than its opposite – pleasure. Any injustice was intolerable because it was a source of suffering. Today, the question arises about the development of new benchmarks that are not associated with suffering. This is a difficult problem because of the speculative ideals do not possess the attractiveness, if not associated with a traumatic experience or empathy. In public life, anesthesia can have the same negative value as in medicine. Anaesthetize is easier than cure, meanwhile, the problem may not attract enough attention if it is not a source of suffering. We can specify several scenarios of adaptation of society to total anesthesia. Among these scenarios is an increase in sensitivity to small suffering, the transfer of suffering into virtual reality, the replacement of suffering with speculative guidelines. Today we see, perhaps, three actively promoted groups of speculative values designed to replace the simple idea of social development as deliverance from suffering: 1) the values of happiness, 2) the values of increasing the power of humanity, 3) the values of increasing life expectancy. In addition, the concept of "managing suffering" can be a meaningful alternative to today's total pain management.