Is there such a thing as false gratitude?

[Hansu]

I have been developing gratitude for about 2 years for now. Its at a point where it just happens automatically.

When I walk into the rain/cold, I feel grateful that there is high quality modern clothing to help me staying comfortable
When Im out of food, I feel grateful that I live inside a society that is capable to server food and drink for me to eat and feel comfortable and for me to be healthy
When Im home alone not doing anything and I reflect back to my army days, its easy to be grateful that I dont need to do favors for others so that we could inefficiently stay alive in the forest living in damp tents because I have enough money which makes it possible for me to live freely, for me to develop and to thrive. As long as I have money.

So, Im pretty grateful in the term's most basic sense. But ever since pondering on this question, I cant help but feel that ego-centered gratefulness cant be good for you. Basically, those three examples I just gave can be boiled down to my ego thriving and surviving.

Now when I think of the fact that industrialization, modern farming and medicine and has given me, a westener really easy life where Im almost guaranteed to die from old age and never starve, I cant help but think about Africa where modern medicine, food-aid and industrial resource grabbing has created overpopulation which cannot be sustained by the continents own food and cloth industry so we send food and cloth-aid for them to eat and wear, effectively killing off their own industry so that they stay dependent on the western and asian aid.

So the things Im grateful for are things that are causing immense suffering for the 233 million of people suffering from undernourishment in a continent which is kept on a poverty-loop and Im grateful for those said things because they bring me gratitude

The only thing I be proud to be grateful for now is the fact that I can think about what I should be grateful for. Wait, I? Fuck!

[ground]

If feeling gratitude is beneficial for you then it would be unwise to reject it. Why? Because your rejection of gratitude wouldn't be beneficial for anybody.

[Hansu]

On 5.12.2018 at 1:25 PM, ground said:

If feeling gratitude is beneficial for you then it would be unwise to reject it. Why? Because your rejection of gratitude wouldn't be beneficial for anybody.

Yeah. I guess what Leo said in one of his emotion video; "Fuck natural, what is natural is shit" (context was emotion control) apply in this too.

Thought I will be more mindful on whether my gratitude comes from ego-perspective or from somewhere else

[isabel]

I thought the exact same thing

my favorite prayer is: thank you for everything, I have no complaints whatsoever

so the trick is to be grateful for everything - that means everything