Insofar as I am concerned, the standards come from me, from my own ideas of how I should be, given the state of the world and all the reading, studying and thinking I've done. Given that I'm nobody special, then it is boundto be upsetting when so many people seem to fall short of even these minimum standards.
Be it understood that I'm not a good or even a particularly nice person, but I do have certain rules. I won't tolerate unfairness, discrimination or bullying, for instance, and can be quite forceful at putting a stop to them. I also cannot tolerate liars, if only because their shenanigans complicate matters. But I am often grumpy and seldom kind. I am undiplomatic, call a spade a spade and do not suffer fools gladly. Nor do I waste time or patience on the wilfully ignorant, self-indulgent or narcissistic. I am not averse to thumping someone if it becomes necessary. I smoke, drink and eat meat. I do like children - with fava beans and a nice Chianti.
There are ideas I find frustrating.
Anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism. The idea that humans are important on a cosmic scale, and the tendency to try and force humanlike attributes onto the Universe and the First Cause, if such a thing exists. As soon as you talk about God you are assuming something humanlike or accessible to human understanding or perception.
The tendency to forget or ignore the fact that we are limited by our senses. We can respond directly only to a narrow spectrum of stimuli. We infer the existence of some phenomena we cannot directly perceive because of the effects they have on those we can. But we very rarely make the further inference that there are going to be many more phenomena we cannot either perceive or infer, and that these make up the majority of the Universe (or Multiverse if you follow that way of thinking).
Suffering is not negative, but the only positive. Epicurus pointed out that the maximum pleasure is merely the absence of pain. Just as darkness is merely the absence of light. An essential component of consciousness is existential fear - the fear of consciousness being lost. This forces us into action, action brings on tensions and anxieties as well as consequences, not all of which are pleasant. If bliss is the absence of suffering, then clearly it is the absence of consciousness. So any continuation of consciousness after death must - by the nature of consciousess - involve suffering. Only by ending consciousness can suffering be ended: "a consummation devoutly to be wished".
You cannot place demands upon the world. It is as it is. You place demands upon yourself to live as your ideals dictate. Good for you. Where things go wrong is in placing those same demands too forcefully upon others, rght?
