' Life is cruel, and unnecessary , by our own definition of same '

No, I don't think that life is only cruel, or that it's unnecessary. You say life on our planet was an accident. Well, maybe that's true, but our planet was an accident too, even the whole universe might be understood as an accident. And another word for an accident is a miracle. Not that I think life is a miracle either, but I would say simply: that life IS. So I say we should try to learn live with and accept it. I wouldn't say life is conscious of itself, though there's nothing really depressing or cruel about that statement anyways. We, human beings, are conscious of that which we call life. But everything that lives is not conscious. Maybe that's an overly rational response, but it's more accurate. Life can be nice. Sometimes animals live in families for instance, especially mammals, and have an instinct to not harm each other. That's an example of niceness. There are examples of nice and good people who have done great things, changed the world like Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, FDR and so on. It's also true that it is not nice and that it sometimes can be cruel, but it isn't all of the time. Not sure what you mean when you say life has a long history of self-harm. Maybe you mean for instance that there are predators and prey among animals. Or that, you know, even we humans have to eat animals and plants and experiment on monkeys, rats and what not in a way that say philosophically, that life harms itself. Yeah, maybe. But it also helps itself. For all of the animal experiments, there are also scientists who advocate to protect animal habitats, study them and try to help them procreate faster. Is life worse than celestial silence? Well, can we really stand to compare them? We don't have celestial silence, can't really know it enough to say that it's better than what we have. But maybe I see your point. If there were more bad than good things happening, might it be better if there was just simple nothing at all? I don't know. If there was nothing, I don't think we could make a value judgment. In a celestial nothing, there would be no one to decide whether it was good, it can't be good or bad. In other words, I don't think existence and non-existence (really more of a hypothesis than anything) can be compared in that way. Is all of this hurt and degredation for nothing? Well, there certainly is hurt and degredation. I think it can be made into something though. Can't we use it as a basis from which to improve? Hurts can be healed, and degredations can earn their own respect again. Does life have no better future? We can't know that, since we can't look in the future. I think when you look at history, we have made improvements, maybe not all of the time but at large, yes. I think if our future will be better or worse is for us to decide, isn't a matter of chance or anything predetermined. "Life should be put out of its misery by celestial accident" is a value statement that can't be argued against like a fact. I personally disagree. There are certainly however things about life we might better do without, with you I can agree on that. Let me say that it's obvious that you're a bit demoralized about something and it's affected your attitude to life and the world. That's ok, I've been through that. I'm here to say that there is hope and places for celebration about life. Now down to the nitty gritty of: is life bloodthirsty, ferocious, merciless, relentless, cruel, pitiless and ruthless? I don't think so. I think, again, that life simply IS. It has a set of natural laws that it cannot help but enforce. Unfortunately according to life, there are no second chances, in the sense that if you drive 75 mph into a brick wall, it doesnt matter if you're an axe murderer or a family of four, you're probably going to die. In that sense life isn't fair. But there is also a great fairness to that that cannot be denied. If you have the right answer, if you do the right thing, it doesnt matter who you are either. In that sense, it's a meritocracy, which is ideal, really. There are cruel things about life. Murders you read about on the news. Ponzi schemes and corrupt warlords in Africa. Species going extinct. There are also miraculous and beautiful things about life. People donating their fortunes to charity. People building schools out of the goodness of their hearts. Hard working people earning the success they never believed they would have in their wildest dreams. Altogether, life is what we make it. It has good and bad sides, and we can either develop and improve what's good about it, or we can make the same mistakes, or even ruin what is good and make more mistakes. I try to do so with mine and I hope you can with yours. If you're struggling with keeping a positive mindest, I wish you good luck.