This is from a letter that I wrote to a friend that was telling me 
about how bad her job was. It was written back when we used to go 
out on Sunday nights and bitch about our lives over desert.

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Here's another bit o' philosophy as long as I'm sitting here on my 
lotus blossom: One way that we, as a society, keep people in line is 
by breeding a fear of retribution in them. This gives rise to the belief 
that there is a certain grand justice in the world. This touches 
another point: To make sure that everyone carries his weight (Thus 
preserving this phantom fairness) we live in a capitalist society. I 
support capitalism, it's the only way to motivate an entire society on 
a personal level. Now we live in a society that is not only capitalist, 
but it's consumption-based and overcrowded. Now for an 
overcrowded, capitalist, consumption-based society to work, people 
need to buy s**t. For people to buy things other than just a way to 
get to work, food that keeps them alive, and clothes that hold off 
the elements, they have to believe that they need stuff to make them 
comfortable. And so they are convinced of this (it comes from every 
imaginable direction). Thus they buy profuse amounts of drugs, 
cushy furniture, bigger houses, plusher cars, etc. They are told that 
they should be comfortable and if they aren't they need to buy this 
and that! Now how often do you think that anyone is as comfortable 
as they think they should be? (I say "as they think they should be" 
because it is mental and luxury is just comfort above and beyond 
the level of satisfying discomfort) So what we have is a society that 
thinks life is fair and if they aren't comfortable then something's 
wrong. This leads to a bunch of people for whom pain and 
discomfort are more than just negative stimuli, they're a betrayal by 
the world and/or God. They don't just feel pain, they feel bad. Now 
the simple fact is that pain and pleasure and happiness and sadness 
go hand in hand; they can't exist without each other. And, as the old 
saying goes, "Nobody ever said life was fair." (Have you ever noticed 
that that saying is never said when suffering isn't involved? 
Anyway...)

What's the point? The point is this: just because you feel pain or 
uncomfortable doesn't mean that you have to feel bad. Think about 
if you're out playing a full contact sport and you get hurt, you don't 
feel bad. It hurts but it's accepted and as a result it's just pain and 
it's not too bad to deal with, just make sure you don't walk on that 
leg. Hell, if it gives you a cool scar or a glory story, you might even 
feel good about it. Hence, pain and "feeling good" can co-exist. If 
some prophet descended from the sky on a beam of light and told 
you that in thirty days, you'd be promoted to staff novelist, this 
little bit of hell would be no problem.

So how does it help us mortals? Basically the practical application 
goes along the lines of just going with the flow and not letting 
yourself feel bad about the way things work out. I haven't figured 
out a way to program-out or reconcile the ingrained idea of "justice" 
from my psyche, so this is one time that treating the symptom is the 
way to cure the problem.