It feels a little bit condescending to compare the amount of suffering caused by things like dementia to an unruly kid who doesn't want to go to school.
> It feels a little bit condescending to compare the amount of suffering caused by things like dementia to an unruly kid who doesn't want to go to school.
It wasn't a comparison, but an attempt to illustrate how things may look different based on your knowledge and understanding. Obviously such an illustration is going to be trivial compared to the real thing, since you have to substitute something simple that everyone knows for something no one does.
I don't think anyone has the perspective to make a definitive judgement like that. The situation could be like a young child judging his parents to be cruel and uncaring for making him go to school, which he dislikes. There could be unknowns that would change the judgement if understood.