“Are you sure?” asked the Savage. “Are you quite sure that the Edmund in that pneumatic chair hasn’t been just as heavily punished as the Edmund who’s wounded and bleeding to death?
I expect that this is the crux of the book, right here: that suffering is noble, and modern life designed to reduce suffering is going to remove the purpose of life. Also, get off my lawn.
There is nothing particularly noble about suffering. That isn't to say that one should never have any ambitions, but there are a lot of people whose ambitions are horrible and make everyone else's life miserable -- we would all be better off if they spent their time smoking pot, sitting on their sofa, and watching "Dude, Where's My Car?" over and over.
