Wednesday, May 16, 2007

.: Embrace Hedonism :.

When the GP lesson ran into the concept of hedonism, I was presented with the daunting task of explaining this to my friends who were unfamiliar with the word. I was hoping to be able to think of a quick, witty explanation that would show clearly the deep meaning of this believe, without conforming with the more commonly accepted definitions which have negative connotations. Alas, I failed, but the failure has put in me double the determination to do a deep exploration into what hedonism really is. Hopefully with the removal of the length constraint I will be able to redeem myself.

Many of members of the society are often fond of shunning us hedonists, labeling us as self-centered, selfish black sheep who only care to indulge in our own pleasures. Numerous “saints” in the history of mankind has frowned upon us, spreading the vicious lies that our thinking only can lead to the destruction of the human race. However, even if I were to ignore the truth established in my past posts on the righteousness of being as self centered as we can possibly want to be, it is still easy, nevertheless, to expose the lies of these so called Ascetics. These, who claim to be strengthening the moral fiber of the society through what their scarring comments, are actually nothing more than poor hypocrites unable to practice what they preach.

In the first place, true hedonism is the only thing that separates living things from non-living things. The most distinguishing characteristic of humans allowing them to dominate the planet is simply an ability to function according to the spirit of hedonism at a higher level than the other minor species. At the beginning of life, the first instant where a complex molecule somehow managed to replicate itself, it was rewarded with the sweetness of the continuity of its own kind. When greater amounts of the same reward were dished out during the acquiring of a tendency to replicate itself, the instinct of reproduction became the first case of hedonism. Billions of years have passed since we evolved from that tiny molecule, but the fundamental motivation for society, achievement and success still stems from that antique but fundamental desire. The failure of adopting anything but a hedonistic approach to this desire can only result in extinction.

Regardless of however you act, whatever you do, it is hedonism you are following as long as you ever make a decision. Some may argue that physical pleasures are separate from spiritual pleasures, but after all both are experienced by the brain and rewarded in similar ways and hence the differentiation is unjustified. Once this minor point is agreed upon, it is easy to see how impossible it is to defy our hedonistic nature. It is simply the way we work, the reason why we choose to take one course of action over another is because the preferred choice gives us more pleasure, or gives us the pleasure of expecting larger amounts of future pleasure. When a sadist or an ascetic (not much difference between the two actually, come to think of it) chooses apparent physical pain over pleasure, it is definitely not because they are defying nature. It is simply because they distinguish pleasure in different ways from normal people. To them, pain is more pleasurable than apparent physical pleasure. Hence the hypocrisy in their advocating pain. It is just like a simple lever. When we push on one side, motion in the opposite direction is observed on the other end of the lever. If we push on one side and the other side moves in the same direction, it is not because the laws of physics has failed, it simply means the fulcrum of the lever is at a different position.

The real definition of hedonism is being able to identify one opportunity cost of one option as being greater than that of the other, and hence adopting the latter course of action. The removal of pleasure can only mean the dysfunction of our abilities to decide and respond to stimuli. In other words, no one is really free from the hedonistic workings of our brains unless we are brain dead.

The next question is therefore how we should strive to distinguish pleasure and pain, and where to place this “fulcrum” in our “levers”. Looking at the conflict from this angle, it is easy to see the immense irony in the ascetics’ wanting to “return to nature”. The fact is that Mother Nature never ever wanted us to spend painful lives full of suffering, minimizing our material and physical pleasures as much as possible. The various animals in nature are proves to this statement, as we can see how they operate based on the simplest definition of pleasure possible: “eating, sleeping, and reproducing”, obeying strict hedonism. In actuality it is the ascetics who are the ones abnormal, with their mutated definitions of pleasure, attempting to act as differently as possible from what is natural behavior. By discarding materialism and adopting their skewed viewpoints, they are placing themselves in a very awkward place. As close they are physically to nature, they are attempting to break nature’s laws (of course they inevitably fail and only manage to skew it in a horrifying way), and refuting the basic principles of living nature has laid out for living things.

It might be idealistic, but should we not discard our fears of materialism and try to return to nature, and embrace the essence of what makes our world go round? Why, when nature has already told us what is pleasurable and what is not, must we try to bury our heads in the sand, or place a blindfold us, keeping us from the apparent truth, and choose to interpret the law of nature in anyway other than the simplest and most elegant?

Rejected instrumentality at 8:57 PM