Dear Friends,
It seems to me, a hedonist might as well be a cluster fly, the ability to reason is totally wasted on him or her. Clearly, the life of a cluster fly is wholly insufficient for a human being. Yet there are many who only use their reason to devise ever more arcane ways to bring themselves pleasure. Should we find it astounding then, that hedonists when polled, say that life is empty, have a nihilistic attitude and express lower life satisfaction? What I do find astonishing however, is that our leaders in government, culture, society and business, all sell the same snake oil that the hedonist life is best. I recon that it must mean our elite are either vapid, in not knowing that hedonism is unfit for a human being, or they are selling us something they know is not in our best interests… and therefore are demons.
That is not to say that we should avoid all pleasure, it is to say, we should avoid ordering our lives around pleasures of the flesh. By all means, we should actively seek the pleasure of a job well done, a thing accomplished, of having read a good book, learned something new, helped our fellow man, praying, meditation and other elevating pleasures. Many pleasures are the result of one’s improving oneself. Such pleasures, as opposed to pleasures of the flesh, are worthy of a human being. The inner happiness of doing a good deed is predicated on the knowledge of good deeds, the human heartedness to want to help, empathy both to have awareness of another’s discomfort and to experience the joy of lifting that discomfort, as well as a soul to be able to feel such emotion at all.
While eating is pleasant and not eating unpleasant, both are states of being, not states of mind. A spider understands the difference between not eating and eating, but is lost at understanding a normative philosophy. As in, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The nihilist might pervert it to, “do unto others before they do unto you…” And the hedonist might make it, “Do unto others as often as possible…” But the spider cannot comprehend any of them. Mere animals, with very few exceptions, are unable to have a state of mind, the entirety of their existence is in their state of being. Which, if you think about it, is both tragic and unburdening. It is tragic, in that the brute is unable to truly see the beauty of a flower, and unburdening, since it gives them the ability to be in the moment.
At best, the hedonist might have a century with which to embrace nothing but sensual pleasure, while an aesthetic, intellectual or religious, has all of eternity to enjoy pleasures of the mind. With the latest results of the double slit experiment, it becomes harder and harder to import existence as material, when it has been, and is being empirically proven… that our minds effect the very universe itself. The smaller the scale the greater our ability to effect it. A hedonist then, exchanges forever pleasure of the mind for a hundred years of enjoying only their state of being. One might argue that the hedonist, after dying and realizing the true nature of our universe, will simply turn to pleasures of the mind, but that argument rings hollow. Toss people in the middle of a lake and how many will make it to the edge?
Still, there are those who believe the life of a cluster fly best. Who am I to force them to change? I don’t have the arrogance to demand they adopt my point of view. Every one of us enjoys pleasures of the flesh. We eat good food, sleep under roofs, cool in air conditioning and warm in central heat. We make love, cuddle in a warm blanket on cold nights and enjoy soda. Any enlightened person understands, both, that we all enjoy sensual pleasures, and that we should not force others to eschew them, nor demand others engage in or condone them. Yet the elite normalize hedonism. They teach our children to be hedonists. People who’s personal lives are utterly disturbing seek to control everyone else’s. So I ask, if I can let you be what you want… why not let me be me?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
