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I’m willing to bet that most people think that they want to be happy. After all, why wouldn’t we? Well, I’m not going to suggest that we actually want to be unhappy (and don’t know it, subconsciously– but I also don’t believe there to be any sentient being in existence that really wants to be happy.
I’m of the opinion that if a person really desires a certain state of existence, they will obtain it. Or another way of putting it, the time until a person reaches the given state is directly proportional to the intensity of their desire for it; thus, a person with pure desire (which cannot possibly exist, as discussed several paragraphs below) would achieve any given mind-state instantly after they desire it. However, most people don’t desire happiness above all (such individuals that do are called hedonists). Although my judgement for this is yet to have any backing aside from superficial empiricism, I’m fairly sure that most individuals “put happiness on the backburner” due to social obligations, which are sadly motivated primarily by fear (i.e. of rejection) — sad because fear is an unhealthy motivator for any action, because it’s IMO inherently destructive in nature. Japanese culture is motivated mostly by obligation, so it’s really no surprise so many people commit suicide. It reminds me of this nature flick I saw several years ago showing bees literally work themselves to death- there is a very distinctive resemblance.
If a person really desired anything, they would hurt people, destroy lives, and flatten anything or anyone in their path to obtain it- all without a hint of remorse. That is because with such extreme desire (and absolute desire is inherently extreme) everything else becomes meaningless, expendable, worthless. Tyrants are, for example, the result of individuals desiring power above all else. That is why hedonism is considered a taboo lifestyle: also happiness is considered a good thing- when a person steals others happiness in the process, such an individual becomes detrimental to society.
The answer to this crossroads of passion and pleasure then, is priorities. Very few people genuinely desire unhappiness. I recently thought I did, but this was due to an improper use of inference. That is, I thought that because I did not desire happiness, I must desire unhappiness. But it’s not that I don’t desire happiness, it’s that my desire for it is so little I can’t see it most of the time. For me, happiness is not even a low priority, it’s just “nice” or “convenient”.
Conversely, some of the thing that are high priorities for me (that I greatly desire) prove themselves to be sources of great suffering and unhappiness. Thus, it’s not that I desire unhappiness, it’s that unhappiness is an unfortunate side-effect of my desires for knowledge, self-discovery, truth, and independence.
To a great extent I have attained independence, but to anyone who would wish to follow that path, I’d advice you not to- it’s not worth it- the price is too great. To become completely independent requires that one view everything as completely meaningless- that is, nihilism. If anything has any meaning to you, you are no longer independent, because the moment it has value, you acknowledge that to some extent, you need it. Complete independence requires assessing everything and everyone- even yourself, as completely and utterly worthless. And don’t think that you can go halfway independent without such a consequence, because *the level of your independence is reciprocal and directly proportional to how much value you place on yourself, things, and others. It’s not worth it.
So passion and pleasure are not always compatible- in fact, most of the time they are not.
There is actually very good reason for why humans tend to desire things that will not make them happy (as supposed to desiring happiness itself), and it lies in instinct, and evolutionary tendencies. To the point: Happy people do not live long. If a person is happy, they will not learn, they will not grow, they will not improve upon themselves, and they will not be of any assistence to others (note I am referring to pure happiness- ecstasy). Because happiness is a state of complete content, there is no reason- no motivation whatsoever to do anything. Because desire is motivated by a state of discontent, It’s impossible for a person to desire nothing but happiness, because that’s practically a contradiction. This is one of the great ironies of life: People “desire” happiness, but desire is in fact the one thing that stands in the way of achieving happiness. As long as a person desires things, they will never be happy.
On that note: as I noted in a post a while back (I can’t find it- maybe I wrote it but never typed it?) The moment I become aware of my own happiness, I begin to lose it. I’ve finally found the explanation for this: Although escapism is commonly attributed to activities that are or encourage anti-social behaviors (i.e. done alone), my definition of escapism (which naturally I believe to be more proper) expands this to include social activities too. That is, escapism is anything that is done at least partly with the motivation of escaping the reality that is most obvious when doing nothing. To explain: because desire and happiness are inherently antithetical (as logically proven (somewhat) above), a person can only be truly happy when they are not self-aware (i.e. to “lose oneself” via escapism), and they more aware a person becomes of their happiness, the less happy they become. This is because by becoming aware of their happiness, they also become aware of their desires, at which point their happiness is suffocated by their desire.
In my premises page: (quoting myself :P ) “To appreciate, and be aware of anything, one must also appreciate and be aware of the corresponding antithesis; the extent to which one can appreciate and be aware of the former, is directly reciprocal to the latter.”
The only way to achieve happiness then, is to escape from oneself. because we are driven by desire, to be happy requires [temporary] forgetting that you even exist. (I mean, of course you exist, but it’s more like you don’t even concern yourself with your existence, like it doesn’t matter if you exist or not; kind of like being a dream- deep down inside you know it’s a dream, but most of the time you forget, because you’re so busy enjoying the dream that it doesn’t even matter if it’s a dream anyway- that kind of thing. This type of forgetting, which helped me better understand the perception of schizophrenics, and the blind faith of religious adherents (particularly Christianity and Islam)- I go into it more in depth in a future post.
So escapism is, when expanded to the scope of my definition, one of the only ways to be happy, and chances are most (if not all) people that do no “escape” from time to time are extremely unhappy. So I’m an escapist, and I’m proud of it :-)
Once again, I am given proof that Balance is the best way to go- if you are completely happy, you will die, but if you are completely unhappy, you will also die (commit suicide). To move forward, mature, grow, harden, learn, and improve upon oneself, desire is an absolute necessity. But ironically, the suffering that comes from desire is what allows such qualities to develop in the first place (perseverence). Buddha was right- desire really is the cause of suffering- so much for the passion for pleasure I’ve heard so many people claim to have!
