Fredrich Nietzsche said:
What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself.
What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness.
What is happiness? The feeling that power increases — that a resistance is overcome.Hedonism is a philosophy that promotes more pleasure and less pain, but in all actuality it would be difficult to enjoy happiness and pleasure without knowing pain and sorrow. I've said before I find it ironic that the more I suffer in life the more I actually want to progress and enjoy my life. Someone who has never been through hardships and has a good life may one day find himself bored, irritable and discontent, wanting excitement and thrill as opposed to his boring but happy life. Somebody who has been through hell and back and then later on finds his purpose or his happiness will remember the dark days with a melancholy nostalgia, realizing those hardships made him who he is today.
Another paradox is the constant chasing of pleasure, a most common example would be of an addict. Once the addict realizes that he is in a constant chase of the next high, and as tolerance grows the more and more an individual uses, then he is a classic example of the hedonist paradox. What was once fun, exciting and euphoric has now left him alone, living in darkness and fear.
As an ex-nihilist, I can say there are many paradoxes within this highly misunderstood philosophy. Most nihilists are usually just extremely angry, depressed and apathetic people who don't see a point to anything in life because of problems in society and the inevitable fear of death and one's own morality. As a nihilist goes on living his life while saying life is meaningless it is almost hypocritical and somewhat of a defense mechanism. When I was 17 I gave up on life and found it meaningless, started using drugs and dropped out of high school and then roamed the streets. Recently, I found myself wandering around aimlessly, chasing the same high that I wanted, doing the same bullshit on a different day, and realized I was wasting my life with self-loathing narcissistic behavior, wasting my time being sad and angry over things I just could not change, and the drugs / sex / party lifestyle just wasn't as fun as it used to be.
I'm not talking down to nihilist or hedonist philosophy, I've considered myself one for many years. However the constant chase for drugs and sex, the bloated feeling of overeating, and the depression from doing absolutely nothing in my life have made me want to progress as an individual. As human beings we all have vices and overindulge. I went to an AA meeting where half the room were joking about being addicted to ice cream, and of course half those bums / old geezers are guzzling coffee and smoking cigarettes, which I will admit confused me at first, but then I realized: some addictions are deadly, such as alcohol and meth in my case, whereas some overindulgence is ok and a little bit healthy, like ice cream or marijuana or video games. There has to be a gray area, a middle ground if you will, when being a hedonist. Abstinence is for monks, moderation is key. I also realize that maybe there is no grand purpose to life but we as individuals need to find or create that purpose for ourselves. I cannot truly say there is no God because I do not claim to have all the world's knowledge, and I cannot say that God is dead because I don't have knowledge if he had ever existed, and I cannot say there is life after death so all I can say is enjoy your life, be kind and don't have too much fun. ^_^
No comments:
Post a Comment