On Hedonism (#3)

What is happiness? According to the modern hedonists it is the simple production of pleasure and by extension the production of hormones which achieve this in response to extrinsic stimuli. Are we to spend our whole lives stimulating the brain? To me this leaves us with a conclusion of resounding lugubriosity where we are nothing but biological machines striving for pleasure. In a system where this is the case, we are nothing but chattel under those who have ownership or a destructive monopoly over methods of producing desirable results. In the moments where we are deprived of methods of fulfilling heightened levels of debauchery, hedonism and avarice we would be totally exposed to the bitter truth; that such a life is meaningless. One would be utterly inconsolate and morose, only living for the next dose of pleasure and the one after in a perennial cycle of extreme highs and lows.

The elimination of this cycle and the use of methods that completely eliminate displeasure is arguably worse for without the knowledge of physical or mental adversity, how are we to determine the value or indeed definition of it’s antithesis? Indeed, a state of onliest pleasure would cease to be pleasurable, as this is a relative term, rather it would simply become the new norm that seals humanity in a coffin of reprobate and jaded pococurantism in relation to anything but pleasure seeking.

Hedonism is all but a perverse and shallow simplification of an incredibly complex issue, one that demands a solution that is of the utmost subtlety, elegance and simplicity and one which can simultaneously attain the sophistication required to account for the complexities of life.