I Hate Philosophy, Too
So my buddy Patrick was in town most of the summer, and this is What I Did On My Summer Vacation.
It's a short tale. I didn't really do jack through most of the summer. Been getting used to my new job. Been driving around and chatting with Patrick a lot. Been left high and dry by just about the only woman on this rock that I don't detest. That's life.
So back to Patrick. In doing all this driving around the same 144 square miles of home turf all summer, we could either talk or listen to music. Since, as you can see if you look at my full profile, I have horrid taste in music, we did a lot of talking. One of the subjects that tended to come up a lot was general philosophy. I don't study philosophy currently, nor have I ever. Patrick has, so I didn't mind learning a bit. I still don't plan to ever study philosophy, but it's nice to talk to somebody that might know what they're talking about. That's a definite change from the norm.
At any rate, Patty's first night in town brought him to ask me why nobody leaves this godforsaken hole. I don't really know, but I know why I haven't (aside from the lack of means by which to do so). Constant misery is not a bad thing. It's consistent. It's a lot easier to be content in slavery than it is to make an attempt at freedom. As long as the misery is consistent, a person can get used to it. Once a person achieves happiness, on the other hand, said person must work constantly to maintain that happiness. So, a happy person's life becomes an ongoing trial of worrying about what might happen tomorrow that will cause the happiness to wane. That's no way to live.
Me, I'm confident that I'm going to be just as miserable tomorrow as I am today. I know that I'm not going to do anything that might lead to my being happy, because then I'm just setting myself up for disappointment. That would be equivalent to me jumping off of the Henderson bridge (the twin bridges that lead from southwest Indiana to northwest Kentucky, spanning the Ohio River) and thinking that I might not hit the water. It's complete ass, and it's certainly no way to live.
So, the next time you think to yourself that you could be happier if you did things differently, think about the consequences of being happy. I think you'll probably find yourself to be quite miserable, and not the good kind of miserable.
It's a short tale. I didn't really do jack through most of the summer. Been getting used to my new job. Been driving around and chatting with Patrick a lot. Been left high and dry by just about the only woman on this rock that I don't detest. That's life.
So back to Patrick. In doing all this driving around the same 144 square miles of home turf all summer, we could either talk or listen to music. Since, as you can see if you look at my full profile, I have horrid taste in music, we did a lot of talking. One of the subjects that tended to come up a lot was general philosophy. I don't study philosophy currently, nor have I ever. Patrick has, so I didn't mind learning a bit. I still don't plan to ever study philosophy, but it's nice to talk to somebody that might know what they're talking about. That's a definite change from the norm.
At any rate, Patty's first night in town brought him to ask me why nobody leaves this godforsaken hole. I don't really know, but I know why I haven't (aside from the lack of means by which to do so). Constant misery is not a bad thing. It's consistent. It's a lot easier to be content in slavery than it is to make an attempt at freedom. As long as the misery is consistent, a person can get used to it. Once a person achieves happiness, on the other hand, said person must work constantly to maintain that happiness. So, a happy person's life becomes an ongoing trial of worrying about what might happen tomorrow that will cause the happiness to wane. That's no way to live.
Me, I'm confident that I'm going to be just as miserable tomorrow as I am today. I know that I'm not going to do anything that might lead to my being happy, because then I'm just setting myself up for disappointment. That would be equivalent to me jumping off of the Henderson bridge (the twin bridges that lead from southwest Indiana to northwest Kentucky, spanning the Ohio River) and thinking that I might not hit the water. It's complete ass, and it's certainly no way to live.
So, the next time you think to yourself that you could be happier if you did things differently, think about the consequences of being happy. I think you'll probably find yourself to be quite miserable, and not the good kind of miserable.
posted by pooster at 6:27 AM
1 Comments:
You know, that's actually a very strong Philosophy. Most people I know that are enrolled in Philosophy courses haven't even come up with that; but it sounds to me an awful lot like a Nihlist viewpoint. Either way, I'm afraid I have to agree with you. Why risk having to do something and strive for something in life, when we can be perfectly content being miserable? Why overcome our fears of being sad to go out and fall in love again? Why plant a flower if it's going to die at the end of the year? Why get out of bed in the morning if you're going to end up there again tonight? Why even bother living if you're just going to die anaway?
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