asg70 wrote: Human beings in general are pleasure seekers. Powerdown is ANATHEMA to that regardless of your political ideology. Asceticism simply doesn't sell.
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I agree with your comments about the young generation being more cognizant and I would add that they are maturing into adulthood with less wealth so this is putting a bit of backbone into their early cognizance. As they mature into those years of societal influence we will see how well they do. I do believe they will surprise us contrary to what many of the cynical old baby boomers on this site believe.
I also agree that this is much more than a political left/right issue.
Now to touch on this point of humans being pleasure seekers. I will go on a bit of a ramble since I am sitting in an empty eco resort and I have already spent 4 hours today in my greenhouse and working in our gardens.
Historically in our evolution pleasure was kind of like sugar, it was not abundant in early cultures. There was very little boredom also. Life was toil interspersed with leisure in small dosis. Pleasure was focused and concentrated during rituals and celebrations that came at the end of extended periods of constraints and hard work.
Sugar was rare in our environment in the past and we evolved pleasure sensors on our tongue and nose that created an endorphin rush when we found a stash of honey. That has fucked us up as modern humans because sugar is now abundant but our pleasure response to it is still stuck in the Pleistocene. That is why modern humans cannot manage sugar very well.
Seeking pleasure is maybe something similar. We seek it because historically it was not abundant. Now with decades of opulence it has caused an immense amount of indolence and cultural degradation because we can indulge in pleasure the way we indulge in sugar. Out of balance compared to our historical evolution.
Ascetism does sell though when folks are culturally exposed once again to the role it plays in balance with pleasure. Same with hard work. Same with serving others. When you focus on others and service and giving then when your spirit and soul is nourished by this the desire to seek pleasure is less intense. Spiritual inner fulfillment and inner peace reduces the need to seek pleasure externally.
There are innate aspects in our biology and very strong cultural ones regarding this.
We do not have mentors and spiritual leaders and an education system that teaches the rewards of a more ascetic lifestyle. That can teach the balance between service and seeking pleasure.
We have become a decadent culture. We do not know how to handle opulence well. We evolved with constraints and during the harvest when we danced and howled to the moon in pagan celebrations those dances were trance like and our pleasure was soulful and 100%
Today pleasure seeking has none of that deep celebratory intensity. Pleasure seeking today is pretty mediocre and related to passive entertainment. Even our pleasure seeking has become decadent!!!... That is how decadent we are actually. haha. LOL.
For me it is much more cultural than biological though.
The values that are missing in today's society is the teaching of service to others, civic duty, virtue, communion with nature, developing a reverence toward our mother earth and toward our fellow man. Instead it is all about focused on maximizing ones pleasure.
Another reason why the obsessive focus on seeking pleasure is because it reveals a spiritual void. When you give and serve to others or when you make a deep communion with the natural world then your avarice toward seeking pleasure subsides. Again and worth repeating, spiritual fulfillment reduces the need to seek pleasure because you cultivate inner peace instead of focusing on external pleasure points.
Todays religions are dead. Have been totally corrupted. Those that follow religions today play lip service to the deeper aspects of prayer and inner spiritual peace. It is mostly tribal like what George Carlin once mentioned in one of his stand up comedy skits about religion. Here it is in a 52 second summary. It should give you all a chuckle!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9c7TxKf-LsMaterialism has replaced a sense of reverence and religiosity. The worlds religions have become hollowed out institutions offering nothing.
Modern human culture suffers from a deep spiritual void.
More science and rational thought will not cure this.
I personally have found a sense of the sacred in wilderness and nature. That has been my antidote to the cultural malaise. I don't know how collectively though our society will once again turn toward the rewards of reverence and service and giving and move away from the shallow pleasure seeking entertainment we occupy so much of our time with.
What will it take to turn ourselves inward to exercise those long atrophied spiritual muscles?
God help us!
P.S. I am an atheist.