I've been a long-time fan and love-crush of Lights. Excited to see that she's making new music for me again.
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Sunday, July 30, 2017
Monday, July 3, 2017
Pain before pleasure
I explained this to my friend the other day and now I think it's time to write about it:
People desire pain more than they desire pleasure. Psychologists are wrong.
Pain gives us motivation; it gives us a reason and a purpose. Pleasure is fleeting, it only lasts for a brief moment usually, and then we have to work very hard to achieve it again. I think people have been doing this for so long that they've subconsciously realized that the "easy"route in life is to enjoy pain.
See, the thing that psychologists were trying to describe was that people have a natural tendency to do what is easiest. They want the easy life, and if that life has more pleasure then pain, great, otherwise it's not worth it to recalculate and try again.
"Being yourself" is the definition of this. It's easy to be yourself. It's easy to say "I don't like that so I'm not doing it again", it's easy to justify decisions based on subjective criteria that centers around what you are best at, because if you are good at a thing, or it comes naturally, then it's easy for you.
Back to my original premise: people prefer pain over pleasure.-- It's not so much that they prefer it, it's that it's easier to be wrong than absolutely right. It's easier to make mistakes than to calculate the perfect course of action that will lead to the most pleasure. As I've argued time and time again, everything is always changing, and for most people it's easier to accept change, stick their head in the sand or grin and bear it rather than protest, stick up for themselves, and adapt.
I've seen people who have it made, seemingly by accident. They appear to have the good and simple life, and yet when change comes, they will abandon it on a whim. I've seen people who want so much out of life that when they finally get it they aren't satisfied with it because it doesn't involve enough pain and drama.
What are we humans?
Are were more than bags of meat tossed in the grinder of life? Do we truly hold on to the things we love and enjoy because we want to keep them or do we hold on to them at all? Do they stick with us because of anything that we do, or do they stick with us because it's easier.
People are sheep. They would rather not do hard things even if it causes them pain by not doing them. They do not think when they don't have to. They do not make decisions when they do not have to. And yet, pain is the motivating favor to thinking or decision making.
The dark, unsettling truth about life is that what need to experience pain now and again to realize that we are alive. We need pain to appreciate the pleasurable things. We need pain to justify our actions. We need pain more than we need pleasure.
Furthermore, I think people recognize this subconsciously. Their subconscious is a pattern seeker and probably realized this pattern long ago. Pain leads to pleasure, so why not do things that cause pain in order that pleasure will result?
Self sabotage is real. People will unknowingly sabotage themselves. These days it's easy to get attention (a pleasure) by causing drama then complaining about it. It's easy to feel high and powerful by resorting to drugs and tobacco. It's easy to feel as though you are happy, just by numbing your brain through alcohol. It's easy to push people away and feel in control or independent.
Those things are easy.
Then comes pain, which your subconscious has already associated with eventual pleasure, and suddenly you start to like the pain. You start to cause pain every where you go. You forget how to hold on to pleasure, and you forget how to manually obtain it. Your pleasure and pain cycle is on autopilot because it's so much easier that way.
It's not that self harmers enjoy the pain of a razorblade, it's that they enjoy the endorphins that their body releases to comfort them in response.
This is the greatest flaw of mankind. We are accustomed only to pain bringing pleasure, and we feel out of place or that the world is off when we receive pleasure without pain.
People desire pain more than they desire pleasure. Psychologists are wrong.
Pain gives us motivation; it gives us a reason and a purpose. Pleasure is fleeting, it only lasts for a brief moment usually, and then we have to work very hard to achieve it again. I think people have been doing this for so long that they've subconsciously realized that the "easy"route in life is to enjoy pain.
See, the thing that psychologists were trying to describe was that people have a natural tendency to do what is easiest. They want the easy life, and if that life has more pleasure then pain, great, otherwise it's not worth it to recalculate and try again.
"Being yourself" is the definition of this. It's easy to be yourself. It's easy to say "I don't like that so I'm not doing it again", it's easy to justify decisions based on subjective criteria that centers around what you are best at, because if you are good at a thing, or it comes naturally, then it's easy for you.
Back to my original premise: people prefer pain over pleasure.-- It's not so much that they prefer it, it's that it's easier to be wrong than absolutely right. It's easier to make mistakes than to calculate the perfect course of action that will lead to the most pleasure. As I've argued time and time again, everything is always changing, and for most people it's easier to accept change, stick their head in the sand or grin and bear it rather than protest, stick up for themselves, and adapt.
I've seen people who have it made, seemingly by accident. They appear to have the good and simple life, and yet when change comes, they will abandon it on a whim. I've seen people who want so much out of life that when they finally get it they aren't satisfied with it because it doesn't involve enough pain and drama.
What are we humans?
Are were more than bags of meat tossed in the grinder of life? Do we truly hold on to the things we love and enjoy because we want to keep them or do we hold on to them at all? Do they stick with us because of anything that we do, or do they stick with us because it's easier.
People are sheep. They would rather not do hard things even if it causes them pain by not doing them. They do not think when they don't have to. They do not make decisions when they do not have to. And yet, pain is the motivating favor to thinking or decision making.
The dark, unsettling truth about life is that what need to experience pain now and again to realize that we are alive. We need pain to appreciate the pleasurable things. We need pain to justify our actions. We need pain more than we need pleasure.
Furthermore, I think people recognize this subconsciously. Their subconscious is a pattern seeker and probably realized this pattern long ago. Pain leads to pleasure, so why not do things that cause pain in order that pleasure will result?
Self sabotage is real. People will unknowingly sabotage themselves. These days it's easy to get attention (a pleasure) by causing drama then complaining about it. It's easy to feel high and powerful by resorting to drugs and tobacco. It's easy to feel as though you are happy, just by numbing your brain through alcohol. It's easy to push people away and feel in control or independent.
Those things are easy.
Then comes pain, which your subconscious has already associated with eventual pleasure, and suddenly you start to like the pain. You start to cause pain every where you go. You forget how to hold on to pleasure, and you forget how to manually obtain it. Your pleasure and pain cycle is on autopilot because it's so much easier that way.
It's not that self harmers enjoy the pain of a razorblade, it's that they enjoy the endorphins that their body releases to comfort them in response.
This is the greatest flaw of mankind. We are accustomed only to pain bringing pleasure, and we feel out of place or that the world is off when we receive pleasure without pain.
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