[extropy-chat] Hedonism? Why or why not? Was (John C. Wright finds god)

[Brett Paatsch]

Trend Ologist wrote:

> Hedonism is something of an accurate description of
> *my* philosophy but Escapism is more to the point. As
> some might turn to drink, drugs, religion, art,
> travel, and so on, I continually escape not so much
> from reality but from the power-grasping of others; I
> think most people are motivated by power, and to spend
> an entire lifetime avoiding the clutches of others
> seems a decent manner of life to my way of reckoning.
> Name your poison, Brett.

Sounds like you have a life dedicated to not dying and not
being of service or a resource to power-grasping others. 
And that sooner or later you think you will die, either as a
result of power grasping by others or as a result of "natural"
causes.

And that seems a "decent" life.  Aren't you trading life fullness
for life duration? That isn't bad necessarily but it doesn't
appeal to me.  

Unless denying others gives you pleasure than, to me, even
hedonism has more to recommend it than your escapism as
at least hedonists value their own pleasure. Your life seems
to be dedicated only towards a denial of others pleasures.

That doesn't seem like the sort of life that you could have 
always aspired too, it contains no obvious positive impetus
for going on because it contains no goals, pursuits, or values.
Or do you have these and leave them out? Am I missing
something?

In the classics (perhaps slightly corrupted in my head by the 
movie Troy), facing a life without any prospect of immortality
Achilles had a choice, he could conduct himself in such a way
as to have a long laborious life (as he saw it), or a short glorious
one (as he saw it). 

As I understand it, what made Achilles different was his perception
of the choice. Those that do not face their mortality squarely across
a span of years or even decades cannot so deliberately choose. They
can't weight the trade. (I assume we are all born wanting to live). In
knowing that he was mortal I imagine Achilles could apply a sort of
calculus that weighted the values of his moments. He could decide 
that a short glorious life was to be preferred over a long inglorious
one.  And that made him dangerous to other power graspers in a
world of power graspers because there were fewer scales on his
eyes than the majority of choice-deniers. He was motivated to be a
player, a predator, and a fighter not just a fleer.  He lived fully while
he lived and then he died as he would have done anyway. 

I'm not Achilles, and I'm not ready to name my poison. I'm still
working out what the likely default timespan is.  I hope I don't
settle for a "decent" life though - it would be disappointing I think. 

Brett