[ExI] 1984 and Brave New World

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Sat Jan 30 12:09:17 UTC 2010


2010/1/27 John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:
> Well sure, but how likely is it that we will choose the path of progress
> especially when we can receive the pride of making great progress while
> sitting on our ass and without progressing one inch. If you think this is a
> debasement of the human spirit then all you need to do is change your mind,
> and I do mean CHANGE YOUR MIND. Now you think the idea is downright noble.

Absolutely you can. But you would not, if you like the idea of
actually choosing it, and not just getting the illusion.

In fact, you could even choose to alter the human mind to induce
restlessness, eagerness for change and quest for greatness where the
same is too easily and too promptly self-contented... :-)

> But who among us
> wouldn't want to be a little happier?

Depends on dominant societal values (unless of course "happiness" is
interpreted in so broad a sense as to become as insignificant as the
"economic interest" of the non-falsifiable version of classical
economic theory).

For instance, monotheism was an era marked for a long time by the
obsession of... suffering as expiation.

And there are of course more H+ oriented POVs on the subject:

<< What is the greatest thing ye can experience? It is the hour of
great contempt. The hour in which even your happiness becometh
loathsome unto you, and so also your reason and virtue.
  The hour when ye say: "What good is my happiness! It is poverty
and pollution and wretched self-complacency. But my happiness should
justify existence itself!">> (Also Sprach Zarathustra).


-- 
Stefano Vaj



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