Pleasure and Power
Pleasure is a part of life. That is undeniable, and we are subconsciously or unconsciously driven by the pleasure principle. The problem with the pleasure principle is that it acts as a pleasure trap, where people can end up seeking what they feel is good for them and what makes them happy at all times, regardless of what wrongs are occurring in the world around them.
Source
Imagine a world where there were no wrongdoings, where everything was just peacefully blissful. We wouldn't have any work to do in terms of learning about the wrongdoings in order to avoid them or stop them, and everything would be good, at least that's what we can believe. But just because we don't want to learn about what wrongs are, what immorality is, or what evil is, it doesn't mean other people wouldn't. Just because we would stop learning how not to be manipulated, deceived and controlled by people with wrongful or evil intent, doesn't mean other people would not learn how to do that to us.
Some people would learn to manipulate others with knowledge that the others lack. The power differential would form for certain knowledge that is attained by some people and that empowers them to be able to manipulate others who are ignorant of that knowledge. Due to the power differential and level of ignorance to the unknown, sophisticated beliefs and constructs would be influenced, injected and inducted into the minds of many, like a spell being cast on their minds. They would buy into bullshit.
We already have this problem now, where people buy into centralized authoritarian government external control. People buy into the goodness of taxes not being theft. People buy into many aspects of reality that are veiled in goodness and right but are actually corrupted and wrong at their core.
When we end up having a lack of care for truth and morality, we end up being unaware and not having knowledge of important principles about how to live life. What we don't know, the unknown, can potentially be detrimental to our way of life. No matter how "perfect" things get, no matter how "perfect" we create our world, if we turn back to focusing on the pleasure trap and happiness over having to care for truth and morality, it will eventually always lead to our downfall. This is why truth is important and truth should come first.
Those who gain power through a power differential in knowledge to manipulate the masses are very focused on themselves and what they can get. They are motivated by what is "good" for them. They are motivated by pleasure gratification. It's all about them and their pleasure at the expense of others, with a disregard for others. The belief that you can do anything you want because you matter most is in line with Satanism of the darkest kind. Any pleasure you can derive for yourself is "good" for you, who cares about others. The cost to others does not matter because only you or your close ones matter to you in this morally relativistic way of living.
Survival and pleasure are part of life, but they are not the goal, purpose or objective for how to derive meaning about our life or existence. They are basic subconscious and unconscious motivations that drive our behavior. We can choose more meaningful and purposeful objectives and goals to lead us in life. We can expand our awareness to include more important things beyond the basics of survival and pleasure, and identify and care more about what is going on in the world. Not learning about things like self-knowledge and moral principles prevents us from being mentally defended from the manipulations of others.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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Nice text on an important topic!
When our cells signal for water, our brain produces the though "I need water" and this is all thoughts is, our cells chattering. Even power of manipulation and greed are our cells way of surviving, since both these aspects give higher survival rate. Survival for many in society is based on fitting in and being accepted, so letting go of these aspects would in a scene signal suicide, not only of ones identity and believes.
Moral does not come from this low base conscious, and do not by default improve survival rate and thereby goes directly against our nature. This is what makes following our moral so hard, knowing what is right and following it when every cell in our body tries to stop us is hard, it requires pure faith. A quality lacking in today's world!
Like Einstein said, even if he had his flaws "the evil in this world is not a result of evil men doing evil things, it is a result of god men doing nothing about it"
Peace
I tend to agree. The bio-natural unconscious aspects are on survival life, but the realer higher life comes from consciousness and conscience through moral living.
Pleasure is a general term for good feelings. People get pleasure eating, sleeping, watching television, or doing anything else they like. Pleasure is the opposite of pain. With pain it feels bad, but with pleasure it feels good. People talk about sexual pleasure, but that's just a guy. People get pleasure with delicious foods, interesting movies, beautiful music, and all kinds of other things. Something as small as a comfortable chair and something as big as your candidate being elected president can give you pleasure. If you spent a good day of celebration with your friends you can say "it was a pleasure."
Someone with power has control over something. So a weak man who is in charge of a business has a lot of power. The power comes from the Latin word "potere", which means "to be able". But things with power are much more than having the ability - they are capable of exerting a lot of force. "The powers that be" are those that have the authority, and "the power behind the throne" refers to the people who exert influence without being formally in charge.
There are indeed many who are more able to move the pieces on the chessboard in this world, while the rest get moved around ;)
I like the way you expressed yourself, life is like a game of chess, everything is about strategy
Truth is disregarded by those who are narcissistic. Ignorance to those who seek power is not true bliss. Power that is held by those who manipulate corrupts not only the head but eventually the whole entity. A fish rots at the head first so to with those who hold power. Thanks @krnel
Power tends to corrupt, and their consciousness rot inside as a result of exerting in unjustly ;)
Good post and nice chart @krnel. The thing is that whenever you move up from the 'ignorance' zone then there's no coming back. There's no way to step down and this is often painful as you're loosing so pleasure things. It's a blue/red pill dilemma really.
Yeah gaining knowledge and truth about things is hard to go back to not knowing. You can't unknow something that you know hehe. Unless you try hard to be ignorant lol.
The real pleasure is a feeling when we achieve an important goal in the life ...
When the goal is greater, happiness is greater.
Thank you @krnel
Achieving goals and objectives gives great satisfaction indeed.
Nice
A drug