Index 
Happiness Morality
written today Do Away With Learning Incident at the Laundromat: An incident at the laundromat caught my attention today. The simple act of taking one person one' laundary out of a mixed pile with other person's laundary sets the scene for the incident. After each was taken out of its washers, both were place in one thoroughly mixed pile. I asked, “Why? When it is known that such action would cause unnecessary work for the other persons and anger toward the person who did it.” It was merely an assumption accepted without question by the answerer, who answered, “They did it to me.” I asked again, “Why?” The answer, “I don’t know” --- Ah, justification! At that point I assumed the assumption to be correct and proceeded to venture onto another assumption silently, lest it be invalid: that the sum total of all conscious and unconscious thought (processes) and all “instinctive” biologies drives tallys to a positive value for any person for any action at any time. The “good points” for a person outweigh the bad points for every action. (Note 8 Aug 2016: The “teeter-totter” metaphor) In order to commit an act we must will it (Nietzsche). Our muscles don’t work without signals. “They did it to me, so I’ll do it to them” then might translate, “The pleasure I get from hurting you is worth the pain I get from your hurting me.” How strange and sad that it takes pain to get pleasure. If this is an oversimplification, I think I’ll carry it a little farther, dissecting the logical "value" (an impossible thing) of such thought. If both parties enjoy the giving of pain enough to accept the same pain, they should rejoice when the pain is received and should thank the giver because it provides an impetus for behavior that will bring pleasure. Ah, but such is not the case, curses and statements of ill omen are directed at the giver of pain. Maybe that's OK too, because it may be a self-inflicted pain that increases a hateful feeling that will serve to further enhance the ensuing pleasure. If so, then even more thanks should be given to the giver of the original pain, a cycle which may have started before we were born, or even before our grandparents were born, or even before Adam and Eve. But who knows?,This was only an incident at a laundromat, and that’s perhaps what’s sad. Is sadness not a type of pain? Therefore, tha nk you for I am happy for being sad. Remember the assumptions. |