Hedonism

 The idea that pleasure is the ultimate goal of humans. To be completely free of pain, and to just enjoy the pleasures of the world. Although it sounds very vain, it bases on some sort of wisdom: That you only live once and that tomorrow is not promised. It questions the concept of saving till retirement and being able to comfortably live. Sort of an extremity on the pleasure side. It also states that people who do selfless acts do it because it gives them some sort of pleasure. Sort of a bit related to cynicism.

Does it make sense that people who believe in religious moral and etc do not gain pleasure then? Since more or less often religious values and morals do not end in pleasure or rather the conventional idea of pleasure. What is pleasure really? Happy or sad.

Why do things that are selfless then, if hedonism was truly the way that we were meant to live, would society work? Since everyone would only be thinking of themselves without sparing a second thought to the person beside or infront of him/her. What is the effect of such a society, and why isnt our society like that if hedonism truly was the way to go?

It then introduces a concept of pleasure and pain being the way that our lives work. To experience sadness and happiness at the same time. When you eventually go to college, you are happy because for once you are able to experience the things that you've always wanted to without your parent's supervision, do things by yourself, you have the freedom of choice. However you're sad because you leave behind the world of innocence you had as a child, the comfort of seeing your family and siblings on a daily basis, and generally you lose the view/perspective you had as a child or young teen.

Abraham Lincoln once visited his childhood house only to find it shambles as it had been torn down and repurposed. He said with tears in his eyes that he was happy because he could relive the memories he had as a child just being in the mere presence of the house that once was.

The video ends with the conclusion that we need to have a balance between pain or pleasure as that is the reality we live in. A utopian society where everyone just experiences pleasure will simply not work due to the comparison that we derive pleasure from: Pain, not being present. How then would we threshold pleasure?

Hedonism has some learning points as well as it is not completely baseless. It is true that one cannot predict what happens tomorrow so whats the point of foresight and saving for a future that may not exist. Therefore, we need to understand that although we save up for that future, we still bear in mind to appreciate the little things in life, the small pleasures, small wins that we can derive from day to day life, so that we can look back and have no regrets and feel accomplished.

Say you were on a road with a friend on the way to school. The car breaks down, and you have to walk to school. Instead of sulking that the car had broken down, appreciate the situation as it is. Take that walk, enjoy it, have a conversation with that friend, and share the funny story of how you and that friend ended up walking all 5 kilometers to school due to an unexpected breakdown.

Well isnt that a conversation starter.

Embrace your experiences. We dont necessarily have to look at it in a binary sense, we can enjoy