The Problem with the Pleasure-Pain Paradigm
A necessary shift in culture will make for a prosperous Automated Age
The Blight and Might of Pleasure
We've become accustomed to using pleasure and comfort as indicators of progress, alignment, and worth. Abundant societies like the United States, and much of the West, that rely on capital to measure economic growth, also socially view consumption as a signal for the state of societal well-being. With increased consumption comes an increased dependence on materialism as a facet of cultural identity.
Consumer culture, technological instant gratification, ease of comfort, abundance of entertainment, material wealth, luxury in health and wellness, the portrayal of role models as beacons of consumption, are all consequences of pleasure-seeking taken to an unhealthy extreme.
However, we must also keep in mind that pleasurable social states aren't natural. Economic prosperity, celebration of individualism, overcoming hardship, innovation, and geographical harmonization all come together to present an environment where the pursuit of pleasure is possible. Our avoidance of pain helped create civilization. The pain of labor drove automation and the pain of scarcity drove innovation. From a safer, more secure, and comfortable environment came a flourishing of art, culture, technology, and societal nuance. The Renaissance's focus on classical ideals in new forms of art or Romanticism's celebration of beauty were born from the culture's flourishing environment. Enlightenment ideals that influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States of America were reasoned upon through the pursuit of individual happiness. We have the pleasure-pain dichotomy to thank for the freedoms we hold today.
But, when abundance and ease outpace our ability to find purpose, what fills the void?
The Potential Fallout
The rapid change to culture brought about by the disruption of existing institutions and industries makes it attractive to reinforce existing cultural ideals as a way of coping. The current emphasis on pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain certainly promises to drive us into a self-defeating and life-denying extreme.
Seeking enjoyment, comfort, stability, peace, prosperity, and safety is a noble pursuit, but too much nourishment begets rot. To prevent cultural rot, like rising mental health crises, erosion of trust in institutions, social fragmentation, disconnection with Nature, and a loss of individual uniqueness, we must balance pleasure with heroic ideals, ideals that have been proven to aid civilization. Excellence, personal growth, glory, communal contribution, valor, moral integrity, and value creation all help to reinforce social cohesion, the quality of individual values, and the preservation of humanity, things we'll depend on during the coming age of automation.
This is a time to redefine what it means to be heroic. In fact, this is the only time we have to redefine culture in a way that steers clear of the fallout that comes with the uninhibited pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. The perceived compression of time due to the speed of change leaves us in this perpetual state of "catch up" where institutions, communities, and individuals struggle to adapt to shifts that occur more frequently than expected, like a shift in the weight of traditional labor as a source of identity.
We must become a heroic society reminiscent of past civilizations around the world, communities who respected the stimulating nature of excellence, greatness, honor, virtue, and courage.
What will the Hero of the Automated Age look like?
The Evolving Cultural Tapestry
The Hero meets existential dread with an odyssey of meaning-making.
The Hero fosters a sense of belonging and social harmony through an adherence to a value system that promotes the preservation and advancement of community by the way of individual growth.
Advancements raise complex ethical questions. The culture we have developed is incapable of providing the answers. But, a heroic culture provides a moral compass, guiding decisions that promote individual gain and social well-being.
Materialism in many ways rejects the idea of internal meaning by associating it with external resources. Heroism stresses our nature for purposeful action and shows that the reward for emotional and physical resilience is legacy, community, harmony, and intimacy.
We aren't being called to battle. We are not at war. We are not Knights, Samurai, Vikings, Spartans, Legionnaires, Persian Immortals, or citizen soldiers of Ancient Greece. We're men and women burdened with the threat of a cultural fallout, and our call to adventure is the reestablishment of strength, beauty, truth, harmony, and greatness. The Hero of the Automated Age isn't some militant representative protecting the motherland. The Hero isn't some politician making wide sweeping changes or big promises.
In the coming age, heroes will be individuals capable of navigating the diverse, global and digital net of perspectives constantly surfacing, and adapt to them to sustain cultural vitality and cultivate a renewed sense of purpose. This new group of heroes will prioritize legacy over likes and find purpose through stewardship not consumption. The future will not just be written by a few larger-than-life personalities or handful of grand narratives, but strung together with a web of smaller, localized models of excellence who appeal to universal ideals.
The cultural tapestry is kept intact through a reinforcement of values and is made resilient through the inclusion of new skills and insights.
In the Automated Age, the remnants of humanity, those who refuse to let go of sincere, hopeful, and creative expression, who craft meaning from chaos and face a post-truth, post-labor world with glimmering eyes, will surely become the shining, overwhelming, and enticing parts of the undying memory of humanity.
Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion depicts three figures loosely based on the Furies. He was inspired by Aeschylus' phrase "the reek of human blood smiles out at me" to create a piece based on what he felt by that line. He viewed the Crucifixion as a tale of human behavior instead of one of divinity. This artwork serves as a distortion of classical themes after World War II.
In a way, it symbolizes a shift in the pleasure-pain paradigm. Personal pleasures turned into escapism from war trauma. Pain, originally seen as something to avoid or overcome, became something we used to wrestle with meaning. Post-war, we see a rise in Existentialism and an expansion of consumer culture, which helped to shaped our current understanding of the relationship of pleasure and pain, a relationship that must be re-imagined.
Brilliant!!!!! Remain Human!