闲人

When talking about drug use (not necessarily just abuse), there is a term "tolerance". Larger and larger amounts of drugs are required to bring about the same effect as the body gets used to the previous quantity.

Yet it seems, we are not that different from those who use drugs for recreation. We squander time and money, sometimes our health, just to seek that special feeling inside which we evaluate as good, or to escape that nasty feeling we evaluate as bad. It seems, all our actions can be attributed to a seeking out of or avoiding of feelings. And tolerance builds up. We find new things to entertain us and get bored of it. Depending on one's personality and affinity, some might find an interest to last a lifetime, and the corresponding pleasant feelings that go with it.

However, what we call good or bad feelings, really means "I like feeling like this", "I dislike feeling like that". There is really no objective way that a pleasant feeling is better than an unpleasant one. It is only preference that drives us to evaluate feelings as such.

If we are able to keep our emotions under reign and evaluate our evaluations, then things start to fall apart. We see having a stable career as "good". For example, a stable career leads to money leads to fulfillment of desires leads to temporary ending of desires leads to pleasant feelings hence it is good. A stable career also leads to constant income leads to low risk of starvation leads to avoidance of anxiety which is an unpleasant feeling. There are probably infinite configurations of these pathways, yet most if not all of them probably lead to one of two results, seeking or avoidance. Thus the people that we envy are those who satisfy the ability to seek and avoid more effectively in a socially acceptable manner (keeping in mind that if we talk about just effectiveness, popping a pill is probably the most simple effective way).

If there's no inherent value in pleasant and unpleasant feelings other than our preference, and if there's no inherent value in what we prefer, then a person in a position that can better fulfill those preferences are not inherently in a better position. Myself in a future position that can better fulfill those preferences is not inherently better than the person I am now.

Perhaps, there is nothing to seek.