Or perhaps evolution made us to be largely happy strivers - and dysphoria indicates we are doing something for which we weren't designed or which isn't evolutionarily optimal (such as working long hours in an office, eating junk food, and so on). The implied solution here would be to restore things to closer to what we are designed for.
29 July 2012 at 00:49
dearieme said...
Music can help. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRpaxsbUE-8
@ajb - Most anthropologists think that hunter gatherers are the happiest and most contented societies, on the whole. From that perspective, the invention of agriculture was the greatest disaster.
This was a major focus of my pre-conversion writings from circa 1998-2007, e.g.
For some markers of well-being, I suppose the invention of agriculture is the anthropological-evolutionary equivalent to leaving the garden.
29 July 2012 at 16:35
Andrew said...
Nature forces man to "leave the garden" - because man exists. It is like opening Pandora's Box. The recent nuclear race stands as a prime example, we need to have what technology others have in order to protect our existence, even if it makes that existence uncomfortable. There is forever a greater threat and striving is endless. We defeated the lion to fight the man to overcome nature to try and escape the earth before we destroy ourselves by destroying nature. We overcome nature - can we overcome ourselves? Perhaps that is something where religion is absolutely necessary once again, not to help guide us in our struggle against ourselves to prevent our unintentional suicide.
"The neglected idea is that dysphoria is intrinsic to the human condition - it tells us something about the nature of reality. The state of sin as basic, universal, unavoidable. In the past, it seems, almost everyone believed this was the bottom-line."
Bingo. It is simply, inescapably, unavoidably *right* and *good* and *just* that man should be unhappy, having deliberately severed himself from the source of all joy -- and renewing that state of separation with every sin.
30 July 2012 at 14:42
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Dysphoria - feeling bad, unpleasant, pain, alienated, experiencing any form of subjective suffering...
Humans, obviously, dislike this - and what to do about it is one of the most fiercely contested of all areas of discourse.
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There is the therapeutic perspective - dysphoria taken to imply disease, and requiring treatment.
The is the distracting perspective - take your mind off the bad feelings.
There is an idea of intoxication, which is an extreme of distraction - make yourself unable to think about it by disabling brain function. In other words, stop being a human. Surprisingly popular option, this one.
Another is the evolutionary view that natural selection has made us to be unhappy strivers, goaded by instincts towards goals we will never be allowed to enjoy - the inference would seem to be that we should try to defy natural selection by a combination of the above (therapy, distraction, intoxication etc).
The neglected idea is that dysphoria is intrinsic to the human condition - it tells us something about the nature of reality. The state of sin as basic, universal, unavoidable. In the past, it seems, almost everyone believed this was the bottom-line.
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So either dysphoria is a normal state, from which we have periods of relief - or an abnormal, perhaps pathological state, from which any departure invites therapy.
The first is religious, the second psychological.
The first attempts to obliterate dysphoria - as indeed the primary objective in life, to be avoided at any price. The second regards dysphoria (or some dysphoria) as intractable, not something we should try to avoid at any price but to do with the nature of reality and thus proper beliefs, attitudes, behaviours.
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The psychological has now almost wholly displaced the religious perspective in public discourse - indeed the religious perspective on dysphoria is now widely perceived as ignorant, dangerous, cruel, nihilistic...
This may rank as one of the most profound ever changes in human perception - that an experience of dysphoria now automatically implies action to remove that dysphoria - as the major priority.
"What to do about dysphoria?"
7 Comments -
Or perhaps evolution made us to be largely happy strivers - and dysphoria indicates we are doing something for which we weren't designed or which isn't evolutionarily optimal (such as working long hours in an office, eating junk food, and so on). The implied solution here would be to restore things to closer to what we are designed for.
29 July 2012 at 00:49
Music can help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRpaxsbUE-8
29 July 2012 at 00:52
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7CV7FkiuSs&feature=related
29 July 2012 at 01:02
@ajb - Most anthropologists think that hunter gatherers are the happiest and most contented societies, on the whole. From that perspective, the invention of agriculture was the greatest disaster.
This was a major focus of my pre-conversion writings from circa 1998-2007, e.g.
http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/animism.html -
29 July 2012 at 06:37
For some markers of well-being, I suppose the invention of agriculture is the anthropological-evolutionary equivalent to leaving the garden.
29 July 2012 at 16:35
Nature forces man to "leave the garden" - because man exists. It is like opening Pandora's Box. The recent nuclear race stands as a prime example, we need to have what technology others have in order to protect our existence, even if it makes that existence uncomfortable. There is forever a greater threat and striving is endless. We defeated the lion to fight the man to overcome nature to try and escape the earth before we destroy ourselves by destroying nature. We overcome nature - can we overcome ourselves? Perhaps that is something where religion is absolutely necessary once again, not to help guide us in our struggle against ourselves to prevent our unintentional suicide.
29 July 2012 at 20:47
"The neglected idea is that dysphoria is intrinsic to the human condition - it tells us something about the nature of reality. The state of sin as basic, universal, unavoidable. In the past, it seems, almost everyone believed this was the bottom-line."
Bingo. It is simply, inescapably, unavoidably *right* and *good* and *just* that man should be unhappy, having deliberately severed himself from the source of all joy -- and renewing that state of separation with every sin.
30 July 2012 at 14:42