Who is a winner?
I have three definitions for winners.
Society, as a whole, seems to have some problems with allowing people to accept the consequences of their choices. Those who succeed in achieving their external, materialistic goals are often vilified. Their Achille's heels are probed. Their success must be punished; the losers must get their fair share. Those who achieve internal happiness are often derided for their calm. Furious legislators try to find ways to reduce their happiness, to spread it out by law or decreee. For those who live in the present, seeking pleasure without responsibility, without long term consequences, without regard to future probability, American society is attempting to give these people a pass. This attempt to attain short term pleasure in pleasing those who only seek short term pleasure may turn out to be the fatal error of our representative republic.
The best future is built on sacrifices in the present. Happiness cannot be gained through material equality. And pleasure is meant as a temporary respite, not as lifestyle choice.
The true winners find happiness in existence; pleasure in the daily sacrifices for the future; and personal satisfaction living among others who share this world view. Winners help others to become winners, but only those who desire to win.
The reward for losers should be the ability to find winners to emulate; the opportunity to pick themselves up and try again.
Unfortunately, some people can only be winners in the third sense, lacking any concept of the future. These people live in the lowest level of winning. As long as they are willing to accept their lot in life, not to desire to take from the upper two groups, their lives are fine by me.
Some can never be winners in any sense. Does this make their lives even less significant? To a society, a civilization that strives for growth, perfection, progress and individual pleasure the answer is yes.
If you wonder why I place those who seek material good in the highest group, it is because these are the least selfish among us. They use their abilities to better the world, to create material improvements, knowing that when they leave the world they can take none of it with them. Those who seek internal happiness please themselves. Those who seek momentary pleasure, do not even please themselves in the long term and become burdens when they demand attention to their needs when pleasure passes them by. And those who are all around losers, they are the parasites, the freeloaders who desire nothing but to take; the black holes where resources are poured and nothing comes out.
- Those who achieve specific external, material goals.
- Those who achieve inner happiness.
- For the person who lives in the now, it is pleasure in the present.
For the most part, those who seek the first two winning approaches consider the future and act in a way that maximizes a future of winning. Those in the third group either don't consider the future as important or deny the effect of the present on the future.
As long as people accept their future, this is not a problem for them or for society.
Society, as a whole, seems to have some problems with allowing people to accept the consequences of their choices. Those who succeed in achieving their external, materialistic goals are often vilified. Their Achille's heels are probed. Their success must be punished; the losers must get their fair share. Those who achieve internal happiness are often derided for their calm. Furious legislators try to find ways to reduce their happiness, to spread it out by law or decreee. For those who live in the present, seeking pleasure without responsibility, without long term consequences, without regard to future probability, American society is attempting to give these people a pass. This attempt to attain short term pleasure in pleasing those who only seek short term pleasure may turn out to be the fatal error of our representative republic.
The best future is built on sacrifices in the present. Happiness cannot be gained through material equality. And pleasure is meant as a temporary respite, not as lifestyle choice.
The true winners find happiness in existence; pleasure in the daily sacrifices for the future; and personal satisfaction living among others who share this world view. Winners help others to become winners, but only those who desire to win.
The reward for losers should be the ability to find winners to emulate; the opportunity to pick themselves up and try again.
Unfortunately, some people can only be winners in the third sense, lacking any concept of the future. These people live in the lowest level of winning. As long as they are willing to accept their lot in life, not to desire to take from the upper two groups, their lives are fine by me.
Some can never be winners in any sense. Does this make their lives even less significant? To a society, a civilization that strives for growth, perfection, progress and individual pleasure the answer is yes.
If you wonder why I place those who seek material good in the highest group, it is because these are the least selfish among us. They use their abilities to better the world, to create material improvements, knowing that when they leave the world they can take none of it with them. Those who seek internal happiness please themselves. Those who seek momentary pleasure, do not even please themselves in the long term and become burdens when they demand attention to their needs when pleasure passes them by. And those who are all around losers, they are the parasites, the freeloaders who desire nothing but to take; the black holes where resources are poured and nothing comes out.
posted by DocBrain at
4:26 AM
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