Annihilation of Society: Discussions on Hedonism and the Social Contract

[Arnox]

Rock: Is money your god... ?
Revy: It's power. Something a lot more useful than God. And Rock, if you think about it, other than this, what do we really value in life? God? Love? Don't make me laugh... What's left for a poor little Chinese bitch to rely on? It's money, of course, and guns. Fuckin' A. With these two things, the world's a great place.

In our last discussion, we talked about the goal of ego-death and why it would be the equivalent to suicide. But we're going to go right across to the opposite side of the tracks now and talk about the opposite ideal. The belief (and ideal) that the self is the most important thing and that, directly connecting to that, it's best to put yourself and your pleasures above anyone and anything else.

Of course, of the two ideals, this one is probably the more attractive to most people, though it is also the most subtle and insidious as we are all inherently wired to preserve and serve the self even if we aren't consciously trying to do so. Inside each and every one of us is that primal side that wants everything their way, that wants to rely on nothing and no one, that feels their judgement is the best judgement. To have emotional connections is weakness. To sacrifice is weakness. You either conquer and indulge or you will be left behind and destroyed.

After all, if happiness is the most important thing any one of us can have, then it makes sense that we should all serve ourselves to maximize our happiness. Rules are an illusion. More like guidelines than actual rules. And rules are made by other people who are unreliable at best. What do they know? You're not going to play their game. No, you're going to do as you like, and fuck anyone that gets in your way.

Alright, but let's rewind for a second. If we say that happiness is the most important thing, then isn't there a way we can all live for everyone to be happy and for nobody to get hurt? In fact, perhaps there's a way for a group to live where the group's happiness is actually enhanced as opposed to everyone being entirely selfish. Does this society even exist? Or are we sticking our head in the clouds? What would this society look like?

Utopian society concepts are hardly new, and humanity has been arguing on the best way to achieve such for millennia. And while I have my own theories on this, I'm not really here to discuss them so much as to discuss what will definitely NOT work. For a civilization to be a civilization at all, there must be a set of rules that everyone in that civilization agrees to follow. By cooperating and not fighting, work is greatly multiplied, and stability is at its maximum. From there, certain things can now be relied upon, and that alone solidifies the foundation for greater gains for everyone AS LONG AS that binding holds, which is known here as the social contract.

The contract is disrupted when one person or a group of people do not follow these rules. If that happens, then that behavior has to be stopped in some way or else the social contract will be completely torn and then we're all back to square one. It is also disrupted when the rules are unnecessarily tipped in favor of a particular group or even just one person.

Now this all sounds obvious and great and everything, but we still see signs of such selfish mentality whenever I hear talk about politics. The temptation to turn to our selfish impulses also becomes incredibly strong when we or those we love are hurt or even killed by others who refuse to follow the contract. The cold hard truth though that we all must face is that it doesn't matter what others do. The contract must be upheld. Standards must be kept if we are to keep ourselves elevated out of the mud and reach that sky we all look up to in wonder and desire.

I am now going to close with two quotes from one of my most loved rants disguised as a fictional work.

Morals- all correct moral laws- derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.

A juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with.