Survival as the ultimate goal and pleasure as the direction yet as a necessarily unachievable goal.

There has been a growing counter culture movement that goes against the liberation of freedoms and accelerated pleasures. This cultures encapsules many different internet communities and trends e.g. dry January, no-fap, leaving social media etc. These are all trends that are counter pleasure and commodity. Why do humans go against pleasure? how is this rational? Are we not taught from a young age that what feels good is good? You have to go out and party, drink, have sex, consume etc. This is the culture that is brought upon us from mass media and thus is reflected onto societal direction.

However, this in reality is simply a manipulation to create a society filled with pleasure seeking creatures that give in to consumerist mentality which benefits mass corporations and sources of power. How easy it is to control masses of people who are solely depended on consumption that you provide instead of follow their own ideas!

What this mentality does is take advantage of that instinctive nature of trying to achieve pleasure and contentment. For example, in pre historic times, helps indicate humans to what was good for them to survive, e.g. high calorie foods and reproduction. These were all things hard wired in our brains for the survival of humanity.

However, because of external restraints, we were unable to ever achieve these sensations fully, nature provided us with a limit to achieve these things. This was therefore more than anything a direction, a direction of survival to be able to reproduce and be a successful species. But only a means, not an ends. The ends was only an idea that fed the means which led to survival; which was regulated by external factors and thus self regulating.

What occurred with the modernisation of civilisation and the accessibility to the easy means of survival is that the theoretical end, which is pleasure, ended up being the ultimate end. Instead of survival being the end, which was intended by our nature, the theoretical end of pleasure which led to our nature end of survival in a natural environment was turned into the ultimate end.

Think of it this way. Our real goal intended by nature is to survive, the same as any other animal on this planet. Our way of reaching that goal is by following out pleasure, e.g. high calorie food and more importantly reproduction. But now, our ultimate goal is not survival because we take it for granted, instead our goal is to find the most pleasure possible. Turning our theoretical goal for our ultimate goal (of survival), into our ultimate goal.

This leads to many problems as it completely brings apart all the benefits encountered from trying to achieve survival in a natural environment. For example, having close bonds with family, trying to have good relations with others, having responsibilities, improving mentality abilities to survives etc.

Lets create a story to express this idea: You are a primal man. In order to survive you have to have to find as much high calorie food as possible. Thus you have to learn to hunt, learn to work as a group, learn to have courage, learn to be brave, learn to fight an animal, learn to seek out an animal, learn to feast on that animal etc. Look at all the benefits you have gained from trying to survive as our ultimate goal and having pleasure of eating as your motivation to do it.

Another example: You are a primal man. In order to survive you must attract a woman. you must be the strongest, you must be the most attractive, you must be better than the rest in order to get laid. The motivation is to get laid and the natural pleasure of orgasm to achieve that aim. However, you encounter many skills and abilities to get to that motivation. That is only a motivation though, the ultimate goal is to reproduce. Or is it not. Why do we gain so much pleasure in having sex if the ultimate gain is to not reproduce. Why else would it be there? For our own enjoyment? Don't be moronic. The pleasure is not the ultimate end, it is the theoretical end for us to reach the ultimate end of survival!

Another example. You are a primal woman: You have a child, you want your species to survive, so you build a natural instinct of love for your child. Your child is now more able to curve and you proceed to influencing future generations. Now, this is a weird one because there is no pleasure there for motivation. It is simply a functional effect of having the goal for survival, without any pleasure motivation to pursue it. But as a response to the harsh world. This is another indication of how survival is the ultimate goal, not pleasure.

Women are a the finest creatures at reaching survival as they do not have that motivation of pleasure for survival. They are adaptable creatures that historically have only adapted to the external world for survival e.g. protecting children from the impulses of men, whereas men have driven towards survival through following impulses and pleasures e.g. having sex and hunting. This is mainly due to the physical difference between being a executor and a recipient. However, none is more or less valuable than the other. That is a social valuation by modern society which is driven by pleasure, not by survival, because both are equally as important for survival.

So what are we left with? The point is that are main objective as humanity is survival, not pleasure (which is publicised by modern media now a days). Through survival as being motive we are able to achieve far more greatness than if pleasure is our motive. Because through the motive of survival we do things such as create more concrete relationships, better family, better sexual lives, courage, code, loyalty etc. All the virtues come from having survival as the principle aim. These needs for survival are enhanced by a more punishable external environment e.g. in prehistoric times. However, now a days as there are no real external difficulties we are not pushed to having to initiate survival so we do not have to fulfil these virtues. As there is no motive for survival, we turn to the theoretical motive of pleasure which restricts us of these virtues and makes us unhappy.

But thankfully we have imagination! If we imagine a certain way of life which we must fulfil the goals of survival despite there being no physical obstacle there to make us go in that direction of survival then we will still achieve those benefits. This is where religion has gained so much power and popularity. Religion makes us fulfil these goals set by survival despite our disposable privileges to go through the route of pleasure. It makes us imagine a route which makes no sense to us because we are directed by pleasure but which leads us to richness as it leads to the ultimate goals of survival.

This is hard to get your head around. Its numerous factors which are all combined by rationality, feeling and emotion. Yet I feel as if it is the cure to modern human problems. I will in the future expand on this and make better sense of it. I'm not even that sure but I feel as if it is the truth. Peace.