We perceive the world through contrast. It is impossible to discern objects, concepts, or emotions as things in themselves, only as what they are not. There are no absolutes or fundamental truths when it comes to human existence; there is only what is and what is not. The problem with that statement is that it is itself an absolute, and as such it states a literal absolute that rhetorically admits the existence of counter examples. So, what is the intention of this argument?
I’m making an attempt to explain why Thomas Hobbes can say that life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" and be correct while still allowing for the existence of happiness and comfort. The first task, then, is to explain what I mean by contrast. The following passage, from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick describes a scene in which Ishmael and Queequeg shelter in their bed on a cold morning.
“We felt very nice and snug, the more so since it was so chilly out of doors; indeed out of bed-clothes too, seeing that there was no fire in the room. The more so, I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small part of you must be cold, for there is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. But if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed, in the general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm. For this reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich.”
It is these ‘luxurious discomforts of the rich’ that make it possible for the borderline poor and the incredibly wealthy to exist at relatively even levels of happiness. As Don Quioxte said, “Hunger is the best sauce in the world.” There have been many times when I’ve rejected a chance at comfort or happiness. Sometimes for the benefit of others, sometimes out a kind of masochism that thinks I’ve lived too long with pain to know who I am without it. It’s the perpetual paradox of the pessimist that when you always expect the worst, you’re always right or pleasantly surprised. The lower bound of this kind of cynicism can be glimpsed in this quote from Orson Scott Card’s short story The Originist from Maps in a Mirror.
“There is no such thing as an unbreakable bond between people. Nothing can last. Nothing is, finally, what it once seemed to be. Anyone who thinks he has a perfect marriage, a perfect friendship, a perfect trust of any kind, he only believes this because the stress that will break it has not yet come. He might die with the illusion of happiness, but all he has proven is that sometimes death comes before betrayal. If you live long enough, betrayal will inevitably come.”
Life is in the struggle, what I am is what I’ve done and what’s been done to me. I know I’d never be content if it weren’t for the constant reminder of the alternative. I can stop short of deliberately ruining a relationship while still being able to say, “I have to go, I’m almost happy here.” Real people don’t ride off into the sunset. When the sun sets you still have to make dinner and do the dishes. To me, happiness isn’t getting what you want, it’s knowing what you want and being able to grasp at it piece by piece while the whole remains out of reach. The source of the English word tantalizing comes from the story of Tantulus, son of Zues. As a punishment for revealing the secrets of the gods, Tantulus was forced to stand in a pool of water with branches of luscious fruit trees hanging overhead. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the wind blew the branches out of his reach. When he bent down, the water receded before he could drink. The torment of Tantulus is the fate of all mankind. We are surrounded by the pleasures of this world, but if we devote ourselves to seeking them we doom ourselves to being miserable. Happiness is being able to appreciate a lack, and more importantly to be able to enjoy the attempted acquisition of happiness as a blessing in itself.
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