anhedonia

ANHEDONIA: n. - A lack of pleasure or of the capacity to experience it.
It is utterly fascinating that human science has created the term "anhedonia". At this point in our history, only a species that is astonishingly out of touch with its own nature would be capable of pathologizing an individual incapable of feeling joy. We have strayed so far from our natural state, that far from being some kind of aberration, "anhedonia" is a perfect description of the current human condition. It is only through force of will and layers of denial that people in this world are able to function at all. Yet there is currently no psychotherapeutic term to describe this denial we live every waking moment. It's normal...so of course it's not pathological.
Is it?
Imagine a world where your average workday is two to three hours. The rest of the time is for...whatever. Something. Nothing. One of the most brilliant quotes by one of America's most brilliant writers is "we are here on earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different". It's possible that Vonnegut himself didn't fully understand the depth of that quote, or the science of human nature that underpins it.
Imagine a world where the word "MINE" doesn't exist. A world where caring for everyone is as natural and easy as breathing...because everyone cares for you.
Imagine a world where you can have sex whenever you want, with whomever you want.
Some pathetic, maudlin utopia?
No.
It's the life humans were born to live. The life humans lived for at least 99% of our history. The life that was, before the agricultural revolution. Ten thousand years later...how are you?
It is only through an incalculable framework of coping mechanisms that you are able to answer anything other than "pained and empty".
How many people who work forty or more hours a week would do so if they didn't have to? How many people can imagine a love/sex life indescribably more fulfilling than the one they have? How many people keep running on their personal hamster wheel out of fear of what might happen if they stopped? They might end up poor. Or alone.
Guess what? You're already there.
What is the core message of capitalism? Take care of yourself, no one else will.
There are three emotional states that have dominated your consciousness your entire life.
Emptiness.
Isolation.
Fear.
This emptiness is not what we were born for. Perhaps you can't feel it through your layers of denial. Your body knows the truth, even if you don't. This emptiness pervades us down to the cellular level. The very fiber of our beings cannot comprehend it. Our confused flesh reacts in the only way it can, compelling us to try to make the pain stop. Our bodies push us into excessive behaviors that would never interest a healthy human. We numb ourselves with drugs...an overflowing pharmacopeia which removes us from reality, topped off by that king of all self-medications, alcohol (i'm not invoking street winos as much as Mrs. or Mr. Mainstream having one to "take the edge off"). We fill our emptiness with religion...mainstream, fringe cults, or gurus of self-help. We eat enough food for two. We fill our lives with the false cameraderie of a sporting event. Reality TV takes us out of our own. We try to heal ourselves with sex...a cure that cannot succeed, for this world teaches us neither how to love nor how to fuck (and the great secret thereof, that they are one and the same). We caffeinate. We masturbate. We acquire, acquire, acquire, acquire...ACQUIRE!!!!!! Even an intense love of music or humour can be reduced to the need to produce pain-dulling brain chemicals.
In our misery, we batter each other. Mentally. Physically. Our bodies lash out from the loss of physical and mental comfort which are our birthright. We act hatefully, spreading a misery we can neither quiet nor comprehend. A healthy human dropped into our midst would refuse to believe her or his eyes. She or he would be absolutely incapable of adapting, and would quickly go insane trying.
And those individuals we label with "addict" or "depression" or "anti-social" or "bipolar" or "suicidal" or "anhedonia", these are humans who are simply unable to rationalize or deny as successfully as their "well-adjusted" peers. But these people are actually a step closer to genuine sanity...and their lives are unbearable because of it.
I'm not talking about pre-agricultural humans living some utopian dream. Tragedy is always close at hand, in this veil of flesh and tears. And people then, as now, had likes and dislikes...a favorite uncle, a cousin who rubs you the wrong way. But their relationship to all the people in their lives was imbued with a sense of belonging which is incomprehensible to you and i.
Anhedonia?
You may laugh or cry, if you feel anything at all.

(for more on the science of human nature: http://nakedmeadow.blogspot.com/2012/02/sex-at-dawn.html)