Miriam Webster defines Hedonism as: the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life.
This simple philosophy has been around since the dawn of humans. Live for the pleasures of the moment. It sounds reasonable. The only time we have in life is “right now” and if we can choose between pleasure and pain, we should choose pleasure.
Sounds reasonable.
Unless, of course, we apply reason. While it is the case that we are always living in the “right now”, we have to operate as if there is a “coming later”. Otherwise, we would never buy toilet paper (a commodity Sheryl Crow said we could use far less of). What happens if we raise a generation of kids with this philosophy? Ummm… we end up with spoiled, selfish, unruly, immature, and needy people. Planning for the future and putting off current lusts so we can get an education is mature reasonable practice. If we live only for current pleasure I think most of us would end up on the floor in crack houses and die young.
There is a future coming for most of us. In this life and the next. Wise people make plans and provisions for these. Foolish ones do not.
Paul tells Titus, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” Titus 3:3)
Ask yourself, how many of the social problems that our county faces today are rooted in hedonism?
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For His Glory,
Jim