The paradox is that hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, leads to anhedonia, which is the inability to enjoy pleasure of any kind.*
Anna Lembke
The median narcissism score has risen 30 percent in the last two decades.**
David Brooks
Could it be
the pleasure-seeker requires more and more
to feel less and less, yet
the one who shares gains pleasure
in others?
The ancient ways and philosophers
and scriptures and mystics –
And all their children –
Will help us find who we can be,
Will help us remember what we can do.
The Koreans call it nunchi, the ability to be sensitive to other people’s moods and thoughts. The Germans (of course) have a word for it: herzenbildung, training one’s heart to see the full humanity in another.^
*Quoted in Arthur Brooks’ The Meaning Of Your Life;
**David Brooks’ The Road To Character;
^David Brooks’ How To Know A Person.
