The epitaph of my favorite writer, Charles Bukowski, reads, “Don’t try”.
Why?
Free yourself of societal expectations and preconceptions of the future that undermine your penchant for your hedonistic pursuits. Hedonism is overlooked and often used as an excuse to indulge in all pleasures. However, many fail to realize hedonism is an integral element of reciprocal altruism — a strategic tool for evolutionary advancement.
According to renowned psychologist Carl Jung, the unconscious deteriorates as it imposes unneeded constraints on itself, resulting in an inability to reach one’s full potential, or “individuation,” as he termed it. Psychologist Abraham Maslow termed it “self-actualization.” Buddhists refer to the highest enlightenment as entering “nirvana” — freedom from suffering.
Choosing not to engage in your hedonistic tendencies with confined breadth contradicts evolutionary instinct. It also impedes your ability to reach “individuation”, “self-actualization”, or “nirvana.” This psychological state will lead you to believe bland content is the epitome of happiness.
However, that bland content is simply the absence of unhappiness, not happiness itself.
Those who consider Epicurus’ principles regarding hedonism and do not misinterpret his philosophy as a voucher to “do-whatever-you-want”, will become more competent, analytical, and, most importantly, prosperous, regardless of social class.
As Epicurus stated, “nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.”
People choose what to listen to and follow like they do with all happy-feel-good literature. However, it is perturbing that most people never read those books. Is it true that “ignorance is bliss?”
Or…
“Ignorance is violent” — a phrase rarely spoken.
Why isn’t that something we hear more often?
Carl Jung, who was correct in his assumption, also added, “Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.”
But you are a survivor.
If you are still reading, that is…
Many people wander through life ignorant of their identity and their surrounding world, with no attempt or motivation to strive for the fundamental aptitude and the balance between excessive leisure and self-fulfillment. Therefore, Aristotle’s original idea of tabula rasa has little practicality, regarding the biological considerations of the theory of identity.
You have the choice to reject anything you are and what your genetic “potential” allows or disallows.
That sets you apart from previous and future generations who have found and will continue to find admiration in failure cleverly cloaked as accomplishment and success.
Failure is only a concept that describes operations that are currently incomplete. The notion of your cultural indoctrination of values and the terminology that defines may be difficult to change. When you understand and embrace that you are the only one who can label yourself, you can continue forward in the supposition of failure that others define as success.
Understanding how your mind works is critical for filtering and reframing other people’s viewpoints into what constructive ideologies and practices and what are non-essential in relation to your personal development.
Failure is frequently used as a learning tactic and a motivator to persevere onward. Time-oriented expectations encourage errors and discourage diligence. Consequently, it suppresses independence in your attempts to compartmentalize ideologies of cultural influence.
When you overcome suppression, it allows you nearer to achieving your objectives and goals by utilizing logic and rationale. You will be able to determine what definitively provides you with sensibility, wisdom, and the optimum completion of a balanced, or at the very least, a healthy psyche to strive for those goals.
So, stay blissfully ignorant and violent.
Or…
As the epitaph states on Charles Bukowski’s gravestone, alongside a depiction of a boxer — an individual who heeds the art, the science, and the courage of a true fighter, “Don’t try”.
Will you try?
Or don't try and just do?
