My pleasure

IF PLEASURE IS LESS POWERFUL THAN PAIN (SPOILER: IT IS), THEN HOW DO WE MAKE LIFE WORTH LIVING?

- Adam Conover

Pleasure sucks.

I can hear you now: “Adam, you’re writing in PLAYBOY, America’s foremost publication dedicated to pleasure. Are you seriously going to argue that pleasure, the very feeling that makes life worth living, ‘sucks’?”

Yes, I am. Sorry, you velvet-clad sybarites. Pleasure isn’t all that great, and the idea that it makes life worth living doesn’t stand up to the barest scrutiny.

The problem is that pain is a lot more powerful than pleasure. The South African antinatalist philosopher David Benatar points out this fundamental asymmetry: “The worst pains are worse than the best pleasures are good. If you deny this, consider whether you would accept an hour of the worst tortures in exchange for an hour of the most delightful pleasures.”