5/24 (WIJG)
Aboard Hikari 501, En route Tokyo-Kyoto
The fundamental question is this “If something makes you happy, but it
makes you happy for an irrational reason, why should you not pursue it?” That is the practical version of the
question, which I attempt to pursue from a more philosophical vantage. The philosophical formulation becomes
“Happiness, not rationality, is the Final Cause of our existence. Is it possible to have irrational happiness,
or is that a contradiction?” The opening
salvo in this argument is “Emotions are
irrational if acting on them will reduce your happiness.” What then does that mean about irrational
happiness? In order to better understand
this we need to go back to the balance between fulfillment and enjoyment. I suppose irrational happiness would be
something that increases your enjoyment at too great of a cost to your
fulfillment. It’s about net happiness,
and there has to be some way to balance it out. [Cut a discussion of drunken indiscretions.] The answer is not that you
cannot always explain your emotions.
That is bullshit. You should
never act on emotions that you cannot rationally explain. I will never say, “Oh, my emotions got the
best of me.” What then is the
solution? I am truly
stumped here, and I cannot think of an answer.
Integrity. That’s the
answer. My personal integrity is a huge
part of my happiness. One of the main
reasons that I feel so fulfilled with my life is that I have such a high
integrity. I do not allow contradictions
into my brain, and I hold myself to my very high set of personal
standards.
The philosophical question posed was whether irrational happiness can
exist, and I believe that I have answered.
Yes, irrational happiness is happiness that gives you enjoyment (or
fulfillment) at too great a cost to your fulfillment (or enjoyment). Anything that requires me to sacrifice my
integrity would be irrational happiness.
That still leaves the practical question. Should you fulfill said irrational happiness
or is to do so necessarily an act of akrasia?
I believe it is the latter. I have established that irrational
happiness can exist but that it should not be acted on. However, that still leaves one final question
to explore.
If Happiness is the Final Cause of our existence, should we really
question what makes us happy, other than in the pursuit of happiness? The answer to that, I now believe, is that we
should not, but it is an irrelevant question.
Every single question we ask should be in the pursuit of happiness, just
as should be every single action we take.
If something makes us happy, of course should ask why it makes us happy
and if we will be sacrificing more happiness down the line. I believe that that brings me full
circle.
5/24/14 (Travelogue)
Kyoto, Japan
I cannot remember so looking forward to a WHS and then being so
disappointed by it. That said, I am glad
that I visited Kinkaku-Ji, or the Golden Pavillion as it is called. My goals for today, at the most basic level
were to see the best Buddhist shrine, the best Shinto shrine, and
Hiroshima. Adding Nara only came later
as an afterthought. I woke up early and
knew that I would not get back to sleep.
I actually had enough time to shower and have my Nic Toro before my
train, so that was exactly what I did.
When I woke up, I realized that I could see the Diet from my hotel room,
not noticing it at night. This makes
three hotel rooms in a room now where I have seen a legislature building from
my window. There were “No Smoking” signs all over the street at random
locations. The only logical conclusion
was that the city of Tokyo banned smoking on the street, but I refused to
accept that as the reason. Following the train tracks,
I had no trouble finding the station, and I found a nice place to sit outside
and finish my cigar.
I planned and
replanned my day, trying to figure out alternative options. In the end, I knew that it would all depend
on what time I left Kinkaku-Ji. I am one
of the few people in the world who can say, “I will evaluate all of my options
and make a rational decision,” and actually do it. That motto served me well during my Eurotrip
and my WWI trip, and I knew it would serve me well here. When I got inside, I was amazed. This was Japan’s Penn Station. You could catch a train there to anywhere in
the country. Reader, it was 6AM on a
Sunday, and I had never seen Grand Central or Penn Station that crowded, even
during rush hour on a weekday. The train
ride was unadventurous, and I could feel how fast the train was moving. I did not get to see Fujisan, most likely due
to heavy fog. I went to the bathroom,
and I was shocked to discover that there was no soap, but, fortunately, there
was a separate sink-only unit that had soap.
Once I realized that I was not going to see Fujisan, I went to the
smoking compartment and lit up an Opus. I
continued for almost the entire train ride to evaluate my options, including
trading Nara for a nice lunch in Kyoto.
In the end, that’s what I think I will do. Unwilling to stand for 90 minutes, I sat in a
corner of the smoking compartment and wrote my WIJG entry. I will include the highlights when I publish
as the philosophical section. We arrived
at Kyoto right at 9:14 AM, just like clockwork, and I took a cab to
Kinkaku-Ji.
When I got there, I went to
cross the street, and I experienced something new. A cop actually stopped me from jaywalking. There were no cars coming in either
direction, but he would not let me cross against the light. When I got to the entrance, there were no
smoking signs everywhere, but I knew that I could not leave the WHS without a
Cuban. The site was as packed with
Japanese tourists as the Statue of Liberty ever is. I found the plaque and had no trouble finding
the vista of the inscription photo. I
recreated the photo and took a few of myself without the cigar. I then lit up the Cohiba, and people started
staring bullets of me. After a few
photos, I moved aside, but I was completely underwhelmed.
I realized that I had already achieved my
maximum value from the site and that I could leave right away, possibly even
getting back on my original schedule, but the walk to the exit took too long,
especially after stopping for souvenirs.
I didn’t really want to buy the souvenirs, but it was a WHS, and they
were cheap enough. One of the vendors,
at an outdoor kiosk, refused to sell to me while I was smoking my cigar. I had never seen such an aversion to
smoke.
Just as Andrew had promised, the
place that had the green tea also had the replicas, but that, too, was
disappointing. It was gold, plastic,
piece of crap. It was not like the
beautiful replicas I have collected from Europe and the Middle East. I tried to get a taxi to Nara, but it was too
expensive, and they wouldn’t let me smoke my cigar. If either it was cheaper or if I could have
finished my cigar, I would have went. My
meal at Kyoto’s best restaurant will be significantly cheaper, and I will
probably enjoy it more than Nara. I went
to the smoking area by the bus stop, and proceeded to write this entry, which I
will now close, while I finished my cigar, which is almost done. I would have liked to write my entry in view
of the temple, but that was not an option.
It was a very beautiful sight, but it did nothing for me. Did I enjoy seeing Kinkaku-Ji? No. Am
I happy that I saw it? You bet.
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