(lack of) joy in life

November 8th, 2023

Who doesn't love life? Who doesn't love joy? Who possibly doesn't love to have joy in life? I can tell you that there are a lot of people like that in reality. Maybe even the majority of people are like that. And what is worse — they don't even know they don't love life, but rather they love death. And they would be shocked if I or somebody else told them that. They would angrily insist that they love life and abhor death while wholly engaged in the cult of death.

That is really sad and disappointing.

Humans are the only animal species that can love death. Impotent people (and I don't mean sexually impotent) cannot create new things, new ideas, new art, and new understandings. What they can do, though, is to destroy life and in that way transcend it. That love of death in the midst of living is the ultimate and prevalent perversion. And that perversion is practiced and promoted by those saluting war and destruction and violence. Those people might be aware of their true motivations and can rationalize their grotesque behavior as a desire for life, honor, and freedom. Those on the top, i.e. politicians and leaders, made that choice out of their own will. The majority of people below them never even knew that there was a choice to be made in that matter. They just know that there are other people who need to be hated and the world would be better without them. Even those who silently do not salute war, by the same token, do not salute life. They lack the joy (which can only be joyous when shared) of life that is needed and necessary to oppose the cult of war and violence.