RE: Divergent sexualities
November 3, 2023 at 6:12 am
(This post was last modified: November 3, 2023 at 6:13 am by Belacqua.)
Quote:...something that makes life more interesting and adds more love and pleasure and takes away lonliness and boredom, then it seems rational to be it.
Yes, I think we should allow for different kinds of pleasure.
Some pastimes seem incomprehensible to me -- like watching sports on television -- but other people enjoy them so I'm not going to get worked up about it and announce that they are wasting their lives. Obviously I think they ought to be reading Proust, but what I judge to be worthwhile is not binding on others.
I'm often amused by the way so many post-Dawkins atheists recreate a religious view of life, even though that view excludes God. Basically they are building a new version of Thomist Natural Law, which says that because human beings have evolved a certain way, it means there are certain laws according to which they ought to live.
So in the last day or so it has been vehemently argued to you that there is one particular type of erotic connection which it is proper for you to have, simply because you are human and this is what humans should do. If you fail to pursue this type of connection, and instead prefer something different, it is acceptable for them to pass judgment, mock, and scold.
It's predictably Puritan.
Quote:Of course, it may well not be a choice for most. But they should at least desire and envy it.
Well, I don't desire it for myself or envy it. My desires go different ways.
Quote:An object/tulpa lover will never leave, cheat, die, argue, get sick, age, nag, or have any of the weaknesses and flaws of humans.
We could point out that the ideal kind of erotic connection which you are scolded for not pursuing does frequently lead to heartbreak, trauma, and other sad outcomes. People in Anglophone countries are not particularly successful at making their marriages last. How many people do we know who end up insolvent, bitter, and their kids end up traumatized? So there's no reason to idealize the One True Goal of Human Natural Erotic Life.
That said, I will put in a good word for experiencing all the flaws of a full life.
Several years ago in Japan there was a boom for robot dogs called Aibo. They were sold as not having the inconveniences of real dogs. They don't chew your books or pee on the carpet. As far as I know nobody buys them any more. There is something about the hairy disgusting reality of real dogs which makes them more desirable.
We're getting close here to what Nietzsche called
Amor Fati. To love one's fate, no matter what it turns out to be. The full catastrophe of life includes sickness and irrationalities and arguments. I'm not saying we should like these or pursue them for themselves, but a life with none of those things wouldn't seem complete to me somehow.
If, years ago, you had told me that marrying my wife would include me becoming full-time caretaker for her elderly mother, I might have thought twice about getting married way back when. But I did it -- from her age 90 to age 100 -- spoon feeding, diaper-changing, the whole bit. Horrible sad things, and revolting messes. And the strange thing is that I didn't mind. Looking back, I'm glad I did it. So I'm not going to go so far as to say that a tulpa who will never need to be carried to the bathtub is inherently superior to a frail and helpless human.
