Have you ever thought about how unfair it is that people who are reprobates, that those who are unfaithful, who lie and cheat, end up being more happy than you are? And how does one deal with hedonism as a philosophy? By definition hedonists prioritize pleasure and seek it even when it leaves a path of destruction its wake. Consequences are something that few hedonists care about. Meanwhile the average Joe or Jill who’s going about their daily business, guiltily repressing desires may not be exulting in the senses like their less inhibited colleague. “Conscience doth makes cowards of us all,” says Hamlet. Well not all. Hamlet is wrong. Conscience doesn’t bother those whose bloods register a low empathy level. It would be nice to think there's justice in the universe, but you’re probably more likely to find poetic justice in poetry than in life. The bad person who's totally selfish may declaim his sorrow at hurting others while going on to say that he or she has no regrets in having done exactly what they wanted to do. While the so-called good person who has stopped his or herself from the little acts of larceny that make up the life of the sensualist may die alone and miserable at having thrown away lost opportunities for oblivion. In any case that’s the one thing that the man or woman or conscience and the pleasure seeker have in common. They both will end up in the same place, oblivion, unless of course you believe there's a God, making final judgments about who's going to heaven or hell.
{This was originally posted to The Screaming Pope, Francis Levy’s blog of rants and reactions to contemporary politics, art and culture}