Knowing your Death & being a Hedonist

Pleasure seeker

Hedonist = someone who agrues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good, or simply, someone who strives to maximize net pleasure

We were talking about this thought during class together today, whether you want to know the date of your death or not, and why. Apparantly, most students cast out a vote in choosing to know the date of their death, and reason is very simple, because if they know the day of their death they will manage things differently. If they know they only have a year of life left they will try to do everything they desire and experience as many things as they want, basically they will try to fulfill their pleasure to the maximum, like a hedonist. But this question came to my mind as soon as they said out their opinions, "Will there really be a difference in your life if you really know when you will die?"

 I mean, you said that you will stop going to school and travel around the world to see more things and enjoy life as you should be enjoying....but...does that mean you are not enjoying your life now? Because I believe in every single one of our life each day we are doing things that we like, often time we may regret after it but the pleasure it brought is what we were seeking at first any way, although it is often times temporary.

I keep on hearing students repeating the fact that they will enjoy life more and spend more time with their family....because they know their time is short. So on the contrary, if we know that we still have 65 years to live...and is...still long, we will not do these things? Does that mean we will not spend more time with our family, friends, and loves one and to learn more and see more ourself and if possible, fulfilling our dreams just because we have more time? Is that what they mean? I really don't understand. Because if you know the important of these things and that you put them in your heart as the number one things that should be done, wouldn't you start doing it now? Wouldn't you still do these things if you know you have another 65 years to live?



Wasting time???

Well you might answer, of course I will still do these things, but I will just manage it and make sure that everything is done efficiently! Oh....so you mean...you know that you are not spending your time efficintly....you mean that you know you are not using your time wisely and that you are....indeed...wasting it? Um...so if you are wasting your time, what big of a difference will it make if you have a longer life? So does that mean you will just...waste more of your time? Um....I guess we all know that we are not always choosing the wisest way to spend our time, because we are wasting it on stuff that are not necesary, stuff that we want...stuff that bring us pleasure...WAIT! Does that mean we are being a hedonist? Um...so we are being a hedonist even though we don't know the numbers of days we have left in this life....so what's the point? To know the end of your life, the end of your journey...why do you want to know? Why bother? I mean, we all know that someday we will die but we just don't know when!

The truth is, if we know when will we die then we will start to wonder and be troubled by all the things you want to do and how to organize it all efficiently. Then how are you going to seek pleasure when you have all these troubles? How can you find true joy when you are just doing these things because you know you don't have much time left? How can you be a hedonist if you know you only have one year of life left? How can you still seek for pleasure if you know you are just doing these things reluctantly? How can you really be happy if you know you are dying...tomorrow??

Do you want some
tips to live longer?

When you know that you only have a year of life left, I believe you will do something differently, not necessary about things that you just said like pleasure seeking or being a hedonist. because I believe that it's a natural tendency for human to have a desire to live on, (we see it from the story of Pi and I mentioned it in my blogpost "Men, Women, Wild"), especially when they are still young. And I am quite confident to say, at least 1/3 of the people who are facing this right now will choose to find a way to live on, while the other 1/3 of the people will start to blame on life and the other 1/3 of the people will start to seek pleasure (reluuctantly) like what other students say. But it depends on what kind of person you are, and to be honesty with you, I don't know what type will I be, but why should I look for trouble? Why should I worry for what I still want to do and what I haven't done? Because I believe, I should be doing these things daily. I should be living each day as the last day of my life, not trying to bring vexation or burden in every decision, but just simply being myself, to do the things that I like and to do the things I know is right. And by doing this, I believe I gain hedonism.

So I won't want to know when will I die, I am not interested at all! ^_^