Site Meter Reflections on Playboy: There is no “paradox of hedonism.” However...

April 20, 2009

There is no “paradox of hedonism.” However...

Q. I masturbate once a day. What can I do to get the most out of my orgasms? Online porn is getting old.—P.T., Los Angeles, California

A. That’s easy: Masturbate once a month.
The above excerpt from the March 2009 Playboy Advisor is almost Zen-like in its way of saying so much in so few words. Using masturbation as a specific example, it points to the fact that any worldly activity or goal can give only so much satisfaction. With this advice, is the American male’s leading guidebook on hedonism repudiating hedonism? I don’t think so.

I sometimes hear of a paradox of hedonism, by which the direct pursuit of pleasure supposedly puts it beyond one’s reach, but I never experience it. Although I experience varying degrees of success in finding bliss each day, the variation seems to derive from my practical wisdom or folly in finding it—not from the goal itself. Food will not cease to be delicious, nor sex to be sexy, nor music to please the ear, nor philosophy to stimulate the mind, merely because I seek to enjoy them. Since the virtue of moderation is easily understood in hedonism’s own terms, it makes no case against hedonism.

Call me shallow if you like, but I see no meaningful distinction between the terms pleasure and happiness. Once a subjective state of well-being is recognized as the goal, the practical details of the good life merely wait to be empirically discovered. In this way, I acknowledge my study of the spiritual teachings of A Course in Miracles, for example, as every bit as hedonistic as my study of Playboy. We all want to feel good. In fact, that’s all we ever want.

Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 5:31 PM

  • Blogger a left this comment at October 21, 2009 9:14 AM  
    Typical male thinking with his penis.

    The only thing you nailed, is that moderation is the key to keeping something pleasurable, AND that your perspective is shallow. Who are you to falsify the findings of reputable philosophers and authors?

    Happiness does not equal pleasure, and visa versa. Yes one can lead to the other, but there is a definite distinction between the two.

    To say it's a fact that all we ever want "is to feel good" is an ignorant attempt to reduce the human condition into terms that you use to try and validate your argument.

  • Blogger Brian Sorgatz left this comment at October 21, 2009 3:31 PM  
    I wish you had been more specific, whoever you are. Then our dialogue could have helped us each clarify our own point of view. For instance, who are the “reputable philosophers and authors” I shouldn’t dare contradict? Besides, don’t you know that philosophy is about placing more value on the truth than on anyone’s reputation?

    If you see a distinction between pleasure and happiness that I don’t, why not try to explain it to me? Am I hopeless to learn it because of my penis?

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