Then I Was…

Alright everybody, last time we explored virtue vs. vice through the lens of the Founding Fathers of America & the Cardinal (religious) virtues & vices. I used the Christian vices/virtues as the examples because I used to think it was the best framing for the average person, nah scratch that, ABOVE-average person, like you or I, to understand. Most of us went to church at some point so we know all about that rodeo.

Lucky enough for all you guys, I stumbled upon a different framing of the virtue issue and I think it’s an even better way to understand the issue and apply it to your own life. This framing is more pragmatic than the Cardinal virtues which I think is very necessary because well, let’s be real, patience vs. wrath isn’t the easiest comparison to conceptualize in your day to day life and try to improve upon. 

I stumbled upon this new-to-me idea of virtue in a Big Think YouTube Video titled “Love, Sex, and happiness, explained by philosophy | Jonny Thomson: Full Interview.” I’d never heard of Jonny Thompson before, but I was curious about love, sex, AND happiness so I gave the 30 minute clip my ever so sought after attention. And boy am I glad I did.

Thomson touches on many ideas that I had scratched the surface of before in my consumption of content in the form of documentaries, shows, books, and podcasts. He dives into moderation, or balance, as well as the idea of vulgar love vs. Platonic love in Plato’s “Symposium” – which is pretty much just either appreciating an individual because they are hot (vulgar love) or because they are holistically beautiful (platonic love). A bit different than the usual scenario surrounding Platonic love where somebody gets friendzone, I know. Quick sidebar, if you’re ever bored and think you want a brilliant opinion on the role that love should play in each individual’s life, pick up Plato’s “Symposium,” you won’t regret it. 

At a later date I’ll dive deeper into the topics of moderation & Platonic love, but for now I want to continue the examination of virtue, everybody’s literal favorite topic as of the publication of our last blog post.

Last time, we established that in our modern society we’ve got hella access to vice. We can look at our president for pretty much every single vice you can imagine, we can look at sports gambling for our issues with greed, and we can turn to music to take a look at artists indulging in pride and wrath. There’s a lot of L’s out there unfortunately. Now, I want to dive into how virtue and see how we can use some advice from Mr. Thomson about happiness, moderation, and virtue to live happier lives.

In the clip, Thomson discusses how in the study of philosophy, the most prevalent topic that keeps popping up is the pursuit of happiness. While there are sections of philosophy dedicated to esoteric, confusing shit that goes over all of our heads, there’s also plenty of practical wisdom that comes from these wise men/women dedicating time to answering the question “How do I live a happy life?” For myself, I have spent many hours reading books from philosophers or listening to podcasts about philosophers to try to understand this question. It’s not easy. But here, in Thomson’s video, he gathered information from many individuals across thousands of years & provided the knowledge he gained to us, all in a 30 minute Youtube video. I’m not the biggest fan of technology, but having all the information that Thomson gathered condensed into this clip is pretty damn cool. Before Youtube, we would have had to ACTUALLY read each of these philosopher’s works to glean these ideas, can you even imagine? 

Anyway, Thomson identifies 3 pillars of happiness:

1. Happiness ≠ pleasure
2. Moderation
3. Virtue (yooo virtue again let’s go!!)

Let’s take a look at each one.

Happiness ≠ pleasure. There are very many forms of pleasure that us awesome humans can indulge in. A Twix Salted Caramel bar from the gas station is high up on my list personally. Maybe a Friday night movie on the couch with some popcorn. Or maybe 12 beers at the bar on a Saturday. To each his/her own. We all have our things. Thomson provides an example from a favorite thinker of mine named Soren Kierkegaard. He’s a dude who lived in Denmark and can be described as a founding father of a philosophical school of thought called “existentialism.” Yup, that term we’ve all heard – existential crisis – we can thank our boy Soren for introducing the idea. In one of Kierkegaard’s many works about the activities of life that lead us to existential dread, he describes the life of a college student who indulges in all the pleasures of life. Drinking, womanizing, gambling, you name it, he’s doin it. I think Kierkegaard might have written this story about me 5 years ago…

Thomson’s idea is that pursuing these pleasures inevitably leads us to a state of dissatisfaction, and that alternatively we must strive for a state of flourishing through challenges. Embarking on a defined journey toward a goal that we want to accomplish, enduring the challenge and prevailing is the best way to flourish in the human experience. So yeah, he’s talking to you. You better sign up for that half marathon. And get the little bumper sticker too so you can flex to all your friends who 100% do not care.

The second idea is moderation, synonymous with temperance or balance. Moderation is really just finding balance in all things that you do. Aristotle coined the term “golden mean,” which is the sweet spot between 2 concepts that we should all strive for. To understand the “golden mean,” I like to think of the dialogues that we engage in to describe each other. If we find issue with how, let’s say a coworker is behaving because they’re absolutely yapping on every call, we would tell them “You are talking too much!” That word “too” has to be compared to something. Some benchmark. That benchmark where they are talking just the right amount is the “golden mean.” In the perfect world, your coworker would hear your criticism and Goldilocks that shit and talk just the right amount. Everyone should strive for finding the golden mean of yapping and sticking to it.

For each of us individually, we can find our negative traits and work toward the opposite direction. For me, instead of being too damn charming and too damn handsome I’m gonna try to get more ignorant and ugly. It’s the least I can do.

And lastly, but certainly not least, we have our 3rd pillar; virtue. What the hell is virtue, Jonny Thomson / Brennan? Well, you kinda already know from my last blog. It’s just being a decent guy / gal. Thankfully though, Thomson did the hard work of research and analysis and identified 5 universal virtues & vices! That’s right, who needs religion when you have the 5 best traits to strive for in your day to day life?

1. Altruism vs. egoism
2. Kindness vs. cruelty
3. Justice vs. injustice
4. Wisdom vs. ignorance
5. Humility vs. arrogance

There they are. The most examined virtues and vices across all generations of wisdom passed down from philosophers. Let’s all take a moment of self-reflection and determine how we can be more altruistic, kind, wise, just, and humble tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day.

From these 3 pillars, each of us can identify where we are lacking. For me, what sticks out is having ~10 drinks on Saturdays as a major red flag for moderation. I hope each of you takes a moment to think about it and determines a way you can either stay away from pleasure, be more moderate, or be more virtuous in your life. It’ll make you a happier soul overall :).