On Desire

It's not finished yet, but tell me what you think.

When I woke up today, I wanted some water. It was fairly dry in the room and, coupling that with the remnants of a cold, I was pretty damn dehydrated. I hopped out of bed, slid on a pair of slippers, and meandered down to the nearest sink. My mouth was dry and I responded by drinking water. It seems fairly self-evident that the motivation for my action was thirst.

By looking at motivation more deeply, one element seems universal: desire. My mouth was dry and I wanted it not to be. What precipitated said desire is debatable; did it come about because of thirst or did it result from the stimulus and cause the thirst? I have neither the insight nor the inclination to address such a topic. What does seem feasible for me to address is how central desire is to our lives.

It is hard to define desire. Desire seems so intuitive to us that putting it into words is near impossible. Even Merriam-Webster is hard pressed not to have a circular definition. However, since it is so familiar to us all it affords us the luxury of not having to define it. After all, the goal of this paper is not to argue semantics but rather expound upon an observation.

I have observed that every person has desires. They can range from something as simple as longing for a cookie after lunch to something as grand as wanting to be a professor someday. They can last mere moments or stretch on for our entire lives. The fact that I am even writing this sentence is due in no small part to the fact that I want a good grade.

Desire itself seems to be a disparity between ones current circumstances and their ideal circumstances. While it can be argued that sometimes people act to perpetuate their circumstances (such as those who have already attained their ideal), is it not true those people are still working towards their ideal by preventing its decay? Our ideal circumstances seem to present us with some measure of happiness and perhaps it is this rather than the ideal circumstances them selves that we seek.

Some philosophers have said the key to happiness is not achieving greater satisfaction but by limiting our desires. It is almost like a math equation, where

Happiness = Satisfaction/Desires

Unfortunately, American culture seems to be solely concerned with inspiring desire. We’re constantly bombarded with advertisements that persuade us to believe their products or services are the solution to our woes. How often have you really wanted something, only to get it and be disappointed? It wasn’t that it did not provide enough satisfaction so much that your desire for it was too great.

I often wonder why so many in our society seem to be discontent. Is it like this all around the world? Has humanity always been this way? Is true happiness impossible? These are all questions I am sure most have asked at least once.