I find great pleasure in dissecting the desire-driven philosophy (or better, lifestyle) of older living authors, filmmakers; artists. How do they cope with the inevitable Conclusion? The end of their artistic path. When one is in the field of creating, he can never consider one of his creations the Magnum Opus. If he does, he has successfully euthanized his intellect to avoid battling the most significant adversity of them all: content. True cognitive dissonance is then achieved in the pursuit of the imperishable. Most often that becomes faith. Possibly religious.
I’ve dwelled on the subject of desire, fulfillment, and happiness through my entire youth and early adulthood. There is one clear conclusion: to be fulfilled and happy, one must be an idiot. Through nature or decision.
To clarify, a person can be both fulfilled or hollowed out by quite literally anything. So long as they have made a good faith (Sartre) style analysis of themselves. Here lies the ill-spoken paradox. Any self-analysis can only be actualized in one’s immediate and current state of mind. Defining one’s self can not be permanent. A permanent definition inevitably means the death of one’s intellect.
We all face the Void individually and that person’s strategy for meaning and actualization can be materialistic or immaterial. Neither is right nor wrong.
We can only grow through adversity, and it is crucial to wilfully force our minds away from a state of content.
Lacan’s objet petit a must remain unattained, yet it must exist. It must be interpreted and it must be sought after. But it can never be reached.
This realization – depriving reality of its support in fantasy is difficult and painful.
But it is what makes you human. What makes you different.
There is no passion without struggle. There is no love without despair.
And God, please kill me if I ever find myself living without love or passion.