"Painless Civilization"

See what I mean about this Morioka dude? From the beginning of another book of his, Painless Civilization:

I wonder if contemporary society might now be being swallowed up by a pathology, the pathology of “painless civilization.” I would like to deliver this book to those who are in the midst of anxiety covered over with pleasure, in the midst of repetition without any joy, and in the midst of an endless labyrinth without exit, but are nevertheless willing to live their lives without regret in a corner of their minds. . . .

A civilization without pain and suffering seems to be the ideal of the human race. However, I wonder if people might end up with losing sight of joy, and forgetting the meaning of life, in a society pervaded by pain reduction mechanisms and filled with pleasure.

He describes a beautifully cared-for comatose patient in intensive care, then muses:

Aren’t the activities of contemporary civilization nothing but to create, on a social scale, this kind of human being sleeping peacefully in intensive care units? Isn’t contemporary civilization systematically trying to create humans, in the intensive care units named cities, the humans who look at first sight to be working cheerfully and playing merrily, but in fact just sleeping peacefully in the deep layer of their life? If that should be the case, then, who set the trap? Why has civilization progressed in this direction?

The translated sample ends, abruptly and tantalizingly, with:

2 Self-domestication of the Humans
(To be continued)

The Anchoress should like this. Richard Cohen, too.

- amba

Comments

[Richard Lawrence Cohen]

Yes, I do like it, very much, and I'm also grateful for the Anchoress' related, deeply moving, post which you pointed us toward recently.