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Daily Advice 12.1.20
Dec. 1st, 2020 03:33 pm Another from Demophilus.
The issue of "passions" in particular is rarely one you hear discussed these days. You might hear someone referred to, approvingly, as "passionate," or a teenage job applicant might claim to an interviewer that they "have a passion for great customer service." Neither usage comes very close to what is meant by "the passions" in older writings. The contemporary word "instincts" gets a little closer to it. The passions are the lowest urges of the soul-- the drive for food or sex, to run away in terror or fly into a rage and fight.
The best way that I've heard the passions explained is that, in contrast to emotions, passions have no object. When we are overcome by hunger, we don't much care what we eat; when we're overcome by lust, we don't really care who we satisfy that passion with, either. From this, it's obvious how the passions can cause us problems. I have a number of food allergies-- these days, who doesn't?-- and if I eat certain things, unpleasant consequences reliably result. But if I don't watch my diet and make sure my blood sugar is stable, I'm likely to be overwhelmed by hunger, with the result that I might eat whatever's on hand.
One of the themes in spiritual literature, pagan and Christian, from about 2500 years ago to... oh, about the day before yesterday... is the importance of controlling the passions, rather than being controlled by them. This, say the ancients-- and the medievals, and the early moderns-- is the key to true freedom. Much of the modern economy is based on arousing the need for sex, or for social acceptance, or for safety, or some other passion, through the imagery of advertising, and then getting you to think you can satisfy the instinct in question by purchasing this or that product. We would do well to learn from our ancestors, who knew that if you can control yourself, no one else can control you.
As many passions of the soul, so many fierce and savage despots.
I've switched gears a bit in the last few days, from acceptance of death to the matter of self-control. Both topics are highly unpopular in modern culture.The issue of "passions" in particular is rarely one you hear discussed these days. You might hear someone referred to, approvingly, as "passionate," or a teenage job applicant might claim to an interviewer that they "have a passion for great customer service." Neither usage comes very close to what is meant by "the passions" in older writings. The contemporary word "instincts" gets a little closer to it. The passions are the lowest urges of the soul-- the drive for food or sex, to run away in terror or fly into a rage and fight.
The best way that I've heard the passions explained is that, in contrast to emotions, passions have no object. When we are overcome by hunger, we don't much care what we eat; when we're overcome by lust, we don't really care who we satisfy that passion with, either. From this, it's obvious how the passions can cause us problems. I have a number of food allergies-- these days, who doesn't?-- and if I eat certain things, unpleasant consequences reliably result. But if I don't watch my diet and make sure my blood sugar is stable, I'm likely to be overwhelmed by hunger, with the result that I might eat whatever's on hand.
One of the themes in spiritual literature, pagan and Christian, from about 2500 years ago to... oh, about the day before yesterday... is the importance of controlling the passions, rather than being controlled by them. This, say the ancients-- and the medievals, and the early moderns-- is the key to true freedom. Much of the modern economy is based on arousing the need for sex, or for social acceptance, or for safety, or some other passion, through the imagery of advertising, and then getting you to think you can satisfy the instinct in question by purchasing this or that product. We would do well to learn from our ancestors, who knew that if you can control yourself, no one else can control you.
