Is the aspiration for pleasant, well behaved serenity, a sensible one?
According to the man who inpired the term Sadism, the answer is no.
"They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy lights its torch."
-Marquis De Sade
The first question, regarding our human behaviour is, what constitutes unreasonable behaviour? The second, by what measure do we define reasonable?
The second question if far harder to answer. Unreasonable has several definitions, some consecrated by law. Reasonable is a subject of state, a term of contentment.
So, at the beginning of this piece, I asked whether well behaved reasonable aspirations are sensible. Sensibility itself lends to the spirit of mild mannered existence.
Sensiblis is the latin origin, meaning perceptible to the senses. the next definition is to be aware. Later description of the term is reasonable, then practical rather than fashionable. Last meaning recorded capacity for refined emotion.
How do we answer the first question, when our own history of the the terms by which we measure our good behaviour have been a deviation.
The Marquis De Sade was arrested and confined to an asylum for his unreasonable thoughts. Reading his work you can make your own decision on whether any of it is acceptable. His was a crime of creating a fiction of extreme. Had his discourse been a documentation of war, it is doubtful that he would have reached this end. Eroticism was the thin dividing line.
My definition of reasonable is simple, to not inflict distress upon others where undeserved or uninvited.
When measures start to decide upon character based on polite conduct or private practice, that is when we are in danger of slowing civilisation to a crawl. It is a rule governed by the next mans society. If you choose not to become a part of someone else's ideals that is not unreasonable.
Personally i find a certain measure of passion and anger desirable. It shows depth.
The enjoyment of anger and pain is far from unreasonable. If it is invited and agreeable to those involved, then it is just as it would be if the the two things were the polar opposite.
To classify the enjoyment as depravity, is the work of the bores.
The world was civilised by far more than well mannered etiquette.
Philosophy takes a measure of all behavioural instincts to function.
Just Sayin'.
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