Huh.

[yvannairie]

Does anyone else feel like culture is getting increasingly pleasure-averse or is it just me?

Like, this has been a thing in Finnish culture as long as I've been alive, the tendency towards not indulging small pleasures and living very ascetically (or whatever that person has been raised to think as ascetic -- the) and not pursue things for the purpose of joy, but rather treat it as something that will just occur in its own time, like a fucking miracle, but. That has always been a specifically Finnish idiosyncrasy to me.

But I was thinking about a pattern of behaviour I keep running into (among truscum, among enlightened centrists, among the bad, bad personal relationships I've had) of self-esteem issues paired with fairly myopic confidence which I'm not entirely comfortable writing off as performative fragility, and if you listen to any of them talk, there's this weird vibe that's a little bit "things can only get worse from here" and also "happiness is an irresponsible goal to have". I'm not sure what to make of it.

Comments

[grayestofghosts]

I am not sure where you are but maybe you’re right. Or it has shifted, at least — I remember online at least that taking pleasure was seen as “uncool” in terms of the snarky and studiedly ironic and now it has modeled itself into a moral imperative rather than just something you do in order to save face.