Our culture’s relationship with pleasure is complex. On one hand, we seem obsessed with pleasure. We overindulge and overeat. We are addicted to amusement and are overwhelmed by pornography, sexual gratuity, and violence, both on screens and off. Ironically, greed and consumerism dull our delight. The more we indulge, the less pleasure we find. We are hedonistic cynics and gluttonous stoics. In our consumerist society we spend endless energy and money seeking pleasure, but we are never sated.
