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In The Joyful Science, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "but what if pleasure and displeasure were so tied together that whoever wanted to have as much as possible of one must also have as much as possible of the other — that whoever wanted to learn to 'jubilate up to the heavens' would also have to be prepared for 'depression unto death'?
And that is how things may well be." In my opinion, that is one of Nietzsche's sharpest insights: pleasure and pain are inseparable.
As usual, I'm gonna explore this idea through a dialogue.
A rich man (R) spent the majority of his life chasing things, and at the age of 40, he finally had everything he wanted: millions of dollars, exotic cars, designer clothes, a big home, a high-status position at a large company, and a beautiful wife.
You may think it's weird that I placed his wife among a group of objects that one acquires, but for this man, that was how he viewed his wife: a thing to be acquired.
Ever since he was a boy, the man had a mental checklist: get a well-respected job, make a lot of money, get a beautiful wife, and the end result is happiness.
But at the age of 40, after decades of hard work, after acquiring all he set out to acquire, after getting everything he wanted, he realized he was no happier than when he started.
The sudden realization that he was no happier than when he started threw him into a psychological crisis.
What had he been chasing for 40 years?
