The Pleasure Response occurs whenever we are able to lie to ourselves successfully. This is the key point to understand. Successful lies are pleasure-producing lies, it’s as simple as that. We would like to live in a world that is made up of pure pleasure, of course we would, but that’s just not possible. It’s not possible because we can’t rely on our lies in the way that we’d like to; our lies don’t always work, in other words. If I only they could, right? If only they could….
We’d all like to live in a world that is made up of pleasure and if we tried to say otherwise then that’s no more than a barefaced lie. It’s a lie like all the rest. If we are able to carry off this lie then that would produce what I like to call the Pleasure Response. We live in a world of spurious validation, spurious vindication, and this is nothing other than the Realm of the Triumphant Ego – it’s as simple as that! What fun we have in this realm, what great, great fun. My ears eyes fill with tears when I think about it. These are the tears of easy sentimentality and they are worth very little. The tears of easy sentimentality run down my face with total abandon and great heaving sobs rack my body. We’re all victims in sentimentality here you see. We’re pathetically grateful for the sanctity of our ludicrously transparent and wretchedly offensive lies.
We have built a machine that effortlessly validates every lie and that’s the mark of our technological progress. In this splendid world of ours no ego, no matter how mean or lonely, is denied it’s proper or rightful vindication and that is a truly splendid thing. No one shall be denied the pleasure that comes from the instantaneous validation of their every lie, no matter how utterly preposterous or inane that lie might be. Progress is progress after all and so there’s no point in muttering darkly about the unseemly corruption of traditional values. To speak is to utter falsehoods, to think is to deceive ourselves, and existence itself is a fraud.
Let none offend against the sanctity of our lies – isn’t that right? Let us raise our voices as one, to praise the miracle of the Great Lie. Let us give thanks daily. Let us bow and grovel to our cruel masters. All that we can ever need is to be found in that lie, banal and tedious though it is. Pleasure comes with the brash enactment of our self-serving falsehoods it is true and this is the foundation stone that we have built so proudly upon. If only our glib lies could be relied upon then our happiness would be complete, but they can’t be relied upon and that’s the problem right there. It’s a big, ugly problem – it’s the biggest and the ugliest there is! If you were to see it, however fleetingly, your bowels would turn to water in a second. It would be time to change your trousers. We won’t ever admit to the existence this problem of course – to be sure we won’t! Where’s the validation in that, after all?
