Lines 1369 to 1371 of From Rhetoric in “The Rhetorical Tradition” elaborate on pleasant to quite an excess. It states “Everything too, is pleasant for which we have the desire within us, since desire is the craving for pleasure” (From Rhetoric 202). This statement is very true to life in my opinion because we as humans, desire satisfaction. We can’t even count the amount of things in this world that bring us pleasure; the list of pleasure is endless. Throughout the rest of this blog I will briefly analyze and discuss the short section on revenge, and victory in “The Rhetorical Tradition”, and finally finish with why pleasure will ultimately allow humans to live longer.
Revenge is an interesting concept. “The Rhetorical Tradition”, applies revenge to pleasure, “…it is pleasant to get anything that is painful to fail to get, and angry people suffer extreme pain when they fail to get their revenge; but they enjoy the prospect of getting it” (From Rhetoric 203). It is funny to think of how the process of revenge brings pleasure, but the satisfaction of it almost makes you feel guilty. Placing this in context might make a little more sense. For example, imagine yourself squirting Easy Cheese into your friend’s sleeping bag because a few hours earlier he threw your shoes in the lake. We have all heard of the saying, two wrongs don’t make a right. We all enjoy the humor of the Easy Cheese, but when all said and done; your inner self may be reluctantly telling you that that was a little harsh.
Victory also creates pleasure within us. We all love to win,“…the winner sees himself in the light of a champion and everybody has a more or less keen appetite for being that” (203). Not many people enjoy loosing, that’s a weak statement, let me rephrase that. Not one person enjoys loosing. Dating back to 335 B.C. with Alexander the Great, victory is what fueled the souls of his armies. If Alexander himself and his armies never experienced victory throughout their journey, the elation of his armies would have been minimal, resulting in an end of their campaign. We can see how victory plays a heavy role on our emotions. Likewise, pleasure plays a heavy role on our emotions.
Have you ever heard of the concept about how if you smile more, you will live longer? I believe this to be very true. We as humans need pleasure and joy once in a while to aid, and comfort our lives. The physical fact of smiling and the feeling of excitement affect’s mental health, and promotes longevity in our lives. Overall, we see how revenge and victory impacts our emotions of pleasure, in essence increasing our lifespan.
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