Some thoughts I had on my bike ride

This morning I went for my usual bike ride to go purchase eggs from a local farm, and had a few thoughts I'm writing up here. In a way I think they're related.

Speed

I realised this a bit when a car decided to overtake me quite close on the journey. When we have a speed limit, people (car drivers) often feel that it's best somehow, or necessary, to drive at the speed limit. If it's a 30 MPH road, people drive by default at 30 MPH. As a result, people get unhappy if they cannot drive 30 MPH. Drivers don't like to be held up by cyclists on the road, who may be riding slower and causing them to slow down, and so they try to overtake at any opportunity (sometimes recklessly). Drivers also get annoyed at other drivers if they are perceived to be going too slow, for instance at older people who are more cautious drivers, or if the person in front is waiting too long at a roundabout or junction.

The thing is, I feel this is missing something. This is an idea of the journey solely a means to get to the destination. In a way it's a very car-ish thing as well: car drivers (generally) dislike driving, and find it an unpleasant thing that has to be done to get to a place; cyclists often enjoy the act of cycling itself. When I go for my ride up to get eggs, yes, the purpose of the ride is to buy eggs. I have a destination in mind and a thing to do. However, I also find pleasure in the journey, and in fact the journey is just as much to be enjoyed as the purchase of eggs and the subsequent boiled eggs on bread when I get back home. As a result, I have at times stopped, and instead of cycling straight back, got off and walked through one of the nearby fields and listened to the birds, and this time I got off and walked through the trail back so that I could open up my recorder app and talk these thoughts onto the phone. The destination was important, but so was the journey itself.

On the animals

When I bought the eggs, I also stood awhile beside the animals and watched them. It has been quite sunny today and the animals were all essentially sitting around and taking in the sun. The alpacas were sitting by the water and relaxing. Most of the ducks were sitting about and occasionally scratching themselves. The chickens were walking about or being chased by the cockerels. All broadly content.

Animals can of course experience displeasure or discontent. (I'm going to use the terms quite loosely as I haven't fleshed the thought out.) However, I think that the animals are broadly, by default, content. The animals of course can experience unhappiness or displeasure in the form of unmet needs or circumstantial conditions: hunger, pain, sickness, loneliness, sexual frustration, etc. These are things we humans too experience, and is separate to contentment, that satisfaction with the way things are.

However, what I don't think the animals have is the default of discontentment. We as humans have a kind of default, basic, discontentment. We do occasionally get periods of true contentment. I think sunbathing is the best example of this: when we sunbathe, we just are, we're content, all is well. We don't have any real concerns or worries, and things just are. Same thing when you have a bath.

But very soon, in our usual day-to-day, we find things to be discontent about. As an example, even as I was talking into the phone about how we always find things to complain about, I got distracted by a plum tree on the side of the path which I collected plums from last year, noting how this year it doesn't have as many plums. Without even meaning to, I'd found something to complain about! Yes, there are some plums this year, but last year there were more plums...

And, in terms of the note, if I hadn't written it up into this blog post, I would be discontent that I'd let the thought pass without writing it down. My contentment is fully conditional on my having done something. The default is to be discontent unless we have something to do that specifically delivers (temporary) contentment.

Two thoughts about this. I've been watching Tantacrul's Youtube video about Facebook. It's very long (3 hours) but very worth it. It's interesting to note the change over time in Mark Zuckerberg, from when he was young and starting out, to where he is today. He started off a peppy entrepreneurial uni student, developing something he thought cool. There is a sense of satisfaction when you're at that stage, however of course as it grew evident the need for more grew larger and larger. As Facebook grew, Zuck's discontent grew with it. It's clear that it's worn away at his personhood, and the environment he was in became more and more oppressive with need, with discontent. There is nothing really lacking, and in fact the true material lack grew less with each day (and was already essentially zero by very early on). However, the perceived lack increased, and the discontent with it. As a result of this, Facebook has grown horrific. The site is a husk of its former self. It no longer connects, it no longer serves any but itself (as noted by Doctorow's concept of enshittification).

I can't really put it into words very well, but if you watch the video, and compare the clips of early Zuck against late Zuck, you'll understand what I mean. Early Zuck had perhaps fewer of his physical needs met but more of his psychological needs met; I think he was likely more content.

Also thinking about a blog post by Lukasz Wojcik I read. He describes how monkeys given bananas rushed in a mad frenzy to get the bananas (despite there being no scarcity), but most importantly they only took what they needed. Once they had two or three bananas, they were good; they were contented.

Where the monkeys didn't have their bananas, of course, they were afflicted by the circumstantial unhappiness I mentioned above: they had hunger. However, once the hunger was dealt with, they were content. The underlying notion there is content. Humans would still be discontent, and find ways to justify getting more bananas. And we'd want the bananas for cheap, so we'd find some way to have monocultures of bananas and then use exploited or child labour to farm it. Which we do!

How they're related

It's pushing it a bit, but generally the thought is, as humans, we like to try to take all we can get. We are never satisfied, and always want more, especially if it's made prominent. Of course, there is nothing wrong with driving at 15 MPH, and it'll still get you there much quicker than walking. But if 30 MPH is available, well let's just do that! And if 50 MPH, well let's do that! We always want the most we can get, because we can always find some way to be dissatisfied, and there will always be something that maybe can stem that dissatisfaction, if only for a moment. However the moment ends quickly, and then we're in the exact same place again, not greater exactly, but certainly more embellished.