The need for purity and the balancing of opposites
The opposition to a certain old religious status quo which had a refined moral guideline and the curiosity that emerges after the fall of its major institutions has led us ever more to embrace vices that have imprisoned us. A vice is an unhealthy coping mechanism turned into a habit that alleviates suffering and fills a void with different amounts of pleasure that you obtain via exchanging your attention, vitality and purity for it. The immediate urge to avoid pain at all costs is what is leading this and we use vices as a sort of sedative not to deepen our own suffering. But by the repetitive and mechanical habits that are in place to distract us from the truth of pain, we remain stuck in the same circle of hell with no advancement towards a development of acquired and integrated wisdom that could emerge from going through certain phases of suffering that would open the doors for a more authentic experience of life. The philosopher Slavoj Zizek downplays both the role of su...