_Free English lesson provided by Professor Celery.
"Pleasure is never as pleasant as we expected it to be and pain is always more painful. The pain in the world always outweighs the pleasure.
If you don't believe it, compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is eating the other."
I believe pleasure is not as pleasant as we expect because we expect too much.
The example was, of course, meant to be metaphorical; however, the pleasure of a cheetah eating a gazelle can, at least in part, be measured by the pleasure of a human eating a hamburger. Our brains share distinct similarities, after all—particularly when it comes to low-level instincts such as acquisition of sustenance. While the cheetah's meal temporarily satisfies a biological desire, the gazelle is subjected to an unimaginable level of suffering in order to satisfy this—its only reprieve being eventual death.That's weird, how can he measure how much a cheetah likes to eat a gazelle?
Dammit, now I want a hamburger.
Does it taste like a hamburger?
It is my belief that what we refer to as "pleasure" does not truly exist as a distinct concept, but, rather, as a mitigation of suffering, or "displeasure."
To add—Were the cheetah to experience a reciprocity of the pain inflicted upon the gazelle, it would likely make the decision to starve to death instead. However, cheetahs lack the ability to experience this and, thus, continue inflicting suffering without any care for the effects of their actions.