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Oct. 17, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show
07:35
The Human Desire for Excitement Often Leads to Bad Things
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Well, I'll begin with this.
As I said, it's a very important and very complex subject.
Given the human desire for excitement, it cannot be fully expunged.
Nor should it be expunged.
So, trick number one, if it is indeed a trick, is to be excited Over the mundane.
I think that's the primary solution to the problem.
See, the desire for excitement very frequently leads to bad things.
It is not inherently a bad thing, but it does almost inevitably.
In very many cases, it leads to bad things.
I quoted the terror.
I mean, to give the total extreme, you had SS murderers, and they had a saying, I never feel as alive as when I'm killing.
Apparently, for some humans, there is quite a rush in killing somebody.
The psychopaths who capture people and then kill them often speak about, I mean these are true mentally ill psychopaths, but nevertheless there's something to be learned from them.
The rush that they get from killing someone is not something I can relate to, but something I can read and believe.
Most of you are not involved in that, so I won't dwell on that at any length.
I only need to note that the pursuit of excitement can lead to some very bad things.
Though the trick is to get excited over things that are not bad.
And I will admit that there are many happiness topics.
Where I have to work on me, and the Happiness Hour has helped me in my life a great deal as it happens.
This is not one, I will acknowledge, that I have had to work at a great deal.
I have a gift, and it is a gift, so I'm not bragging.
A gift, you can't brag about a gift.
You were just given it.
But I have a gift.
Of getting excited over small things.
And that has been an incredible source of happiness in my life.
I mean, I'll give you examples.
You will find it even odd.
Some of you will find it odd.
You got excited over that?
So I, excuse me, I remember.
So I remember, for example, the excitement of discovering music and then going to concerts.
Classical music in my case.
and that started in high school.
I mean, that was a regular source of excitement.
I went at least twice a month to Carnegie Hall or Philharmonic Hall or some other hall in New York City where I grew up.
I remember when I was in England, my third year of college, I had been smoking a pipe since I was 17. I know I always talk about cigars, but I smoke a pipe as frequently.
I just love the taste of tobacco.
And I don't inhale for those of you who are worried about me.
Or those of you who would like me to disappear from the scene, I don't inhale.
So, nor does almost any cigar or pipe smoker.
I remember going into pipe and tobacco stores in England.
And it was so exciting to talk to the guy.
Behind the counter, the owner, about pipes and tobaccos.
It sounds to you as almost silly.
You got excited over that?
Yes, I did.
But there were things that friends of mine got excited over that I didn't get excited over, and it's just as wonderful.
They would put radios together.
Remember Heath Kitts and all that stuff?
Or they would build a model ship or a model airplane.
My brother did that.
And it was exciting to complete it.
It was even exciting to do it.
Hobbies are a great source of benign excitement.
So I don't disqualify excitement from the equation of happiness.
But you've got to figure out how to have it.
In the small ways.
That's why I've said people get excited when they buy things.
It's a big part of buying things, is the excitement of buying it.
And I understand that.
But I've mentioned this in the past.
Most people can get as excited with an inexpensive item as with an expensive item.
Your excitement does not rise along with the price as a general rule.
So buy less expensive items more frequently and have excitement.
This is a very important subject in terms of happiness and in terms of morality.
The people, the young people who are those men who are smashing windows and kicking in doors, they are having an unbelievably exciting time in the name of nothing, in the name of chaos.
They stand for nothing.
They are nothings.
They are nothings in pursuit of adrenaline.
That's what they are.
They love the excitement.
Do you think if they governed, there would be a better America?
I'm curious.
Do you think if the people rioting governed, think the country would be a better place, a kinder place?
The question is a joke.
So they have nothing to offer.
It is all narcissistic pursuit of excitement.
Religious communities have a way of having some excitement which is benign.
It's one of the benefits of religion.
If you get together with your community on a weekly basis, that's exciting.
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