It’s morally difficult, of course. There’s a reason we count these among deaths of despair, because borrowing happiness from tomorrow sounds like a fair deal to anyone who expects tomorrow to be even worse than today, or to not exist at all “for tomorrow we die.”
I think pity is the appropriate response, even in the context of remediation/intervention, because despair is the darkest place one can find oneself. While life choices may hasten that descent, including things like alcoholism, despair itself is never a choice.
I absolutely borrow happiness from tomorrow, I very much do pleasurable things in the moment at the expense of a long life because we’re looking at a climate apocalypse in my lifetime, and I actively do not want to live through that. If I can have a shorter, but more pleasurable life before shit really hits the fan it seems like a fair trade. I do try not to go overboard or let it control me though because there lies misery.
It’s morally difficult, of course. There’s a reason we count these among deaths of despair, because borrowing happiness from tomorrow sounds like a fair deal to anyone who expects tomorrow to be even worse than today, or to not exist at all “for tomorrow we die.”
I think pity is the appropriate response, even in the context of remediation/intervention, because despair is the darkest place one can find oneself. While life choices may hasten that descent, including things like alcoholism, despair itself is never a choice.
I absolutely borrow happiness from tomorrow, I very much do pleasurable things in the moment at the expense of a long life because we’re looking at a climate apocalypse in my lifetime, and I actively do not want to live through that. If I can have a shorter, but more pleasurable life before shit really hits the fan it seems like a fair trade. I do try not to go overboard or let it control me though because there lies misery.