We all know the slogan that mantras over and over again: listen to your heart. But what does it really mean? The heart is a wide category. If I’d listen to my heart I have done this or that. But what I should really listen to?
Listening to my heart can either mean following my conscience or following my impulses equally. But both can be extremely dangerous. In fact every decision made with using no common sense can have fatal consequences.
Nothing any good can happen if you follow your impulses, only less evil. And the least bad thing is that you give up what you planned with consistent work and want to put into practice, out of momentary cowardice or love of comfort. You know that the end result will be good and to give it up is tantamount to betraying yourself, but still you choose the easy way instead of the right way. In extreme cases, this means giving up the purpose of life.
And this is where the worse consequence of following your impulses begins, because you have to distract yourself from the stagnation and lack that occur as a result of giving up your life’s purpose. Which is in most cases chasing short term pleasure and seeking fun and joy in trivial stuffs.
One of the unexpected side effects of chasing impulsive pleasure is that the pleasure itself starts inflating as the personality and character as well, contributing to general happiness with nothing. And this is the fundamental fault of hedonism. Because the hedonistic worldview is the mentality of averageness.
Averageness cannot evaluate the whole, it is not possible with no seeking deeper meaning in life anyways, thus people want more than whole. Eventually they end up gaining less than whole, becauuse all more than whole is a mere illusion. And they sacrifice for this illusion everything necessary to gain the whole. This is why more pleasure gives less happiness.
As more pleasure goes as less meaning goes with it. This is because people don’t want negative side effect or flipsides, but ironically with this they achieve the opposite what they want.
People want the illusion of freedom, but not a freedom itself. They make a vote in general election, but they procrastinate to make decisions that really matter about they have absolute control over. People want an illusion of nature, but not the nature itself. This is why garden cities were invented as symbols of the declining West.
People want the illusion of spirituality, but not the spirituality itself. This is the way how the Christianity was degenerated to a level of sunday religion and rock and roll subculture. Because it goes without making sacrifice. They want roze with no thorn, romance with no pain, but if the sacrifice won’t be made the sacrifice makes itself.
They want pleasure itself on the other hand, but they get an illusion of pleasure only. Because they naively think they can get everything with depriving them of their negative side effect, but what they don’t pay attention of they deprive them of meaning with this at the same time. In return however they gain nothing that valuable, only an illusion of everything, including the life, and this is the true dramatic side effect of not living meaningful life. This is how the sacrifice makes itself.
There are the potential dangers of allowing our minds to consume trivial and fleeting pleasures, because they also consume our minds. This is why Nietzsche was wrong about Stoicism, considering it as self-tyranization. Because Stoicism is nothing but a benevolent reminder to make people focus what truly matters by practicing self-control and maintaining a clear and rational mindset. I don’t think that practicing self-control is equal to tyranizing ourselves, but I rather think Nietzsche consumed Stoicism half-baked.
Anyways, listening to your heart can’t mean following your impulses by any means. Neither because it contradicts to another interpretation of this slogan, that is follow your conscience. But this can be similarly dangerous in certain cases, if it lacks common sense.
Those are empathy and compassion towards others. Although these are positive emotions, they sometimes cause more harm than good, and what’s worse is that only rational people can clearly see the resulting harm. Psychopaths like to use these feelings to manipulate their victims, provoking guilt from them. Because they don’t have emotions, but they know you have, and they use it for their own advantage. They are experts emotions without possessing them. And following your conscience without recognizing their game is like walking blindly towards the abyss.
I would have given my money to a lot of miserable beggars just out of pity. But I don’t have enough money to solve even one beggar’s problem. And in the end, I would become a beggar myself too without having helped anyone. I wonder how many people would help me in that case. This is a fundamental problem of listening to your heart even if it means following your conscience.
I don’t suggest with this article you shouldn’t listen to your heart whatsoever. But do not stop listening to your gut feeling and common sense just because you listen to your heart. The two should be in harmony with each other.
Thanks for reading!