“But I like the inconveniences.”
“We don’t,” said the Controller. “We prefer to do things comfortably.”
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”
“All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”
 From Aldous Huxley’s  Brave New World

I first read Brave New World in 10th grade and thought it was absolutely the strangest, most depraved thing I had ever read. Upon rediscovering it a year ago, I’m absolutely fascinated by it and especially this bit of dialogue.

Doesn’t it just say so much about the human condition? In America, everything is about comfort and ease–the new American dream, if you will. But is all of that comfort just a panacea to coverup the real and frightening urge that we crave danger? We want God, poetry, love, freedom, goodness, adventure, sin and for all of time, we keep ripping off the proverbial bandage of safety to get what we want. You cannot believe anything or love anyone comfortably or safely.  But yet, contradictorily, we only want a small amount of “inconveniences” before the consequences set in. Why do we keep turning back to comfort and ease to protect ourselves from the possible heartache of actually feeling and living a full and abundant life?

We are unhappy paradoxes.

(If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m somewhat of an existentialist and exponentially more so at 1:24 am.)