I LIKE TO PARTY — JONNY PENN
IF YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY YOU SHOULD
THROW A PARTY
I love to party! I love to dance, drink, and play. Many of
my favourite moments have been late on a
Friday/Saturday night, enjoying the combination of
my friends and loud music – and most commonly, late
night fast food! While these are some of my fondest
time, I entertain the thought that is this when I’m most
happy? Am I even happy?
Many people nowadays see work as a means to party,
that the point of attaining money is to throw their
earnings into alcohol bottles and good times. Perhaps
this view is fuelled by dance music hitting the charts
and a love of party tunes. The only pleasure, media
argues, is greater would be that of sex. But it’s clear in
our society that if you want to be happy you should
throw a party.
Firstly, this view leads to the modern conclusion that
happiness is an emotion, that you feel happy, and we
tend to assume this is the same thing as being happy.
But this isn't a modern idea! Aristotle believed
happiness to be a way of being, not a feeling, and this
stems from his teacher, Plato’s, view that being happy
would mean having a soul in a state of “justice” with
reason and will in tune with our everyday desires and
“appetites”. These appetites would seem to be the
desire to play tennis with the tonsils of strangers at
parties under the influence of alcohol. Of course,
some these pleasurable feelings do relate to true
happiness. But Aristotle would have no time for
people “feeling” happy. It’s all about the way of
existing. And, like us, for Aristotle the whole purpose
of life is to be happy.
However this way of being is hardly straightforward
and comprises Aristotle’s “doctrine of the mean”
which is sometimes regarded as a counsel of
moderation: Don’t go to extremes! However, where
does partying fit into this? Partying is about extremes,
drinking not in moderation, and committing offences
you’ll regret the next day. At least that is the beauty
of the modern nightlife, which doesn’t fit in with his
counsel of moderation. It’s the kind of thing your
parents would have taught you. However this is not, I
don’t think, what Aristotle meant.
When you look to Aristotle for his interpretation, as
common in philosophy, you won’t find much help. But
I think Aristotle wants us to party hard (I mean what
else is Aristocracy about, look at the Great Gatsby),
but that if we party hard all the time, we’ll burn out. I
think the doctrine of the mean is in relation to us: that
we shouldn’t pick the midpoint of two extremes
(drinking three double vodkas and red bulls, instead
of six or instead of none) but you need to pick your
moments. What you should do (and what you should
feel) relies on the circumstances you’re in. So if the
party is good, drink as much as you want. And
according to Aristotle you can still find yourself
happy.
But Aristotle’s view is not what we’ve really been
taught, or inherited from the misguided opinions of
our parents, and the misguided views of their parents.
In fact, trace it back long enough and the modern idea
of happiness extends from the father of modern
philo ͽ