![]() They have to be seen as evil now, straight up Satanist, cannibalistic pedophiles. It's not enough anymore to oppose the other team because they have bad ideas. You need some thrill, some insults, some accusations. They've spent five years sprinting at an ever-faster pace. But that's not what the Trumpist GOP wants anymore. Some of them may even be interested in holding public office. There are still plenty of thoughtful, serious people on the American right. Trump has massively accelerated the excitement treadmill in U.S. If "profligate persons" could only learn "to limit their desires," said the ancient philosopher Epicurus, "they would then be filled with pleasures to overflowing on all sides and would be exempt from all pain." Alas, longing is not as "easily got rid of" as Epicurus thought. (This is why grounding works as a punishment for children and fasting is a challenging spiritual practice.) Our brains can develop contentment in conditions we perceive as worse than our old circumstances, but they fight it. Either way, there's an unpleasant adjustment period. Absent a parent or other authority figure to force a slowdown, it requires considerable willpower. We try to keep our twins' treadmill at a measured pace, because once the hedonic treadmill increases its speed, it's very difficult to slow. An apple is wild stuff! But once they know about Doritos, apples will become the boring snack whose suggestion is met with a groan. For a toddler who's had ice cream literally once in his life, a banana is mind-blowing. If they don't get to watch television, a book is big-time entertainment - but if video is a known option, a book becomes ho-hum. My husband and I talk about it a lot because a large part of early parenting is managing your kids' treadmill. The hedonic treadmill applies beyond living spaces. Our sense of wellbeing is scaled to what we have. I can't imagine living with one bathroom anymore." It's why people in situations many of us find utterly miserable and untenable - like going without running water or electricity - can be really, truly content with how they live in a way we could not were we in their place. ![]() This is why, for example, if you move from a small apartment to a larger house, within a fairly short time you may find yourself saying something like, "I don't know how we ever managed it in that apartment. The treadmill speeds up - and up and up and up. As quality of life improves, our sense of what we need (as opposed to merely want) scales accordingly. ![]() The more you have, the more you need to feel okay. The idea is a person's baseline needs for a sense of wellbeing and contentment are largely conditional. It's also called "hedonic adaptation," but the treadmill imagery is very useful for understanding how this works. The hedonic treadmill is a concept from psychology. Trumpist Republicans have a serious hedonic treadmill problem. The calm, normal politics Biden has promised is exactly what they do not want - not merely because of differences of partisanship or policy but because calm and normal no longer appeal. Trump's chaos and camp, melodrama and mendacity will finally be shut off.Īnd millions of his voters will be desperate to get it back. At least for the next four years, it's over. Whatever he may say or do over the course of the next month, Trump will leave office as President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. Monday's Electoral College vote officially sealed President Trump's loss.
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