No doubt I'm being overly cynical ("Surely not!" I hear you cry) but I'm a little suspicious of
carpe diem, live-each-day-like-it's-your-last thinking. It strikes me as one of those things that sounds great in principle but starts to crumble when you apply a bit of thought to it.
Humans are, as far as we know, the only creatures with a sense of long-term futurity. This can cause us significant and undeniable problems - I've read enough books on mindfulness to know that. It's not easy to set aside either - mindfulness of the immediate here and now for any extended period is bloody difficult. But I think there's a right balance to be had here: as catchy and appealing as it sounds as a phrase, if everybody really did seize the day and live as though it was their last I'd give human civilization forty-eight to seventy-two hours maximum.
Good article, though. This bit chimes with me with regard to the current alcohol thread:
... hedonism has long been central to human culture, personal expression and passionate living, and it is essential that we find a place for it in modern life.” But the pursuit of pleasure can be viewed with suspicion, he says, “due to the legacy of Greco-Roman moral ideals and hair-shirt Christian teachings that have slowly infiltrated our minds. For 2,000 years there has been a long war against pleasure.
