Culture, despite its refinements, is all about pleasure. All the energy of the world seems to be spent, either on satisfying cravings, or creating new or better ones. As soon as our Participation Levels catch up, our Interest Levels go bounding off ahead. We are like a mountain goat who has found himself on a high, mountain crag, unable to go up or down, but left there to starve. Like Hamlet, we have reached the point where any choice is going to be destructive.
(More detail on Participation and Interest Levels in the ebook Planet Qualia 99 cents)