Were it not for likes and dislikes, man would have no problems:
2nd Verse: Were it not for instinctive, physical likes and dislikes, man would be extinct.
3rd Verse: Were it not for non-physical likes and dislikes, man would have no civilization.
Revamped Recapitulation: Were it not for non-physical likes and dislikes, likes, man would have no problems.
In that life favors its internal organs, (living creatures), to live, (until it favors them to die), it makes them like what is conducive to living and dislike that which is not – (no problem there, huh?). But in that life favors one of them, (man), to do more than just live programmatically, it has him engage in activities that neither directly favor nor discourage life. Culture, in all its thought-derived non essentials; to hold it together, life further causes him to act as though he has meaningful likes and dislikes concerning the activities that make up this second reality.
All men dislike arsenic, (they really dislike it, instinctively). Some men say they dislike liberal political ideas, but they do not really? Oh, they think they do, which to ordinary men is the same as it really being so. But they do not really, in that there is nothing there TO dislike. It is not liquid poison; it is just words – sounds in the air, like the rustling of leaves, except life fills some men’s minds with thoughts that take human produced sounds concerning politics more seriously than that of leaves.
Instinctive likes and dislikes are serious.
All others are dust in the wind –
harmless hobbies, the way played by most.
Throughout history have been those who fault what they perceive to be non-essential likes and dislikes. Some say that abandoning such brings supernatural rewards; that the gods bless those who do not succumb to a life controlled by useless likes and dislikes. Some even go so far as to try and repress even instinctive, essential likes and dislikes; trying to survive on the least amount of food possible, and without sex or shelter altogether. Some less dedicated delete selectively, and give up just certain foods, sexual practices and residential ostentation. But still under the cover that such mundane sacrifices will be rewarded metaphysically, with an improved state of consciousness and understanding.
Aside from the well-known deleterious physiological changes that occur in the brain during actual starvation or hypothermia, (visual & audible hallucinations), the foolishness of the approach: “Harm the body – help the mind” deserves no further note.
J.