Freedom as reason-driven self-interest ultimately requires becoming inhuman

Evidence

According to Spinoza, to be free is to act according to reason. To act according to reason is to act according to your own interests. Finally, however, we have to recognise that, on Spinoza’s account, the best interests of the human species coincide with becoming-inhuman. … Crucially for Burroughs’ analysis, it provides an account of why humans are so endemically prone to addictive behaviour. This is because there are actually two separate circuits, one for motivation and one liking. In the latter stages of addiction, you want to consume the drug, but it is improbable that you will also like jacking up. Add all this up, and you pretty much have a neuronic recipe for the unremitting misery, hatred and violence that have characterised human history. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 2324

Categorization

• XREF: The motivation-versus-liking split maps onto the classic wanting vs. liking psychology distinction and resonates with earlier passages on addiction. — connects to: Freedom that withdraws into self-interest denies its own nature; Freedom depends on overcoming negativity and constraint — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 147; Freedom makes itself into affliction, so liberating freedom from suffering betrays freedom — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1007 (+4 more)
• QUESTION: The claim about motivation and liking being separate circuits is worth verifying neurologically — and wondering what circuits govern non-drug behaviors.

Broader Connections

• Freedom makes itself into affliction, so liberating freedom from suffering betrays freedom #complicates (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1007
• Genuine freedom requires accepting permanent tension rather than seeking rest #complicates (0.76)
• Freedom arises when necessity manifests its inner identity, not by its removal #complicates (0.75)
• Freedom depends on overcoming negativity and constraint #expands (0.74) — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 147
• Freedom requires a perpetual renewal of self-choice without any support #qualifies (0.73) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1147
• Freedom that withdraws into self-interest denies its own nature #qualifies (0.72)