My position on avoiding pain/ reaching out to pleasure (articulated here to no one in particular):

Our need to avoid pain and death will always be stronger than our need to reach for pleasure. Our need to avoid the negatives will always be stronger than our need to reach out for the positives: we are so genetically programmed, from the first unicellular organisms and through the chains of evolution. This is why a child, in order to avoid abandonment by a parent, will give up reaching out for any pleasure so to avoid the pain. Avoiding pain is nature’s FIRST priority. We are going to remove our burning hand from a hot stove way, way faster, WAY faster and instinctively than we would place our hand in a cookie jar. This is true even for the most cookie crazed.

anita