The Pursuit of Happiness and other control mechanisms
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
This is written into the US declaration of independence and is a message that has been broadcast globally yet, what exactly is happiness and is it worth pursuing?
The debate as to what happiness meant when the declaration was signed and what it has come to mean is not new. The modern interpretation of happiness is about momentary pleasures yet, back in 1776 it is more likely to be about general well-being and the possibility to flourish.
I wrote a post a few hours ago about freedom within a society and wrote this:
Freedom is found when we are uninhibited to give of ourselves all we can to the world, only then are the constraints that hold us back as a singular and a piece of the whole removed.
Wouldn't this be life, liberty and happiness? Life would be protected and encouraged to bring its best and be its best and in doing so, wouldn't happiness ensue? But, here is the problem. In a comment on the post:
There is a difference between happiness and contentment. - @roundhere
Indeed there is. Happiness as we know it today is momentary and fleeting, not a generalized concept of well-being. What that means is that the peaks of the feeling of 'happy' become the indicators of what it means to be happy and we should all know, the peaks are impossible to maintain.
Contentment is when one has had enough, it is a balance point between being hungry and over-eating. It is satisfaction, no more want. The peak happiness people seek will mean a continual striving, like an addict looking for a high as high as their first. A chase that will ramp up the dose needed each time but will always fall short.
Happiness also drives for pleasure but limits the work necessary for contentment, the give all of ourselves aspect is removed and the expectation is one of entitlement, happiness is received and it is guaranteed by unalienable right. When the peaks are not constant and the feeling happy returns to the mean, people feel their rights have been encroached upon, they have been oppressed.
But it is in the pursuit that indicates the work toward and not the receiving of. It is in pursuit that the concept of journey, not destination is indicated. The pursuit means consistent work, not consistent return.
It is in our quest for an eternal high and our unwillingness to work for satisfaction of the work itself that controls us, pushes us to be consumers, not creators. We have been manipulated into believing that becoming collectors of what is peddled to us is the way to have life, liberty and happy but, it is this very process that programs us to be robotic, chains us to desks and dulls the senses to the beauty that the world is. Unless peaking on happiness, our life is not reaching its potential, we are oppressed.
We are oppressed but it isn't because of a lack of happy, it is because we are unwilling to work out what we are and our place in this world and give ourselves freely to it. We have bought into the lie of master and authority and think that the maximization of the self will bring on an impossible to maintain high. And that maximization of self based on pleasure is tied to the oppression of others through a process of supply chain optimization to bring the purchasable products of Happy.
Find those who are truly happy in this world and you will see for yourself. It isn't a happy of pleasure nor product, it is one in service to a path. For each this path is different yet, very little of momentary happiness is to be found for it is a movement toward satisfaction, a pursuit of something greater than today. A maximization on the individual to offer all they can to the world.
It is this pursuit that lasting happiness is found and it is in the work and servitude of life itself where passion is held. Happiness is not easy, the balance between hunger and greed a fine line to maintain yet, it is one that offers the full experience of life without limiting the path of any other.
We think we are oppressed because the world does not give us the opportunities we feel we deserve. We are oppressed by expectation and our sense of entitlement that we deserve what we have not worked for. Inalienable rights can't be protected for they are natural and undeniable yet, we deny ourselves happiness through our unwillingness to strive for better.
We are not unhappy because of the universe has dictated it to be, we are suffering because we as a society look to maximize ourselves over the position of others and call it competition. Rather than work to build a community of flourishing, we each look to be better than the next and we will crush each other to prove it.
It is this lie that we have swallowed that holds us back. This falsity of media, corporation and government that continually perpetuate it to play us off against each other, polarize us, limit us, separate us for their own purpose and agenda. It is a protection of their wealth and power, their control over what we think and do and the creation of a continual customer for the trash they sell.
They have taken our inalienable rights and taught us how to alienate ourselves.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
This post reminded me that stoicism started to become less popular after Catholicism became the de facto state religion in most Western European nations around 4th-5th century AD.
Seneca, and also Socrates, saw these ethics long ago and actually made them part of the goal. For Seneca the virtue alone was almost considered the happiness.
I think stoicism urgently needs to be retaught at schools. The world would be a better place for it.
Tim Farriss quotes Seneca a lot on his podcasts. This is the second time I have seen strong Seneca support in the past week or so. My world works in threes.... great comment, something that needs to be discussed more.
I think nowadays Tim Ferris is one of the more vocal people who have made their teachings, their imperium based on stoic values.
The loss of the teachings such as Seneca and the picking up of Catholic religion took personal responsibility and put it in the hands of an authority. No longer could man save himself for he became too weak and had to rely on divine intervention and mouthpieces in its stead. Control mechanisms.
While that is true I don’t think that the old Greek method was better, except that it seems, emphasis: seems, society had less corrupt values.
Why do I think it wasn’t necessarily better? Many of the great masters, teachers, became politicians themselves. At heart that’s just as rotten. Burbach while much younger the democracy was definitely more mature.
Question: despite living in the country with currently the best educational, and least syllabus program based, system... will you homeschool your daughter in order to free her of those negatives imposed by politicians and lobbyists?
We in part touched on this topic from a different angle recently. I remarked that it is indeed the case of divide and conquer, keep the masses dumbed down and blinded by glittery media promising great happiness in all the trash people end up buying on all those commercialized "mother's days".
We have become self serving because of this and has indeed failed to see how uplifting all around you will also uplift you. Simple economics for those who can't see past the dollar, lift the poor country and educate their people in order to be able to contribute and produce and you no longer have to support them financially, but rather support them in a fruitful business relationship.
I suppose much like dropping taxes, fuel costs and consumer tax. Give the people more money and they will spend it.
Just my thoughts
Yes, at the end of the day, human nature says consume.
Quite right and that can be to the advantage of everyone if governed correctly.
Thank you for this post (and this comments in this group are super intelligent! I am now following all y'all smarties.) I couldn't agree more and feel that happiness is derived from reaching one's potential. That is an internal to external process. I do not think it can work from external to internal (though sometimes tragedy does induce change.)
We live in a world of 'things' and I am no different. For the past year I have been trying to sincerely analyze me relationship with 'things' and reactions (some call it jealousy) of others who have more than I.
Compersion is a word I came across recently that was defined as the " The feeling of joy one has experiencing another's joy, such as in witnessing a toddler's joy and feeling joy in response. The feeling of joy associated with seeing a loved one love another; contrasted with jealousy."
This is something I am trying to work harder on and to just keep focused on doing what I can do to be the best version of me. What I do notice is that a natural outcome is a desire for others to fulfill their potential as well, and for me to get out of their way on their path to that.
The beauty in all this is that we have a lifetime to figure it out. Some of us do not get that opportunity or moment of clarity, but its pursuit is what gets me out of bed everyday.
Thanks everyone. Love.
I count myself lucky to have the followers I have.
I have not come across the word before but the concept yes. Imagine a world where this was felt every day.
Thanks for coming by and adding your voice.
HiTaraz. We live in a want society. When they have the wanted item they will want something else. I put it down to their upbringing. Parents have spoiled their kids so much they are never happy with the basics. It's always going to be the next thing. They are not happy and content in their lives and think that this item will make them happy. How shallow everyone has become. What is next?
Virtual/augmented reality driven by AIs to provide an experience of wildest dream devoid of any real at all.
You have said many truths here, and I think the world would be a better place if more people had the same belief.
We have been lied to but we cannot blame those who lied to us, we can only blame ourselves for not questioning the lies not because there is something wrong with us but because by taking responsibility we gift ourselves the power we gave away when we bought into the lies.
Here is the thing about happiness, it is not something that can be pursued. I am not a fan of the notion that you need to spend 40 years or more as a wage slave, accumulating things like fancy cars, clothes, houses and such for the purpose of impressing people who are to concerned with all of the drama in their own live to even notice, all the while saving every last penny so that one day you may finally retire with enough money to finally start living the life you wish to live in the hopes that this will give you happiness. You cannot pursue happiness, it is not something that you can have, it is something that you are.
They say that happiness is a choice, but those same people who give such well meaning but shallow advice do not understand how it is that it is a choice. Happiness is not a choice, but rather is a result of a choice. What you focus on becomes your reality. You cannot be depressed if you do not think about and focus on the things that depress you. You cannot be angry if you do not think about and focus on the things that anger you. You cannot be exited if you do not think about and focus on the things that excite you. You cannot be happy if you do not think about and focus on the things that make you happy
I appreciate that things are not quite as simple as this, nonetheless, you can be a happier person right now by making one small choice, namely to focus on and think about the things that make you happy, and to have gratitude for those things.
It takes two to make a lie active and our continued turning from curiosity and picking up of popular isn't going to make the lies easier to spot but, it will make them easier to believe.
It is not even the lack of focus, the solution lays in the complete detachment yet, the ego doesn't like the idea of its own loss.
True, very true. The ego will often make detachment as difficult as possible.
I think the context of 'pursuit' is important in this topic.
Entitlement lends itself to needs based ideology, which requests no pursuit, but that the products and service be freely provided by 'society'.
Abilities based ideology requires developing the abilities to provide goods and services within your own abilities. This is where the term pursuit is pivatol.
This also frees the individual from the trap of social altruism, as the needs of man are infinite, but the abilities of man are limited.
You may pursue happiness to all of your ability, but should expect no more than what you can produce for yourself from your own efforts.
Indeed it is.
I like this, well said. There is so little we can actually do alone yet, we enjoy the fruits of others labour. the problems we face in this world are not going to be solved alone either, they are going to take the cooperation of many highly skilled and lateral thinkers and believing any one isolated group can accomplish it alone is a fool's mind.
I would agree right up to the boundaries of altruism. We enjoy the fruits of others as we trade the the fruits of our own in value for value exchanges.
Cooperation is only as useful as its highest internal degree of freedom, otherwise the high skills and resources are used inefficiently.
Can you think of any problem of the world we face that isn't considerably associated with a faction, or social construct of some type?
Is it logical to build a social construct to fix another social construct?
Pollution. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we live on. It is something we all affect and are all affected by to greater and lesser degree and something we would all benefit from if improved. The conversation has been hijacked and reframed as climate change/global warming to polarize factions though.
Pollution:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-scientists-relate-urban-population-to-air-pollution&ved=2ahUKEwjJidiw0YPbAhXEY98KHfUbAvsQFjACegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw3pPVOnD00e-RbLe2gmh4zL
Highest concentrations of pollution occur in population dense cities. Cities are a social construct.
Mass produced food where diesel is burned to power food production.
Few folks really wants to have the difficult conversation.
This is really how you say in these moments happiness is momentary because looking for it in these moments is more complex than before as things have changed and the way of seeing things is the same and a desire to seek true happiness has been lost a bit. that lasts and makes you happy and you have that inner peace, we must have the focus of being happy and helping others to be more human and less materialistic
We can be more human and less materialistic ourselves and show them the way. Slowly, the tides will turn.
that's true, we have to start changing ourselves and help more people turn their bad deeds and start being better people every day
It is in human nature to never be satisfied. The emotions that one person will experience over a period has highs and lows, between which lay some baseline that they would call feeling okay. Graphed it would look much like the period of a sine function. If that baseline of that wave function were to be zero "happy" would be positive, and "sad" would be negative.
No matter where you move this baseline people will not always be happy or sad. From their perception, the baseline is always zero, below it that person will think that things could be better, above it they will think things are going well. However, happiness is an internal selfish emotion, the type of thing only the individual can control. People can check to see if everything is working how their selfish world has idealized it and decide to be happy or sad about this. They can choose to be just as happy in the low of a trough as the peak of a crest.
That is why it is written "and the pursuit of happiness". No one can make you realize you can choose to be happy. Many extremely successful people spend their entire life in pursuit of the peak of that crest. They can see in the distance as they constantly raise their baseline, never satisfied, never reaching their peak. Then one day they catch a break and finally can rest in peace, but they lost the pursuit.
To others, this person's happy graph may appear to be y =mx+b, while to the person it felt like y = -mx+b. Some people never realize you can be happy standing on a peak or down in a trough. They constantly raise their baseline and keep happy all about them. They keep it selfish. They never learn that when things are not going how they want they can be happy for the people it is. Everyone must teach themselves how to stand on the peak of their highest crest and stay there. No one can give that to anyone. It doesn’t matter if someone loves them and all they want is for that person to be happy. Happiness can be shared but not given. It is a learned choice and I do not know the word for it which says a lot to the human condition on happiness. It is not compassion. Compassion is about feeling sorry for the less fortunate. The word I am looking for is feeling happy because you can see others that are doing good. It is a form of empathy, but I want something more specific. If someone knows that word, please share it with me.
@tarazkp I don’t mean to leave essays in response to your posts. You tend to cover topics that I spend much time rolling around in my head. I guess I’m too shy to drop it as my own post to see what people think, but a response is different. It is like, “oh hey me too”. Then at that point, if I posted on my blog I’d be stealing, so I leave a response to your bravery to speak up. I suck at twitter as you can see. Thanks for sharing.
This guy got me started a while back with this quote:
This same quote is also why I withdrew from my University. I had one semester to go on two bachelors degrees in petroleum and mechanical engineering, over $100,000.00 in student debt, my phone well you can fix the ringing thing, my longtime girlfriend has stopped talking to me (temporarily I hope) she thinks I have lost it , I drive Uber seven days a week twelve hours a day and it is the happiest I have been since I quit construction to pursue a degree for a woman that said I was wasting my potential. That may be true. It is even flattering that they see that, but if money was the issue well did you know if you uber that much you make the same amount as a petroleum engineer. Plus I get to be happy this way.
And I actually didn't get to withdraw. The dean called me in. They are letting me finish slowly..... for FREE! I have done really well. 3.9 GPA with enough hours for a PhD. I branched out a bit due to curiosity: A&P 1&2, Biology, Modern Physics, Quantum Physics, English 1 three times for a B, Organic Chemistry 1&2, DEQ 1&2, Linear Algebra, Elasticity of Numbers, ect. Then I got a registration hold, they called me in and said "WTF are you doing?". I said, "Going to school." They responded "Finacial aid is only for people pursuing classes in a particular degree. Your the closest to being an Engineer if you need aid to pay you should do that." This severely restricted the classes I could take. I had a bunch left. But if it is free and slow. Ill get the degrees and post them on the back seat. So people will know life is not all about what you can do. It is important to be happy too.
It isn't what you do or what you get out of what you do, it is what you put into what you do and the meaning you apply to it.
I stole this from another comment by @polysteemer:
I once heard something that has helped me a lot. No matter how bad situations may be, if you evaluate the very instant, you are most likely okay. In that now, you are alive and if you have the chance to think, you are unlikely to be in unbearable pain. I have been in some very horrible circumstances from numerous viewpoints yet, in that moment, I was okay and today, I am okay still.
Me too.
"Rather than work to build a community of flourishing, we each look to be better than the next and we will crush each other to prove it".
This is so true. We've been manipulated into thinking an endless Competition with each other, even bringing others down as a way to happiness. True happiness through achievements is impossible. It's either we define the term, or set a bar for contentment