What Is 'Happiness'?

From a post on Facebook: "happiness is like cake. too much makes you sick". I don't know if I entirely agree with this. Is there really such a thing as wanting to be unhappy? Lets say you deliberately avoid doing things which make you happy just so you stay in a bad mood all the time. Wouldn't the want to remain in this state constitute some kind of happiness too? But I would agree that happiness isn't the only or the highest value. There are different kinds of happiness. euphoria, ecstasy, serenity, peacefulness, orgasm, productivity. All these are forms of happiness which some prefer over others. Some people prefer a life of constant euphoria with large mood swings from the highs acquired through drugs and substances and the lows experienced through withdrawal symptoms. Others prefer a steadier approach, with less highs but also less lows. On a graph it would be represented as smoother curve with less steep crests and troughs. If it would be possible to take a drug which would create continuous ecstatic highs without any of the lows would you take it? I don't think that would ever exist. Maybe there is no such thing as happiness. Maybe there are various different types of emotions as aforementioned which arise from different parts of the brain or body. There is Brave New World's 'soma'. Nozick's experience machine is an example designed to refute hedonism. People wouldn't want to live there lives in machine which recreated the experience of happiness. They would rather have deeper meaningful lives. In the matrix cypher opts back in to the matrix after realizing that "ignorance is bliss" and he prefers the illusion to the reality, as a counterexample. But to go back to the original point, I don't think such a thing as a continuous state of happiness exists because happiness and the means to this end are inextricably linked. you cant have the one without the other. Even though I may work hard to get rich, or work hard to produce an award winning piece of art, in the end I will also acknowledge that the process of writing and working itself are part of the experience of happiness. If we simply got what we wanted without any effort then we wouldn't appreciate it anymore. We would want the memory of the struggle too not just the applause. There is biological proof that we get desensitized when we do something too often. Our dopamine levels drop dramatically after taking the first bite of food. We get bored of porn if we use it every day. If we could experience orgasm continuously throughout the day we would eventually get used to it and it wouldn't be pleasurable anymore.

Popular posts from this blog

Nietzsche and Pity

"But, in fact, they are one and all united in thorough and instinctive hostility towards all forms of society besides that of the autonomous herd (even to the point of rejecting the concepts of “master” and “slave” – ni dieu ni maˆıtre reads a socialist formula –); they are united in their dogged opposition to any special claims, special rights, or privileges (which means, in the last analysis, that they are opposed to any rights: since when everyone is equal, no one will need “rights” anymore –); they are united in their mistrust of punitive justice (as if it were a violation of those who are weaker, a wrong against the necessary  Neither God nor master.  On the natural history of morals result of all earlier societies –); but they are likewise united in the religion of pity, in sympathy for whatever feels, lives, suffers (down to the animal and up to “God”: – the excessive notion of “pity for God” belongs in a democratic age –); they are all united in the cries and the impatienc
Read more

The Nature of Work

 both the eastern scholar alan watts and german philosopher friedrich nietzsche viewed the contemporary attitude to work as destructive.  in their view work should be a matter of pleasure. in watts' case, it was in the form of an enlightened engagement with work, a kind of lightness and dance, whereas nietzsche saw the struggle involved in work as "the reward of all rewards" and as the goal in itself, not as a means for making profit. according to nietzsche, the fear of boredom is what drives people to work. they would rather shun boredom through repetitive, monotonous tasks than be idle. in this case he distinguishes those who have the capacity to suffer boredom, who consider it a prequel to (what i can only assume he means) is a period of productivity: "For the thinker and for all inventive spirits boredom is the unpleasant "calm" of the soul which precedes the happy voyage and the dancing breezes; he must endure it, he must await the effect it has on him
Read more

Heaven's Gate

 of how they died unnecessarily the 39 still wearing their black sweaters, tracksuit bottoms and nike waffle trainers. the last days, there was still some sadness, but the the leader reminded us that all hope we had was simply the luciferian forces staying attached to our mortal coils. feeding off the gumtree like koalas, inhabiting all different forms of corporeal bodies, but the celestial was aeternal. (what is essential is the father like figure, the extreme charismatic nature, the ability to comfort and strike fear at the same time. the people who fell for it, were generally gullible but not dumb, the leaders belief systems and teachings made sense to the smarter of the group, while the young ones bought into the stories of what their lives would be of secret powers, of life on this distant planet etc.) what is essential in a cult group is that you foster a sense of exclusivity and community, that you have a clear delineation between us and them, the dangerous outsiders and the rig
Read more