Do you know what you need to be happy?
Sure, "happiness" might not be the overall goal in terms of what a good life is, but it is a good way to frame what we want out of our activities, to guide what we do. I remember reading or hearing something a long time ago about catching people "at their best" when having to spend time with them, even if "their best" is not healthy. For instance, if a person loves to eat, meet them at a restaurant they like, even if they are eating themselves into an early grave.
It is their choice.
It would be interesting to run an audit on "what makes us happy and work out how much of it is actually good for us, improves us, makes us a better version of ourselves. Happiness is of course an emotion and as such, doesn't actually have to be tied to the reality of the situation. For example, many people are happy to smoke a cigarette, as it satisfies a craving for nicotine or ritual, but that doesn't mean that it is healthy. We seem to overvalue happiness as a feeling, ascribing a sense of health to it, even though it can be the exact opposite.
Here for a good time, not a long time.
I believe we are social animals built for social activity, because it is through this process that we have been able to evolve so radically as a species. Our ability to work together and collaborate to solve complicated problems beyond our skills as individuals, has meant rapid advancement. However, with this, we have also created a massive range of other problems, and due our intelligence, we can't actually ignore them. If the dinosaurs ruined their environment to the point of their extinction, they would never have realized it, they would have just died out.
We don't have that luxury.
Ignorance might be bliss, but we would have to be incredibly ignorant to completely ignore the pain and suffering we cause ourselves through our behaviors. We can feel it in our bodies, we can see it reflected in the mirrors, we can hear it through the feedback of the world. Yet, our behaviors largely remain unchanged, as we keep inflicting damage after damage upon ourselves.
If it feels good, do it.
It seems to be the conditioning of the modern world, where no matter what the consequences of our actions, the most important thing is our immediate feedback We are encouraged to act in service to our sense of pleasure, the good feeling we get, the dopamine kick. Every part of our consumer lives is driven by this desire, whether it be around what we eat, what we read, what we do - it is all in order to make ourselves feel good now, to hell with later.
I have long questioned whether it is better to be happy in the moment at the expense of happiness in the future, and I have taken the approach that the future is more important than the present. Of course, there is only the present where we live, but acting now without regard to our future experience, is likely going to lead to increasingly difficult "nows", where it becomes hard to get what we want out of it, what we need out of it.
Spending all what we have in the moment, will cost us opportunity later. Eating all that tastes good now, will mean feeling terrible in the future. Doing what makes us feel good now, means that we are unlikely going to improve our skills to meet the needs of tomorrow.
Is the now worth it?
Maybe, maybe not. But, unfortunately, because we are part of a a society, all behaviors impact on everyone in some way. People who have tied to live a controlled life, still have to pay for those who have chosen to live a life of excess. The community is still rehabbing drug and gambling addicts, and performing surgeries on morbidly obese - while telling "normal people" that there is just not enough resources to provide opportunity.
It is an interesting thing with living in a society these days, that the people who add the least value, seem to take the most resources. And, of course it isn't just monetary value, because a lot of the monetary value is generated through some of the least beneficial to society activities, often encouraging the lives of excess and wonton abandon.
There seems to be some apathy around these things these days, where more and more people are taking a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach to life, and giving up on self-control, in favor of immediate pleasure. Personally, I don't think it is going to end well for any of us, which is probably why more people are looking to get what pleasure they can, now - before there is none left.
Like a loaded plate at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Get our money's worth, no matter how bad it makes us feel.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]