Here's a simple enough post to kick things off. I get pissed off when people keep speaking about finding things that make you happy. Of course, I too say it, but what I mean is that I hope they get what they desire .. at that moment of time. You see, happiness is a really funny thing, just as comedy is something that makes you happy. There is always an angle to our happiness. If you're poor and working like a dog, happiness would be being rich and having nothing to do. If you're weak and insignificant (in your head ... or maybe to a considerable degree in reality) you want power and to be treated with respect. And it goes on and on.
Now I know what you're thinking. I've insulted you and I've disgraced myself. Such simplistic notions! Fair enough, I was just warming up... and by "you're" I only mean what is observed statistically. So let's try to generalize it all and work with what human beings are... all of us. We all have our basic instinct to have comfort, to have an overabundance of resources and to be "up" in whatever social system exists. All three traits would exist at any time and under all circumstances. What happens with some people is that a perspective is formed which changed the importance they give to these things. Say, a person realizes the brevity of life... sharply. (These realizations are usually sharp to overcome the accumulated urges that have formed over thousands of years of our evolution) . The time to think about these things, as well as the potential to have many lifestyles, is the cause for this. So modern life, to a large extent, is responsible for this new "force" that dictates our lives and has changed the trajectory from just finding food and having sex. This too may be taken as a fundamental aspect of our lives... the increasing percolation of information through the media, that has an ever increasing effect on our outlook of the world. What happens unfortunately with such a large environment*, is that we are aware of greater levels of achievement, whose standards none of us can reach to that degree. We can't have it ALL is another way of putting it... and we do want more as was indirectly established through the discussion of our fundamental nature.
Now you may protest at this point (congrats for giving a shit to read this far!) and say that you've figured it all out; you know your priorities. You know what means something to you... and you're following a well orchestrated plan to get it. You're happy following it and you WILL be happy. Sure, this means you sacrifice some things, but ALL things considered, it's the best option... and you KNOW it, and knowing this only makes you happy.
There's a problem. The problem is you feel. The problem is that there is an angle for happiness, broadly... in both thoughts and feelings. So while you can say that doing the things that satisfy the deepest desires of your mind does make you happy, you can't say... with certainty, that experiencing the deepest of your emotional and sensual desires, won't make you happy. Even if you could disregard one in favour for the other, let's say you favour the desires of the mind, then there is a second most desirable thing for your mind... maybe an equal, but one which you consider "unfeasible" due to practical considerations. These practical considerations are quite often false reductions of reality on the basis of statistics. For instance, when it is said people are stupid... this just means that should I pick a person on the street there is a high probability that this person is "stupid" going by whatever standard that statistical measurement involved (aptitude tests, general knowledge, logic, etc). None of these things speak of the potential of growth of this person. Does this stupid person have to be stupid forever? Is this person's stupidity time independent? No, of course not. Similarly, neither is the state of society, of your social situation or pretty much anything else that you might consider in your own personal "happiness equation". Reality is completely pliable in practically every department... it has to be since it is linked with society that is never the same due to changes in technology (the way we interact gets affected by this), in our understanding of the world and each other, and in the political changes and continual reformations of retarded policies of our more retarded medieval past. These facts are completely ignored most of the time to simplify the situation for us and to mask us from the reality, that reality for us is filled with immense potential.... provided we try (sometimes a lot... but the important thing is to keep at it). If you'd live for 500 years, you'd succeed eventually with all that trying ... but maybe not if everyone else lived that long as well. Reality in all honesty cannot be reduced, for it is directly dependent on you. Reality is a function of you and your actions. It may take time before your actions manifest in a way that is easily perceptible... but you always do make an impact, infinitesimally small as it may be.
But let's step away from what reality could be to what reality is. I think it is safe to say that no one can accurately gauge every aspect of reality related to our desires. Say you want to be a businessman. The driving force will be one or two things.... you're desire to be an entrepreneur with your own thing that you control.... you big fucking man... YEAH!, and also to be rich. You're probably not considering business permits and 14 hour days managing a bunch of people you need to constantly supervise. You're probably not considering the fact that a good proportion of them won't like you. You've almost definitely not considering the small likelihood that one of them in time could be crazy and would want to stab you for firing him (mostly hims do that kind of thing.). You're probably not considering the difficulties that could arise from anomalous societal events like the recent economic meltdown. You're probably not considering things that are important at the moment that you unfortunately do not value, but which you will at the time when you are asked to sacrifice it to progress your business. What I'm getting at is that your perception is flawed. And so far, I've not even tackled the point of your primary two drives being just a temporary desire on the basis of your contemporary situation!
How does one then really know something? One can't. Reality will tell you that. You have to prove it to yourself that your values are such and such, and that you really desire it. When the test from society comes... if you stand up and fight for it, THEN you know you desire it. BUT, there's always a price. You have to give something up. The bigger the prize, the bigger the price. That's the rule. No matter how one track and gifted you are, that's the rule. So at that point you can comfort yourself with the coping mechanism that you've acquired the best state you could possibly get out of reality (or to be honest, your perception of it at the time of forming your "value system"... the thing that determines what's "most desirable") .. but know full well that that's bullshit. It is true that there are some causes and things in reality that are more noble, virtuous and worthy than others, that will be generally perceived to be so by most people in most times on account of our nature. What is not true is our happiness depends on living a life in sync with this perception. It could be that should you have lived that alternate life with creature comforts and with that person who you could confide and trust and share wonderful life moments with.... that you would have been happy. It is after all pleasurable due to it satisfying some desire or another, innate or formed. Over time and repeated exposure, who is to say that the scales could not tip in favour of this supposedly less desirable thing should you have acquired it. Upon this being more realistic, you may have deemed the other reality (the one which you most desired and slogged like a street dog for) unachievable and impractical.
With all the uncertainty in the perceptions of the human mind and the nature of social reality, as well as the impact of knowledge upon our happiness** , it is impossible to state a formula for "true happiness". All states that we could achieve will have something to be happy about, and something that will make us feel miserable. If you have a life where you've achieved something through a lot of mental effort, then thinking about the emotional losses could make you unhappy, and vice versa (and when I say vice, I mean reverse the vice). You may think a balance is good idea, but then you cannot compare with the other people "out there". You may try to find solace in your knowledge of "truth".... but the human system, which is what we're concerned with .. has nothing to know (as I mentioned earlier, time determines what is and what is not) , and no real truth. Change the environment, and you change the perception. No matter how fixated a person is on a certain topic, you can set up an environment to change his mind. Simple example: starve any person, and they'll end up thinking of food like no computer geek has ever though about McDonald's burgers. You can set up hypothetical harems for sexual drives, hypothetical control over esoteric and difficult subjects to test over-achievement and so on. Point: no absolutes. Implication: No truth.
The happiness I have been referring to is that liberating, boundless joy that we had as kid... true happiness if there ever was something of the sort.... not quiet contentment. This happiness can be achieved by only those who have a mind that conceals reality (those who are ignorant), or a reality that conceals the mind (falling in love and other mentally distorting experiences). Over time the truth seeps through, and well... it's over.
There's nothing wrong or right here... this was just a discussion (with myself) on a topic that just is. If you're perceptions were contrary to what is... well, I hope you now perceive better. If you think I'm wrong about something (I suspect I crossed the bounds a bit here and there) then feel free to point it out... with the right basis of course. By that I mean that your arguments should be based on something factual, or things and concepts that are "real" (to be defined a bit more in a future post).
If you hated reading all of this, blame Misspacman08. My discussion with her on "life choices" led to some subsequent thoughts, which formed the basis of much that was typed here. She's truly an emerald in a growing sea of poo. Thank you for existing, MP.
*I mean social, mental and physical environments... all aspects of reality that we can, and do, relate with.
** I've assumed we get more knowledgeable with time, which is true for all but a very, very, very small number of "special" people.
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