Penelope Chambers
Ms. Jacobs
Reading 101-100
04/06/2018
Happiness Is A Delusion
A lot of people think that you're either born happy, or you are not. Adam Phillips stated that "Anyone who could maintain a state of happiness, given the state of the world, is living in a delusion." I'd agree with his statement, as a lot of us living in todays society do try our best to ignore the issues going on in order to maintain a sense of mental disconnect from reality. There are moments of what we consider to be happiness, when we are feeling positive.
It's hard to avoid all the corruption in our government, companies, even our healthcare systems. Then you think about all the natural disasters that occur, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, so with all those we live in constant danger. Mother nature, and even the people that live here on earth pose a threat to life. If your life is threatened constantly, it's difficult to maintain positive feelings. People who are happy, have chosen to ignore the dangers that could threaten their happy lives. Even if someone insures all their belongings, there are some things that you can't insure. When I was a little girl, our house burned down, but we were happy to be alive, yet were upset over the loss of irreplaceable objects from our family such as baby photos.
Although people consider their positive emotions as happiness, it's only temporary. "The first route to greater happiness is hedonic, increasing positive emotion." (Seligman 2002) As long as you can place all of the horrors that go on in the world today out of your mind, you can become a more positive person. A lot of people, especially the younger generation, have chosen to not watch the news in order to avoid hearing about all the tragic events that occur on a daily basis.
How can anyone be happy when we live in a capitalist world that is ran by money? Even those who have a considerable amount of money struggle to stay happy, but it's easier for them to remain positive when they do have more financial security. Materialism has taken over a lot of our minds to equate to our positive feelings. Mae West once said, "I've been rich, and I've been poor; believe me, rich is better." Money can affect the amount of happiness a person might feel. If you are living in poverty, it's a bit more difficult to remain positive about life.
In summary, people have become deluded to the world around them in order to be what they consider "happy." If we pondered about what bad will happen next, then we could never live our lives with any positive moments. Humans have had to adapt to overpopulation, and continue to create new ways to be happy as life becomes harder for the middle, and lower class. Distractions will always get us through the times of sadness, and pain. Whether it be playing video games, watching movies, or going on a family trip. We will always use distractions to avoid confronting all the issues we are faced with.
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