If there was ever a more amorphous thing than "happiness" that sociologists study I've not heard of it.
I read this, and am not surprised either.
What surprises me is that more men do not think this as well. I know that men and women are different, although different is not good or bad at all - it is only different. If there is one thing that came out of Feminism in the 1960s, and 70s that we should adhere to it is that, but for all of the hullabaloo that came out of the cultural revolution we never learned what happiness should be. What is peculiar is happiness in and of yourself was a big part of the hippie mentality.
Happiness for too many of us too often is tied to something that is outside of us - careers, spouses, homes, childrens' accomplishments. Who is happy in and of themselves?
Anecdotal observations say, it looks like one of Feminism's' failures is to adopt the masculine definition of happiness - accomplishment, and status. These things didn't make men happy, and they haven't made women any happier it seems. We are finding out that this is true of women, and we just don't ask the question of men. But then men, for much longer than women, are used to attaching notions of accomplishment to the value of self, and happiness. We've been programmed to be "happy" with the "castle."
I dunno.
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteyou ask a very good question there. Recently I had my own shot at defining happiness, which aims to be more “scientific” and “objective” (as much as this is possible for a subjective feeling such as happiness):
“A person can be considered to have experienced a “happy” moment if the person chooses to re-live it as an end in itself if offered at no cost.”
For the detailed derivation of this conclusion please have a look at http://www.spreadinghappiness.org/2009/08/what-is-happiness/; I’d love to hear what you think!
Thank you,
Nick
I think the question 'what is happiness' needs to be understood, much like the question 'what is the meaning of life' needed to be understood in Doublas Adams' book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
ReplyDeleteSo why does someone want to know 'what is happiness'? That's my question. Because I believe a happy person, truly happy, could care less that they knew what happiness is or was.
It's almost like if you knew the answer to this question then you could be happy. But happiness is not like that - it's not about knowing anything, or doing anything either, happiness just *is*.
In my humble opinion anyway. One I expressed on Nick's blog too, I believe lol.
Steve