From a survivalist standpoint, we are necessarily blessed with an innate ability to feel happiness. Though great in theory, the thing is, we also seem incredibly good at learning how to be unhappy.
Suppose we present two types of happiness. Firstly, let's think about Natural Happiness; when we get what we want when we want it and secondly, Synthetic Happiness; when we convince ourselves that what we got is ACTUALLY what we wanted. We assign much greater value on the idea that Natural Happiness is indeed superior to a synthesized version, one that is self-made but what if this is just plain wrong?
Suppose we present two types of happiness. Firstly, let's think about Natural Happiness; when we get what we want when we want it and secondly, Synthetic Happiness; when we convince ourselves that what we got is ACTUALLY what we wanted. We assign much greater value on the idea that Natural Happiness is indeed superior to a synthesized version, one that is self-made but what if this is just plain wrong?
The more I think about it, the more it makes absolute logical sense (though arguably, logic has never been a strong point of mine so be warned, this may merely be an illusion of clarity). Seriously, the road that I should follow in life, that path that education has constantly veered us toward, operates on the idea that success, however pre-prescribed, is the door to happiness. The esteemed position we hold in a company, the green in our bank and the amount of disposable rooms in our house should gauge our level of happiness, or so that's how it should all generally pan out for The Happy.
But what about other values of just being 'a good person', of caring for others, of compassion and strength of moral character. Sure, history does not revere these individuals because nothing juicy goes down from it but life is so god-damn short I can't think of any other over-riding principle that can give me enough drive to keep living in this strange corporeal state. It's confusing enough as it is being the navigator of our own breathing, eating and shitting lives. But here is where I believe the analogy is fundamentally flawed. We CAN'T control the wave of molecules that define us as living things and we aren't truly responsible for the paths that we take because we are trapped by the limited consciousness of our body and perception so there's no need to freak out about where we're headed, because nobody bloody knows.
Though I have lived almost exclusively in the giant metropolises of this world, more so than anywhere else I have ever inhabited, this general philosophy for happiness, the concept that more is more, resonates most strongly here in Tokyo. This city epitomizes the idea of an efficient, self-driven, social system. The value of happiness correlated with money is ever so stark in this neon sprawl and this assigned value is exchanged without questioning or reflection by most, because well it's Japan, and that's just the way things work. It would be unJapanese to think in conflict with the mass system. This is a society that unabashedly condemns individuality as the enemy of society, and so it is easier to abstain from dissent, bear the brunt and leave it. (I actually read this in a guidebook to Japan somewhere, that in school students are actually taught that individuality is the enemy of efficiency. From where I stand, this is close to fascism and yet, that's not the perception here, it's just the norm. There is a very famous Japanese proverb which states: 'If a nail sticks out, hammer it back in straight away'. And that's that, the idea to 'Think outside the box' does not even exist in the Japanese lexicon, it's diabolical anarchy.)
So, the machine works and everybody's 'happy'. And yet, for fear of sounding like the dis-enfranchised outsider, despite one of the highest-living standards in the world, it would take a perceptively retarded subject not to notice the growing wrinkles gathering around the frowning mouths to realize people just don't seem happy. They're tired, overworked, confused and yearning for the weekend where they can spend their well-earned cash on oiling the machine that supports them and condemns them by inclusion. My father's rather more left-wing view says the Japanese are like zombies in a oligarchical, plutocracy, not unlike the Democratic political system of the United States of America, one might add. The major difference is is there is no undercurrent that disseminates opposing ideas, because the existence of opposing principles does not exist, not ideologically and not practically.
But let's get back to the idea of happiness in general. Education at school, when being taught the importance of numbers and accuracy, positively correlating the increase of a monetary figure with the increase of one’s happiness is inherently killing our ability to be truly happy, or perhaps more importantly, it strangling our capacity for contentment with the actual condition we have. When we look at the advent of self-help books reacting against this kind of psychology or the new wave of spiritualism, the surge of fanaticism, the organic movement, the Survivalists, terrorism, global warming even, I think it is safe to say that there is at present, a fomenting realization that the foundations for happiness that we so fervently worshipped is indeed structurally faulty and now infested with termites. When we are reminded of the importance to live in our actual state not just a projected one, I think we start to realise that everything we have and experience is enough in itself.
So maybe it comes down to one thing: does the abundance of choice lead to a real decrease in happiness?
If one has no choice, we are instinctively bound to accept that path we are in and make do with it. If you were not given the choice between A or B, how could you be unhappy as to the circumstance of your situation as you were not presented with the option. There's no other form of comparison to make, the imagined paths one COULD have taken do not even manifest because well, the option didn't. I don't want to sound crude but perhaps the observations that the poor are happier than the rich, is not a pattern that should be dismissed from an anthropological view point. A child with no idea of the concept of capital, one that roams in an isolated village in central Africa trying to survive at a basic level cannot feel unhappy for lacking a Ferrari as the idea of a Ferrari and all of its assigned value has absolutely no significance, it is a totally alien concept. But he is no poorer for it, most metaphorically speaking of course. He is happy with what he has because he does not know otherwise.
I think the convoluted and poorly-constructed argument that is coming out of this is much more aptly described by Hamlet who states:
I think the convoluted and poorly-constructed argument that is coming out of this is much more aptly described by Hamlet who states:
‘TIS NOTHING GOOD OR BAD, BUT THINKING MAKES IT SO'
Perception is so important, our own way of thinking determines the energy and wavelength that we wish to ride in.
Perception is so important, our own way of thinking determines the energy and wavelength that we wish to ride in.
And I may be wrong but I think in many ways, freedom of choice is the enemy of this synthetic happiness. I can't decide what god-damn yoghurt I want in the supermarket when there's a whole aisle dedicated to it. I don't know what kind of person I want to be, if I should even place myself definitely in a category because it makes it easier. I don't know if I want to be an acid-tripping country girl with more metal around my body than a Stalinist regime tractor, or a wide-eyed consumerist, fashion guzzling, fad collecting, materialistic city girl, or a powerful, suit-wearing driving businesswoman, or a sensitive and nurturing mother, or a well-read existentialist-crisis-hipster-music-scene groupie, or a 'crazy', genuinely psychologically-disturbed-coined 'inspired' artist. The only thing I can say with the only amount of certainty I will ever reach is that I want to be a wholesome person, to myself, to my family, to my friends, to strangers and to this slowly desiccating planet.
We need to find a way to be happy with what we have, with what’s happening because we shouldn't be obsessed with the idea of ANOTHER choice. Perhaps this equation explains how people endure so much pain and trauma, because they just have to in order to survive.
We need to find a way to be happy with what we have, with what’s happening because we shouldn't be obsessed with the idea of ANOTHER choice. Perhaps this equation explains how people endure so much pain and trauma, because they just have to in order to survive.
If you keep comparing yourself to others or situations that you think you COULD be in, you will be forever unhappy. It seems so counter to what I have been told my whole life, that the abundance of choice is the privilege, well perhaps it's also a very restrictive noose. I think in many ways, when our ambition is bounded, we can live joyfully and with less regret.
