Happiness. To some, it is volunteering at your community garden and giving back to your community. To others, it is jamming out to your favorite band into the wee hours of the morning. Throughout history, every society has had a word for happiness and all those societies have tried to find the best ways to achieve happiness. But even in 2020, we seem no closer to knowing how to achieve happiness or what happiness entails.
I propose that the enigmatic nature of happiness stems from the fact that humans don’t truly want happiness.
Initially, this viewpoint seems to be axiomatically false. Most people would say to themselves that, “well, of course I want to be happy”. However, this reflexive rejection is only evidence of the conformist nature of happiness. From a young age we are conditioned to believe that happiness is critically important, and that we should strive for it endlessly. Our culture and our society constantly reinforce the idea that happiness is desirable over anything else. You can prove this concept to yourself too; the next time you’re getting to know someone, ask them “what is the number 1 goal in your life?”, you shouldn’t be surprised if they say that their goal is to be happy.
The idea that most people don’t want to be happy, while initially confusing, is easily demonstrated through a few examples. In the early history of nuclear chemistry, most scientists acknowledged and were willing to die from nuclear radiation. These scientists’ passions for their work outweighed any consideration for their personal happiness. There is also the notorious story of the underpaid artist who continues their work because they are passionate about it. While this feeling may sound foreign, chances are that you have also felt it. If you have ever gotten yourself into a creative project, you have felt that feeling of “oh my god, I’m really onto something here! I can’t wait to finish this project!”. This feeling of euphoria applies to all domains of interest. Something universal to these experiences is that happiness does not come into the equation. When you are in this state of excitement, you aren’t thinking of whether it will bring you happiness or not, and you are not afraid of suffering to complete the project.
The idea of humans not truly caring about being happy is also born out in data. Many polls have shown that people say they care about happiness more than money, but these people also say that they are unwilling to work for happiness. Sadly, for those who strive for money aren’t any likelier to become happy.
There is even psychological evidence to suggest that what people are often associate with happiness is just an absence of misery. Within psychometric psychology, the evidence seems to show that we don’t know the things that will make us happy. As the evidence continues to develop, we may find that the pursuit of happiness and being happy will not bring people the most fulfillment.
Often, people will perceive this message as cynical and pessimistic. Given the social conditioning that surrounds the concept of happiness, I can’t blame them. My view, however, is contrary to these peoples’. I believe that creativity and passion are the essences of life. Happiness is not the end-all-be-all of our lives, and to endlessly strive for it is only going to be met with disappointment. For those who find themselves struggling to find fulfillment, find something you love, and are passionate about and pursue it.
I really enjoyed reading about your complex interpretation of happiness. However, there is something I have to argue about. When you mentioned earlier about scientists acknowledging to die from radiation, you affirmed that their passion outweighed any consideration for their personal happiness. The point is, most of them find a purpose in which we can correlate to happiness meaning that they are happy in doing so(it is debatable). Do you think scientists aren’t happy about the work they are doing?
That’s an understable contention. I would make the argument that even though one can be simultaneously happy and passionate, they are not one in the same. When we think about the scientist who is willing to die for their work, they aren’t thinking about the physical pain that will make them unhappy. In essence, happiness is usually secondary when it comes to our decision making; we don’t actively think about the things that will bring about the most happiness for ourselves.
It’s also worth noting that I’m probably operating under a more philosophical definition of happiness than most people. My definition is derivative of philosophers like Plato, Michel de Montaigne, and Schopenhauer. I will probably expand on this definition and how I believe we achieve happiness in a future post.
I can honestly say that I never considered this perspective, but after reading your blog post it actually makes quite a lot sense. I think that people get so caught up in the concept of “being happy” that sometimes in their efforts to do so they actually make themselves miserable. Additionally, there is the belief that the state of “happiness” is the ultimate level of comfort, but in actuality, “happiness” can never last for a prolonged amount of time. Sometimes the recovery period after being happy is far more unpleasant than if you were to stay closer to a neutral state. Overall, your post was thought-provoking and extremely enjoyable to read!
Exactly! I didn’t talk about this in the blog, but there is some interesting research out there that might suggest it isn’t possible for us to have that type of sustained happiness. That the neurons in our brains become resistance to certain neurotransmitters after repeated exposure.
Hi Tommy,
This was definitely a thought-provoking post. I really spent some time thinking about the graph of changes income and happiness. However, it did only go up until 2000, so I wonder if there have been any significant changes in the last twenty years. I feel like it’s very hard to measure how things impact happiness since happiness is difficult to measure itself, and everyone has a unique view of life.
The research on the issue is quite interesting, and you couldn’t be more correct. The issue with measuring happiness is that humans frequently conflate the lack of misery and happiness. In fact, these are two completely different emotional states that are governed by two entirely separate neural systems. There is more recent evidence on the relationship between happiness and money (https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2018/02/26/does-money-equal-happiness-does-until-you-earn-much/374119002/). The unfortunate thing is that these studies (such as this one) often conflate the lack of misery and happiness. Hopefully some better research comes out in the future.