We Cannot Chose To Be Happy
Imagine you are a old man, nearly 90. Your family has neglected to care for you. You are alone, begging on a street corner. A younger man drives by you and tells you to stop begging, because, after all, someone has it worse off than you. Now you are a teenage boy, driven out of your home by abusive parents. You try to find help, and manage to find a friend whose parents will take you in. You go to school the next month, and your teacher tells you that you shouldn’t have left, because someone out there has it worse than you. Now you are a 12 year old girl. You live in a small village in a small, poor, foreign land. You have just lost your mother, and your father is trying to marry you off to your neighbors’ second oldest son. Your father tells you to stop crying. After all, someone has it worse. How would you feel being told this in any of these situations? Would you being happy, simply because you have it better than someone else? After all, someone has it worse.
Our world has a cultural bias that has spread land to land into the minds and hearts of almost every person. This bias is hurting everyone, and forcing a sense of false optimism and blinding us to the …show more content…
An example of the differences between a life full of nothing but joy and a meaningful life was given in a talk by Jason Marsh and Jill Suttie called Is a Happy Life Different From a Meaningful one?. The example was a human rights activist and a party animal. A person may spend his life standing up for what he believes is right, and may end up helping a lot of people. The person may end up in jail or prison for helping people. Ending up imprisoned would not lead to feelings of happiness, but it would definitely have been meaningful for the people helped by the actions. On the other side, the party animal may have been happy, but that doesn’t mean that their actions are
Imagine you are a old man, nearly 90. Your family has neglected to care for you. You are alone, begging on a street corner. A younger man drives by you and tells you to stop begging, because, after all, someone has it worse off than you. Now you are a teenage boy, driven out of your home by abusive parents. You try to find help, and manage to find a friend whose parents will take you in. You go to school the next month, and your teacher tells you that you shouldn’t have left, because someone out there has it worse than you. Now you are a 12 year old girl. You live in a small village in a small, poor, foreign land. You have just lost your mother, and your father is trying to marry you off to your neighbors’ second oldest son. Your father tells you to stop crying. After all, someone has it worse. How would you feel being told this in any of these situations? Would you being happy, simply because you have it better than someone else? After all, someone has it worse.
Our world has a cultural bias that has spread land to land into the minds and hearts of almost every person. This bias is hurting everyone, and forcing a sense of false optimism and blinding us to the …show more content…
An example of the differences between a life full of nothing but joy and a meaningful life was given in a talk by Jason Marsh and Jill Suttie called Is a Happy Life Different From a Meaningful one?. The example was a human rights activist and a party animal. A person may spend his life standing up for what he believes is right, and may end up helping a lot of people. The person may end up in jail or prison for helping people. Ending up imprisoned would not lead to feelings of happiness, but it would definitely have been meaningful for the people helped by the actions. On the other side, the party animal may have been happy, but that doesn’t mean that their actions are