I couldn't sleep for a while last night and (God knows why but) I began knocking the concept of happiness around what passes for my brain, lately. Thing is, it seems to me that modern man has a sense of entitlement to happiness.
Naturally, I blame the Americans for this... an all too literal interpretation of those three little words in their most sacred text, the Declaration of Independence... the concept of failure if you're not living the all-American dream... the rush for psychiatric consultation to attend to the most trivial upsets in one's life... that "Californian" vibe of finding your true self and being at one with the universe and all that new-age trip etc etc. These are all concepts of the pursuit of happiness that are of American origin and they seem to be contagious. We're starting to buy into these ideals now, I think.
I should also mention, they are contradictory at times. The American Dream is largely consumerist and materialistic; the Californian vibe is the opposite. Yet, the same people will follow both paths at once, sometimes. All because they feel they must be happy.
I'm not at all sure that our forefathers had any of these concepts of happiness. Materialism wasn't practical for most, improvement of one's circumstances was a pipe dream and they didn't give much time to the hippie thing. I certainly don't think they had any sense of entitlement to happiness like we do.
Anyway, here's my theory: we're not supposed to be happy all the time. That's probably why some people enjoy a good whinge. It's also why some people go out of their way to be outraged and "never so insulted in their life".
So, by thinking that we should always be happy and we then start believing that there must be something wrong with us when we're not happy. Therefore, we think there must be something awry in our lives and then, by extension, we must be failures etc. The real trouble with that is that happinesses that we achieve in life are then clouded by the knowledge that they are only temporary and transient and that soon we'll be found out by life and have to go back to the "failure" of not being happy.
So, ironically, our newfound sense of entitlement to happiness is tempering what happiness we do experience?
So, is the above generally true or do I just need more sleep?
(Or maybe I should just have decided feck it, I'm going to live in the moment and woke the wife, demanding sex?)
Naturally, I blame the Americans for this... an all too literal interpretation of those three little words in their most sacred text, the Declaration of Independence... the concept of failure if you're not living the all-American dream... the rush for psychiatric consultation to attend to the most trivial upsets in one's life... that "Californian" vibe of finding your true self and being at one with the universe and all that new-age trip etc etc. These are all concepts of the pursuit of happiness that are of American origin and they seem to be contagious. We're starting to buy into these ideals now, I think.
I should also mention, they are contradictory at times. The American Dream is largely consumerist and materialistic; the Californian vibe is the opposite. Yet, the same people will follow both paths at once, sometimes. All because they feel they must be happy.
I'm not at all sure that our forefathers had any of these concepts of happiness. Materialism wasn't practical for most, improvement of one's circumstances was a pipe dream and they didn't give much time to the hippie thing. I certainly don't think they had any sense of entitlement to happiness like we do.
Anyway, here's my theory: we're not supposed to be happy all the time. That's probably why some people enjoy a good whinge. It's also why some people go out of their way to be outraged and "never so insulted in their life".
So, by thinking that we should always be happy and we then start believing that there must be something wrong with us when we're not happy. Therefore, we think there must be something awry in our lives and then, by extension, we must be failures etc. The real trouble with that is that happinesses that we achieve in life are then clouded by the knowledge that they are only temporary and transient and that soon we'll be found out by life and have to go back to the "failure" of not being happy.
So, ironically, our newfound sense of entitlement to happiness is tempering what happiness we do experience?
So, is the above generally true or do I just need more sleep?
(Or maybe I should just have decided feck it, I'm going to live in the moment and woke the wife, demanding sex?)