[Vision2020] Happiness is a Choice

Sun Jan 11 15:04:45 PST 2009

It is a scientific fact that "happiness" is greatly determined by genetics
that influence brain chemistry.  This is not chosen by the individual.
Someone born with a unfortunate role of the genetic dice regarding happiness
influencing brain chemistry will be hampered in attaining happiness, no
matter what they do or what luck they may have.  The suicides occurring
among the successful (they apparently made good choices) and well loved
reveal this.  Someone born with a very lucky role of the genetic dice in
this regard can face great challenges and tragedy and still maintain a
degree of "happiness."

The "happiness" pills (Prozac et. al.), taken in astonishing quantities by
prescription (though often not, given the black market in prescription
drugs) from the pharmaceutical/psychiatric clergy (I write "clergy" because
they in some respects provide the spiritual guidance once more commonly
sought from priests and shamans et. al.), provide a scientific argument for
happiness being a matter of altering brain chemistry via drugs.  If
happiness were really primarily a matter of choice for most everyone, then
the science of neurochemistry, coupled with the commonplace prescription of
anti-depressants, is scientifically in error in the emphasis on widespread
use of anti-depressants; and implies a grave social problem robbing
people of their free willed happiness in favor of drugs as a solution to
life's problems.  After all, we are waging a so called "War on Drugs."  What
sort of message does it send society for the psychiatric profession to
advocate widespread use of drugs as a path to attaining happiness, given the
mainstream use of anti-depressants?

Virtue?  There are very virtuous people who are not very happy.  Doing the
right thing can bring personal ruin.  That's why potential whistle blowers
regarding crimes and corruption in government, military, law enforcement,
and corporations et. al. often keep silent.  Honesty and virtue might bring
great unhappiness if it means challenging those in power: loss of career,
financial ruin, negative impacts on a person's family, hatred from
colleagues, black listing, if not outright physical harm.  And there are
some rather morally compromised people lacking in virtue, who appear to be
happy.  Of course this depends on how happiness is defined, a definition
that will vary tremendously given subjective biases.

Is ignorance bliss?  I think sometimes it very well is.  The whole truth
about humanity, war, starvation and abuse of each other and the biosphere on
Earth which gave us birth, and the ultimate consequences of these failings
that are upcoming, are realities I think most people chose to deny, in one
way or another, in favor of comfortable delusions that increase happiness.
Of course many people are oblivious to what the future will bring.  And they
are happier in this oblivion, it seems.

I'd like to believe that an essential element of happiness is a full honest
awareness of all realities in life, good and bad, with no illusions,
delusions or fairy tales required, no need to deceive oneself or anyone
else.  A world where happiness pursued by all would mean honesty in all
things by all, where science is harmonized with spiritual and
emotional needs, with the mythology of the human story.  There is something
hollow, it seems, about happiness being based on deception, escapism, or
fairy tales, or denial of the findings of science.  And of course honestly
facing objective reality allows the avoidance of disasters that cause great
unhappiness.

But it is human nature to seek delusion, deception and escapism in life, it
seems.  And dishonesty sometimes does appear to make people happy, without
harming anyone.  Perhaps our brains are hard wired to seek escape
and deception of others or self as a needed psychological defense
mechanism.  Of course deception can confer great powers of control over
others who are being deceived; and it seems people rather willingly allow
themselves to be deceived in some some cases, as if some kind of comfort or
happiness is gained by blindly following authority figures in government or
religion, etc.  This blind following of leaders may be more an unconscious
than conscious choice.

Ted Moffett

On 1/9/09, Nick Gier <ngier at uidaho.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Joe,
>
> I should have been more clear.  For Aristotle happiness is the result of
> developing an ensemble of virtues.  Although the virtues start very early in
> childhood, I think a good case can be made that as we mature real choices
> are made every day to enforce and enhance the virtues.
>
> Thanks for the dialogue,
>
> Nick
>
> t 01:54 PM 1/9/2009, you wrote:
>
> Nick,
>
> I don't think that happiness is a choice. That is not say that whether or
> not I'm happy is a function of choices that I've made! That seems true to
> me. But not everyone gets those choices.
>
> Best, Joe
>
>
> On 1/9/09 1:50 PM, "nickgier at roadrunner.com" <nickgier at roadrunner.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Greetings:
>
> I agree that achieving happiness is a choice and it has a lot to
> > do with attitude, but the end of the following sentence simply does not
> make
> > sense:
>
> Thus, we¹re more likely to experience happiness if we realize it¹s not
> >
> just getting what we want. It¹s learning to want what we get.
>
> Just one
> > problem with this last sentence is the obvious fact that there are lots
> of
> > things we get that we did not desire.
>
> Perhaps some of you saw my column on
> > happiness--"Happy Hour is not what Aristotle Had in Mind" at
> > www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/happiness.htm.
>
> Nick Gier
>
> ---- lfalen
> > <lfalen at turbonet.com> wrote:
> > Thanks for the email. Happiness is a choice.
> > This reminds me of the story of the lady that went to the Nursing home.
> She
> > said her room was ral nice and she liked it. The attendant said : but you
> > haven't even seen it yet."  The lady said " I made up my mind bere I came
> that
> > I was going to like it". Im glad you like Dennes Prager
> Roger
> -----Original
> > message-----
> From: Tom Hansen thansen at moscow.com
> Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009
> > 06:41:34 -0800
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] Happiness is a
> > Choice
>
> > Happiness is a Choice
> > By Michael Josephson
> >
> > http://charactercounts.org/michael/
> >
> > In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy asks
> > Charlie Brown, ³Why do you think we were
> > put on earth?²
> >
> > Charlie
> > answers, ³To make others happy.²
> >
> > Lucy replies, ³I don¹t think I¹m making
> > anyone happy,² and then adds, ³but
> > nobody¹s making me very happy either.
> > Somebody¹s not doing his job!²
> >
> > People like Lucy are so sure happiness is
> > a matter of getting something
> > that they ask not what they can do for others
> > but what others can and
> > should do for them. They usually feel shortchanged
> > or cheated. They become
> > so preoccupied with what they don¹t have that they
> > can¹t enjoy what they
> > do have.
> >
> > What¹s more, they don¹t realize one of
> > the best ways to be happy is to
> > experience the joy and self-worth of making
> > others happy.
> >
> > In his book Happiness Is a Serious Problem, Dennis Prager
> > argues that it¹s
> > human nature to want and feel we need more. The problem
> > is, the quest for
> > more is endless because we can always add more to
> > whatever we have. As a
> > result, the Lucys of the world often live in an ³if
> > only² world that keeps
> > them one step away from happiness: ³If only I get
> > this raise, make this
> > sale, pay off my debts, or win this game, I¹ll be
> > happy.²
> >
> > Abraham Lincoln understood that happiness is essentially a way of
> > looking
> > at one¹s life. ³A person is generally about as happy as he¹s
> > willing to
> > be,² he said.
> >
> > Thus, we¹re more likely to experience
> > happiness if we realize it¹s not
> > just getting what we want. It¹s learning
> > to want what we get.
> >
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Stay healthy.
> > Stay happy.  Stay informed.
> >
> > Seeya round town, Moscow.
> >
> > Tom Hansen
> >
> > Moscow, Idaho
> >
> > "For a lapse Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist
> > Universalist
> > Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason
> > ever to go
> > to work."
> >
> > - Roy Zimmerman
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------
> > This message was sent by First
> > Step Internet.
> >            http://www.fsr.com/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> "Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to human
> affairs."
> --Ralph Waldo Emerson
>
> "Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who
> represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."
>  --Mohandas Gandhi
>
> "Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be
> discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part by
> itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the
> interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual
> life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and
> art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." --Max
> Planck
>
> Nicholas F. Gier
> Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
> 1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
> http://www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/home.htm
> 208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950
> President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
> http://www.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/ift.htm
>
>
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