Happiness Project
During the Happiness Project, we were assigned the task to investigate and identify what in the world makes human beings happy. We studied several movies and articles regarding happiness it's existence in the world. We asked ourselves what the source of happiness is, why happiness is fleeting to some people, and how the United States as a country can more easily obtain happiness.
Simplicity and Meaning in Happiness
by Joe Lawton
Happiness, the coveted emotion, is sought out by every human being on our little blue marble. Elusive is the feeling. People of all kinds desperately attempt to artificially replicate the euphoria of joy, forming addictions to numerous amounts of dangerous substances, risking their lives to experience a very short and very false sense of happiness. The source of true happiness is elusive, and some do struggle to find said source and claim authentic happiness. However, for the lucky few that have found true happiness, we are ever luckier, as they have shared their findings with us. From the wise mind of the Minister of Information and Communication of Bhutan, the man Dasho Kinley Dorji explains, “This happiness, this contentness, lies within the self, and has no external source.” To find happiness, one must first find meaning in their day to day lives, live those days with a positive mindset towards the situation at hand, and focus their attention away from their material possessions and onto the people that surround them.
Without meaning in life, human beings are driven to boredom, and consequently, depression. Humans are creatures that are naturally built to withstand enormous amounts of stress. But what happens when there is no goal to struggle for and no stress to withstand? This passage from the article, The Catastrophe of Success, explains it elegantly. “The sort of life that I had had previous to this popular success was one that required endurance, a life of clawing and scratching along a sheer surface and holding on tight with raw fingers to every inch of rock higher than the one caught hold of before… I was out on a level plateau with my arms still thrashing and my lungs still grabbing at the air that no longer resisted… I sat down and looked about me and was suddenly very depressed.” This rather lengthy excerpt depicts the struggle of a man without meaning in life. He no longer has a goal to scrap and work for. He had accomplished everything he set out for and now that he had everything that he worked for, he had nothing left in his life. This illustrates perfectly that without meaning or some sort of purpose in life, a human cannot have happiness. Humans are naturally suited to deal with problems and pressures, and without them, we fall to a standstill. Another excerpt, not nearly as lengthy, from the article, There’s More to Life that Being Happy, suggests the same point to be true. “He who knows the ‘why’ of his existence will be able to to bear almost any ‘how’” This passage helps to confirm the statement made in the first article by showing the other side of that coin. A man who has purpose and meaning in their life is able to withstand any and all pressures thrown his way. This proves that the way to find happiness isn’t by seeking the happiness itself, but instead by doing what you enjoy and finding meaning in your life.
The solution to an individual finding happiness and success in their life is surprisingly simple, said individual just has to be happy. This sounds strange and obvious and probably doesn’t help someone who is seeking happiness whatsoever. However, there is an explanation to this statement. In the movie titled, Happy, the origins of happiness is explained. “While fifty percent of someone’s happiness comes from their genetic makeup, forty percent of that happiness derives from that person’s mindset.” This statement highlights the importance of having a positive outlook on life. It’s hard to believe that an individual’s happiness and success in life may rely on how they look at the situation at hand, favorable or not. An example of having a positive outlook is from the movie, Happy. Chikanobu Okamura is a poor rickshaw driver that lives in the Kolkata Slums in India. His house is merely a shack, he works long, hard hours of extraneous work for very little pay, and yet, he seems so vibrantly happy. This is merely because of his outlook on life. “I feel as if I am not poor, but the richest person,” Chikanobu says after he is asked about his wealth. His life is a struggle, but because he has a positive outlook on it, he feels successful and happy. As unusual as it sounds, people who live their days with a positive mindset are going to be much more successful and happy than people who do not share the positive mindset.
The United States of America is well recognized as a consumerist country, but that fact might very well be the block that has thus far halted our society from achieving happiness. The Hedonic Treadmill is a phenomenon in which gaining materialistic possessions will increase your short term happiness, but decrease your long term happiness by raising the baseline of materials and wealth that you expect. This passage from the New York Times article, But Will It Make You Happy?, explains the phenomenon well. “‘We buy a new house, we get accustomed to it,’ says Professor Lyubomirsky, who studies what psychologists call ‘hedonic adaptation,’ a phenomenon in which people quickly become used to changes, great or terrible, in order to maintain a stable level of happiness.” American Citizens in general might very well be experiencing the Hedonic Phenomenon in full force, effectively blocking our society from achieving true happiness without obtaining unnecessary material possessions. The source of consumerism that we feel might originate from the extrinsic goals that are deeply rooted in our society. This segment from the movie, Happy, helps us see what extrinsic values do to the people of our country. “The other thing we know, after a decade of studies at this point, is that people who were more oriented toward money and status and image were reporting less satisfaction with their lives.” This quote targets what is wrong with the American Culture, and to an extent, the American Dream. We are so inwardly focused on our own, personal extrinsic values that we fail to see that what really matters is the people around us and helping those people. If we, as a nation, can shift our focuses from our own selves to the people around us, then we could possibly find within ourselves true happiness.
For all humans on the planet, there is no greater goal to achieve than to obtain happiness. All of their lives, human beings are completely dedicated, in one way or another, to find something as elegant as true happiness. Yet, most fail to discover the true, uninhibited source of the elusive emotion. True happiness is not gained from an occupation. It is not gained from possessions. Most importantly, it is not gained from large sums of money. True happiness, to put it simply, comes from the bearer. The person’s happiness is never to be gained, bought, or discovered. It is merely unveiled.
Happiness, the coveted emotion, is sought out by every human being on our little blue marble. Elusive is the feeling. People of all kinds desperately attempt to artificially replicate the euphoria of joy, forming addictions to numerous amounts of dangerous substances, risking their lives to experience a very short and very false sense of happiness. The source of true happiness is elusive, and some do struggle to find said source and claim authentic happiness. However, for the lucky few that have found true happiness, we are ever luckier, as they have shared their findings with us. From the wise mind of the Minister of Information and Communication of Bhutan, the man Dasho Kinley Dorji explains, “This happiness, this contentness, lies within the self, and has no external source.” To find happiness, one must first find meaning in their day to day lives, live those days with a positive mindset towards the situation at hand, and focus their attention away from their material possessions and onto the people that surround them.
Without meaning in life, human beings are driven to boredom, and consequently, depression. Humans are creatures that are naturally built to withstand enormous amounts of stress. But what happens when there is no goal to struggle for and no stress to withstand? This passage from the article, The Catastrophe of Success, explains it elegantly. “The sort of life that I had had previous to this popular success was one that required endurance, a life of clawing and scratching along a sheer surface and holding on tight with raw fingers to every inch of rock higher than the one caught hold of before… I was out on a level plateau with my arms still thrashing and my lungs still grabbing at the air that no longer resisted… I sat down and looked about me and was suddenly very depressed.” This rather lengthy excerpt depicts the struggle of a man without meaning in life. He no longer has a goal to scrap and work for. He had accomplished everything he set out for and now that he had everything that he worked for, he had nothing left in his life. This illustrates perfectly that without meaning or some sort of purpose in life, a human cannot have happiness. Humans are naturally suited to deal with problems and pressures, and without them, we fall to a standstill. Another excerpt, not nearly as lengthy, from the article, There’s More to Life that Being Happy, suggests the same point to be true. “He who knows the ‘why’ of his existence will be able to to bear almost any ‘how’” This passage helps to confirm the statement made in the first article by showing the other side of that coin. A man who has purpose and meaning in their life is able to withstand any and all pressures thrown his way. This proves that the way to find happiness isn’t by seeking the happiness itself, but instead by doing what you enjoy and finding meaning in your life.
The solution to an individual finding happiness and success in their life is surprisingly simple, said individual just has to be happy. This sounds strange and obvious and probably doesn’t help someone who is seeking happiness whatsoever. However, there is an explanation to this statement. In the movie titled, Happy, the origins of happiness is explained. “While fifty percent of someone’s happiness comes from their genetic makeup, forty percent of that happiness derives from that person’s mindset.” This statement highlights the importance of having a positive outlook on life. It’s hard to believe that an individual’s happiness and success in life may rely on how they look at the situation at hand, favorable or not. An example of having a positive outlook is from the movie, Happy. Chikanobu Okamura is a poor rickshaw driver that lives in the Kolkata Slums in India. His house is merely a shack, he works long, hard hours of extraneous work for very little pay, and yet, he seems so vibrantly happy. This is merely because of his outlook on life. “I feel as if I am not poor, but the richest person,” Chikanobu says after he is asked about his wealth. His life is a struggle, but because he has a positive outlook on it, he feels successful and happy. As unusual as it sounds, people who live their days with a positive mindset are going to be much more successful and happy than people who do not share the positive mindset.
The United States of America is well recognized as a consumerist country, but that fact might very well be the block that has thus far halted our society from achieving happiness. The Hedonic Treadmill is a phenomenon in which gaining materialistic possessions will increase your short term happiness, but decrease your long term happiness by raising the baseline of materials and wealth that you expect. This passage from the New York Times article, But Will It Make You Happy?, explains the phenomenon well. “‘We buy a new house, we get accustomed to it,’ says Professor Lyubomirsky, who studies what psychologists call ‘hedonic adaptation,’ a phenomenon in which people quickly become used to changes, great or terrible, in order to maintain a stable level of happiness.” American Citizens in general might very well be experiencing the Hedonic Phenomenon in full force, effectively blocking our society from achieving true happiness without obtaining unnecessary material possessions. The source of consumerism that we feel might originate from the extrinsic goals that are deeply rooted in our society. This segment from the movie, Happy, helps us see what extrinsic values do to the people of our country. “The other thing we know, after a decade of studies at this point, is that people who were more oriented toward money and status and image were reporting less satisfaction with their lives.” This quote targets what is wrong with the American Culture, and to an extent, the American Dream. We are so inwardly focused on our own, personal extrinsic values that we fail to see that what really matters is the people around us and helping those people. If we, as a nation, can shift our focuses from our own selves to the people around us, then we could possibly find within ourselves true happiness.
For all humans on the planet, there is no greater goal to achieve than to obtain happiness. All of their lives, human beings are completely dedicated, in one way or another, to find something as elegant as true happiness. Yet, most fail to discover the true, uninhibited source of the elusive emotion. True happiness is not gained from an occupation. It is not gained from possessions. Most importantly, it is not gained from large sums of money. True happiness, to put it simply, comes from the bearer. The person’s happiness is never to be gained, bought, or discovered. It is merely unveiled.
Artist statement
My art is a representation of two sides of the same person. On the left, is a depressed, yet rather wealthy, middle aged man. Even though he is wealthy, he is extrinsically centered, thus he can’t find authentic happiness in his life. On the right, it is a man who is intrinsically centered. He is helping someone scale a cliff. This man is not concerned with himself and climbing higher up the mountain, he is concerned that others also reach a good level. The left image is relatively bland. Black and white with a blue overlaying gradient to give the image a depressing feeling. The right image is very colorful and full of emotion. While the left image is fairly literal, the right image is can be either literal or metaphorical. The man is helping his peer, who is struggling, climb the mountain. This can also be interpreted as the man is helping his peer in a time of need. I chose to create this because it shows that it’s the manner of the person’s life that defines his happiness.
Brave new world
SOcratic Seminar PRe-Write The overall message of Brave New World is the insight into this disturbing culture and it’s out of whack norms and values, and one man’s attempt to bring peace and change to this society and his eventual and unavoidable failure to make that change. The book starts by introducing the reader into this crazy, mirror world of ours. All of our values are usurped and outlawed. Beauty, philosophy, and suffering all but disappear. Then, a man who has experienced nothing but suffering, understood nothing but philosophy, and seen nothing but beauty. He is horrified of this culture, attempts to change it, and sees that it is eventually helpless. He, lost in the despair of failing his eventual goals, ends himself.
Brave New World has made me understand that there is no high without a low. If a person is constantly experiencing happiness, they know nothing but that feeling, so it becomes the norm for them, thus they never experience true happiness. So, without the low, there is no high, making happiness useless. When John says civilization does not cost enough, he means that even though something might cost a large sum of money, these people didn’t really have to work and make a large sacrifice for that thing like non-first world country citizens sometimes have to do. We, in our society and Brave New World’s, have easy access to everything we could ever dream of wanting or having. It’s all an effortless drive’s distance from us, with only the effort of selecting what we want once we get there. The spread between people in our society who are focused on comfort is 100%. There is no one in our society who believes in truth and beauty. This is because people who believe in such values like truth and beauty are generally outcasts from our society. Like the man who quit money. He is generally regarded as a mad-man and a bottom-feeder. This is merely because he has a different set of values than we do. We have entire stores that are dedicated to purchasing mattresses, an opulent privilege that we take for granted. (A perspective on the book’s ending by Todd Macon) Well, now you've opened a can of worms. And I'm honored that you thought of me. In fact, I have an interesting story about this. I read Brave New World in High School, a senior Science Fiction Lit class that was one of few academically inspiring classes I took. I also read the last paragraph and it screamed at me to interpret it. The teacher didn't know, and there was no Google. The passage, namely John's suicide by hanging and the strangeness of the rotation stayed in the back of my mind. Twenty-two years later, I'm teaching Brave New World to my students at CTA. I also happen to be teaching Shakespeare. While reading Hamlet to the class, I freaked out. Please know that I "discovered" this connection on my own. To this day, I have not found any other literary critic that has made the following connection. Throw this at your teacher... The last direction John's feet point as he hangs in the lighthouse is south-south west, then they swing away. What always bothered me is that he doesn't come full circle (symbolism there also) and never reaches south-west, west, north-north west. There is a line in Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2 where Hamlet, beginning to feign madness, says, "I am but mad north by northwest." Of course, there are many allusions to Hamlet in Brave New World. My take is that Hamlet makes this statement to show that he is not mad in all things, in other words, he sees the cruelty of the world very clearly. Check out the annotation on this site http://genius.com/2422269 Thus, Hamlet sees clearly, but John's inability to bring sanity to a mad world leaves him incomplete, thus more insane that the pragmatic but soulless Brave New world into which he was reintroduced. Also, as John's feet turn past south, Huxley adds a point finer than the eight major points of the compass, like Zeno's paradox never reaching the goal. North-northwest is the goal of John, but he falls short, merely reaching south-south west. This is too much to bear, the goal of getting the world to see its own madness, and John does what Hamlet could not do--he kills himself. How's that for an answer? And here I am teaching sixth graders Alice in Wonderland...but there's a few surprises there also. Best of luck with your assignment, and know that I miss your presence. Don't be a stranger (and if you haven't read "Stranger in a Strange Land," it dovetails nicely with Brave New World. Yours, Todd |
Socratic Seminar REflection Izzy Tyler made a fantastic comment about jobs and work. I am paraphrasing of course, but she said that there is no unnecessary job in this society. All jobs are necessary, and they are each important and valuable in their own way. This is an accurate statement that I had never thought of before. I thought that this was a very good comment because it then spurred a conversation about the payment of jobs and why they are different. I am glad that she made this statement as it improved the discussion drastically.
I feel like I contributed to the seminar by dropping a few intellectual bombs that either wrapped up the conversation or started a new one. Sometimes both. I really like to reserve myself for the majority of the seminar, letting the discussion progress and allowing others to talk, until I come up with a good point. Then, I reveal the point and let the conversation move onward. I would like to take away the meaning of happiness that Huxley didn’t understand. You can suffer all you want, you can be happy all of the time. It doesn’t really matter that much, however. The only place that you can really find true happiness is within yourself. |