Advertisement
Published: February 19th 2007
This is the first draft of my project. What ya think?
If one were to travel back in time even just 60 years they would find it a consensus, throughout Europe at least, that scientific progress would lead humanity to a more evolved, happier state. Medical advances, market economics, and an unending procession of inventions have indeed produced lives very far removed from the “nasty, brutish, and short” life Hobbes worried would befall those lacking a strict ruler. So far, in fact, have we advanced, that our present lives could perhaps best be described as “easy, civil, and long.” Statistics show that compared with any other time in history at present there are fewer wars, less famine, higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality, and improvement in just about every other numerically verifiable category. In a common home there are appliances that even a Roman emperor could not obtain. We can hop on an airplane, recline in full-fold out beds, and wake up across the globe. With a click of a button we can find out from the internet the answer to a burning question that in previous generations would have been known only by a select handful of experts. We can view from the comfort of our own home the running of the bulls in Pamplona or a football match in a faraway country. Yet, we, especially in the West are “So many lucky men, restless in the midst of abundance” just like the 18th century Americans Alexis de Tocqueville was describing. Even though we have progressed more technologically than past generations could have even dreamt possible, we as humans are not appreciably happier than in the simpler days of the ancient times. Carl Jung’s writings contain conversations with a Native American chieftain who described whites as people who have tense faces, staring eyes, and a cruel demeanor. He says, “They are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something. They are always uneasy and restless. We don’t know what they want. We think they are mad.” Perhaps we are mad. But in this case what the chieftain says encompasses all humanity, not just a particular race of people.
Since the turn of the century when Freud popularized psychoanalysis the field of psychology has primarily concerned itself with what is wrong with individuals. Someone I know once remarked to me after his first session in marriage counseling that, “They told me to fill out a chart about how certain things ‘made me feel’. Yet in that chart five of the options were negative emotions with only one box being positive. All the emphasis was placed on the negative parts of the relationship, while those parts that were fulfilling were brushed aside since ‘they didn’t need any attention.’” However, as a response to this negativity a new branch of psychology has cropped up in the last decade which looks towards “happiness” as the most important indicator of psychic well being. Using the clout that came with his presidency of the APA (American Psychological Association) Martin Seligman looked to shepherd the field of philosophy in a healthier, more life affirming direction. He says, “At this juncture , the social and behavioral sciences can play an enormously important role. They can articulate a vision of the good life that is empirically sound while being understandable and attractive. They can show what actions lead to well-being, to positive individuals, and to thriving communities. Psychology should be able to help document what kinds of families result in children who flourish, what work settings support the greatest satisfaction among workers, what policies result in the strongest civic engagement, and how people’s lives can be most worth living. . .”
This new science dubbed “positive psychology” has made inroads at major universities including a new Masters program at George Mason University. Currently, over 200 colleges offer a Positive Psychology class including Harvard, whose course enrolls 855 students, the most of any at the university. This psychology proposes to approach the human condition from a different angle than in the past. Instead of making suffering bearable or turning violent anger into malaise, positive psychology aims to teach people how to enjoy life and profit from the opportunities at hand. Says Seligman, “I used to think that all you had to do to get happy person was to get rid of the negatives in their life, but if that’s all you do, you don’t get a happy person, you get an empty person. You need the positives too.”
In literature as well there has been a recent emphasis on happiness. A quick browse through a book store will reveal numerous new titles about this topic, likely placed on their own table located near the store entrance. This new genre of self-help books is being written by a large variety of people who are approaching the subject from markedly different angles. There are books written by economists such as renowned British economist Richard Layard’s Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, and Buddhists and psychologists. Even historians are jumping on the bandwagon. One prominent example is Darrin McMahon Happiness: A History which is selling remarkably well in the United States. A majority of these books don’t claim to be self-help yet the covers quite obviously show that the target audience is expected to read the book with the intention of enriching their own lives. Take Layard’s book for example. In big, bold letters conspicuously spread across the back cover is the phrase “Are you really happy?” and filling the top right corner of the cover is a prominent yellow star inside of which are the words “Inside: The Seven Causes of Happiness. In fact, a search for the term “happiness” on Amazon.com unearths 192,166 items, mostly books and videos. I believe the rise in demand for literature related to happiness is the result of an explosion in the number of people at a socio-economical status where they are comfortable enough to look beyond day to day concerns and a lack of fulfillment that has accompanied this new found wealth.
“Ok, a lot of people care about happiness” you might be saying to yourself. “I don’t doubt that your project is worthwhile. Why are you trying so hard to prove its validity?” Well, enquiry into the nature and “acquisition” of happiness is no doubt valid as evidenced by the countless people currently ruminating and writing on the subject. However, those doing so are generally veritable stalwarts of their academic fields, and if not, are profiting from an already existing notoriety. I, on the other hand, cannot claim to have served as president of the APA like Martin Seligman, worked with the Dalai Lama as has Alan Wallace, or had my advice sought by the British government like Richard Layard. I cannot claim to be especially learned in any field, to have set up a school for street kids, or done anything especially meritorious in my life. What then do I have to offer the reader?
I have been placed in a unique situation to comment on human happiness, or more specifically on the universalities present in happy individuals. That is because I am currently living in Madurai, India, perhaps the city most different from the West in the entire world. When people from Madurai claim that a particular trait is needed for happiness and that same trait is also championed in the West, then that attribute suddenly becomes very credible. Here one can still find bullock carts, cycle-rickshaws and a neighborhood ironer using a coal heated iron, ashes smoldering behind him. Many people don’t have running water and it is not uncommon to find a family of six living and sleeping together in a small, one roomed hut. Most importantly however, these people who I mentioned are not a nameless, faceless mass. They aren’t strangers with an unknown personal history as so often happens in anthropological research either. Instead, the majority of the informants are friends and acquaintances from around my immediate neighborhood that I have lived side by side with for the better part of a year. Everything they say to me about happiness in their lives resonates powerfully with me because it comes in conjunction with months of watching and interacting with them in their normal environment. I hope that I will be able to suitably describe the informants and their lives so that their stories resound as powerfully for you the reader as they do to me.
While some Indians have merged with the Western lifestyle, the majority is still dependent upon the traditions they grew up on, especially the elderly. However, that is altering at lightning speed. India is in the midst of a swift and remarkably pervasive societal change which is melding its culture with that of the present global community. Whether this transformation is positive or negative is a matter of debate, but what is indisputable is that within the course of perhaps even just one decade, traditional jobs and ways of life in India will disappear. Missing out on the opportunity to pick the brains of those people who carry with them the last vestiges of an ancient society would be tragic, especially insofar as these people are one of the only remaining litmus test of any Western theory in human universals.
After extensive soul searching, reading and conversations, I have broken the universals present in all happy individuals down into five, hopefully all-encompassing categories. They are:
Community: Throughout all of human history we have lived with and depended on others to survive. While at times burdensome, I believe community to be necessary for the growth and mental health of all individuals. Without community there is no support system, nor is there the opportunity to bring happiness to others. Any time there is love shared between people, community arises. Whether that love is shared by family members, friends, lovers, or even an old woman and the young girl that helped her cross the road, community rushes forth. As the phrase that Hillary Clinton popularized goes, “It takes a village a raise child.” Well, it may take a village to raise a child, but that village remains just as important throughout the entirety of one’s life.
Purpose: Can you think of anyone who claims to lack any purpose in their lives? If you do, I will make a conjecture that they aren’t the happiest of people. Regardless of what the purpose is, having a goal that is larger than the self, or rather, large enough for the self, is required for a fulfilling life. Some people devote their lives to attaining spiritual enlightenment while others try to enlarge their business or accrue money. Many people, especially those in the sciences, look to increase the total wealth of human knowledge. It seems to me, though, that the single most commonly found and strongest source of purpose is children. Nearly all the progress made by humankind can be attributed to the hope that in the future one’s child will live a happier life in a better world. Is it conceivable that people would actually care about something as remote as global warming if there were no children’s lives to account for? I think not.
Fascination: This has been talked about so much by so many people that its meaning can seem to be obscured. Bertrand Russell uses the word “zest”, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls it “flow” and religious sages throughout history have used words ranging from being “in the now” to being “present.” One thing is certain however, objects of our attention are only as interesting as we let them be. While one person may hate their job at a factory because of the repetitiveness, another may find satisfaction in
setting and breaking personal speed or quality records. Whereas one person may walk past a garden hurriedly on the way to work every morning without even noticing the flowers, another is so awed they are brought to tears. Every moment is Now, so its best not to waste it.
Flexibility: Old age, sickness and death. Not only are they all going to come to all of us eventually, they are also, and sometimes more tragically, going to come to all of our loved ones. It is a fact of life that bad things happen. However, these adversities are the arena where one meets their greatest foe head on to prove that they have the adaptiveness and fortitude required to proceed onward in the face of this misfortune. Perhaps we as humans have been blessed with a special ability to acclimatize to our circumstances. The fact that within a year after being diagnosed with a fatal disease people on average revert to pre-diagnosis levels of happiness seems to hint at the flexible nature of the human disposition.
Security: With each increase in income people become verifiably happier. Happier, that is, only if they make so little that their existence is in doubt. Once the most basic level of security, often simply knowing that they will have bread for the table the next day, is taken care of, money has never been proven to increase happiness. For this reason newly developed countries as a whole have gotten happier in the last half of the 20th century while the West and Japan have remained the same. If you think about it, the lack of assuredness an individual has in the belief that they will be alive in the near future is the real reason why war is so traumatic and such heinous crimes are perpetrated.
These categories are intentionally quite broad since, you must remember, we are talking about perhaps the single most interdisciplinary of subjects, happiness. Because of this, there will be some times when a subject seems awkwardly placed into one of the categories. Regardless of the number of divisions one might create, to talk comprehensively about happiness means that there are never enough chapters, or on the other side of the coin, there are too many. So, with that said, enjoy and welcome!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.261s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0277s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Emiliano
non-member comment
Some notes
first of all. when you mention the fact that wars have decreased, i remind you that the 20th century saw the greatest death toll at the hands of other humans in history. i think that world war two alone had more casualties than like all the wars in history of some insanity. 63 million people. sooo. second of all i think you need to read a book called 'mans search for meaning' by viktor frankl. it is an extraordinary book writen as an attempt to make a psychological evaluation of inmates in nazi concentration camps. definelty worth reading on its own merit, and even more so when attempting your task. it is short, i read it in a day, so it shouldnt be too much of a burden. third: 'veritable stalwarts' haha. fourth: i dont know if flexibility is the best title for that category. maybe more like serenity, or perseverance, or surrender. just an idea, but i dont think that flexibility quite captures it. fifth: where does religious practice come in? or is that fluid throughout? i think that spitituality is somewhat behind most of the categories that you mention. it creates communities of beleivers. it gives people purpose far above themselves, to live in a way or do things that satisfy their notion of the divine. it certainly leads to fascination and wonder, and i suppose an understanding of our inherant 'smallness' which correlates with awe. flexibility as you call it is also present because you are able to accept your place and it also gives meaning and cause to those inexplicable tragedies that befall us. finally security, i suppose that a religious community offers some security, we all know that being jewish certainly does, but also it provides you the faith that gives you security even if it is not materially available at the moment. the notion that god will take care of you can be very reassuring. well thats all for now, good luck and godspeed