How can people be happy with a lifetime of working to pay bills? Is family life really satisfying in the long term or do we all pretend? The human condition.
2007-03-22 00:40:53 · 36 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I don't agree! There are plenty of miserable people out there who don't pretend otherwise. Have a nice day!
2007-03-22 00:47:48 · answer #1 · answered by Ginny Jin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are many people pretending to be happy - this depends on the way of communication accepted in society.
Leaving this aside, there are people who really are happy. Happiness, however, is not something to brag about. Those, who are really happy, and know it :) most probably will not show it off - happiness is fragile, it's a state of the mind and should be guarded.
Also, happiness is bigger than simply ''feeling good''. Naturally, no one can feel great all the time. It is simply not human. For me happiness has everything to do with love and feeling you lead a normal, honest life.
Yes, family life can be satisfying in the long term. This and the whole idea of happiness is also related to an ability to appreciate what you have. If you can look back and remember many happy moments, if you can look forward and hope for others to come - you must be happy ...
2007-03-22 03:22:55 · answer #2 · answered by Eve 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Happiness is ultimately an illusion because always with happiness lies its opposite which is misery and pain. Happiness is a polarity emotion.
- Love which can feel so great and fulfilling at first can suddenly turn to hate and attack and suffering of an unimaginable kind. When you partner leaves you, it can feel like a limb has been ripped off.
- Wealth can make you happy temporarily and more comfortable but eventually you will take it for granted and be unable to trust anyone because they will not relate to you in a genuine way. They will be after something. Your wealth may dissapear and this will cause misery. All wealth can buy is "things" and they will only satisfy for a short period of time.
- A night out on the town will make you happy but the next day there will be gloom and fatigue.
- A beautiful models looks will fade and her glamorous career will collapse and she will experience great pain and insecurity, some even committing suicide. Same with footballers, the game gave them happiness but then great misery came when they had to retire (Best, Gasgcoine)
This is because people are always looking outside themselves for happiness which is a place where it can never be found except on a temporary basis.
People do not recognise the impermanenet nature of the world and therefore embark on a futile quest for "things" - people, money, objects, status, respect, and these things come and then they go and their departure causes great misery.
Hapiness is a temporary mirror image of joy.
Joy will last your whole life time and it is not something which is outside you. It is already in you. It is the joy of just being, the joy of life and it can be attained by stopping the futile search for "more", existing completely in the present moment and just by being.
You will accept the impermanent nature of the world and "things" will come and go and you will enjoy them…………….while they last. But there will be not pain on their departure, no clinging. You will be able to move into uncertainty without fear.
I am not saying you cannot have these things - nice house, car, respect, status - but if you recognise that they are impermanenet and do not let them form a part of your identity, of "who you are" you can enjoy the crazy cosmic dance of life and always have a sense of joy and peace even if things around you are crumbling because the outside world, the physical world is insignificant really, just a game.
Once you realise this, nothing can hurt you.
2007-03-22 00:56:03 · answer #3 · answered by abluebobcat 4 · 3⤊ 1⤋
There are different ways to pretend. Suppose I just had a disagreement with by partner in the car as we were driving to work and was feeling angry or disappointed. Observing the feeling, I decide to transform that emotion which feels lousy.
I get out of the car and start skipping like a happy child all the way to the office. Suddenly my skipping becomes light, a smile comes to my face, and I find myself feeling great. This was a conscious use of pretending to feel good in order to start feeling good. My intent and result were positive. However, suppose my intent was simply to fool my partner, to make him/her think that what had transpired did not bother me as a way to get some revenge. I would not have moved up on the emotional scale and would not be any happier. Our BEING attracts our lives and our being can be influenced by pretending. I know of a male friend who was very sensitive. He had been taught that sensitive boys were gay, so he pretended to be the tough guy and very grouchy, never smiling, always pretending to be miserable. This pretending led him to a very miserable life of pain and disease. The pain killers for his rheumathoid arthritis eventually gave him heart disease and an early death. All that the result of pretending.
2007-03-22 05:34:39 · answer #4 · answered by canron4peace 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No I don't think we pretend, life is life, you have to work, pay bills and so on, I believe most of us are contented with the way our life has progressed through the years, it is a form of happiness.
We are unhappy/sad when things happen, happy when things are resolved, but most of the time we are contented.
For example, today I woke up fine, everything was normal, at lunch time I had a telephone call , upsetting me over a problem to do with my son, became unhappy, two hours later the situation was sorted, then I became happy, and am now contented because things are as they should be.
2007-03-22 03:55:32 · answer #5 · answered by lazybird2006 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When you are really happy from inside, you will not think all people are pretending to be happy.
Every moment of your life is only yours and it is in your hands only how you want to lead it. Yes, very difficult to get such a life. But keep on trying and submit to your near and dear ones without feeling ashamed. Things may improve.
Only happiness may make someone unhappy.
It is not bad to pretend to be happy if it makes others happy.
We need to pay back a lot to the World as everybody is indebted from birth. Pay as much as you can, it is not only wealth.
2007-03-22 02:21:31 · answer #6 · answered by subhas chandra kar 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No pretending for my life.... I wake up everyday being thankful for it and life just keeps getting better. I also limit time spent with unhappy people, do my business and then leave them in their pity. I keep only friends who are happy with the life THEY have chose.
We choose to have bills... I love having electricity so I will always have an electric bill. Many other things I can do without so I keep my money for ME and let others get neck deep in debt.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh life is good !!
: )
2007-03-22 01:30:37 · answer #7 · answered by Kitty 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most people would be happy if they stopped reading the papers and seeing the news on t.v.
Everybody has bills to pay and it is a struggle at times.Life is what you make it.If you want to be miserable you won't have many friends.
I know one person who is not happy if you show you are having a good day, they try and depress you in some small way.I avoid this person now at all costs.
2007-03-22 01:33:47 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
I think people who pretend to be happy don't radiate joy.
Happiness is not in their eyes, even if they get the body language right like actors do in public appearances.
I don't think you can be happy in this world if you don't acknowledge your spirituality. Those that don't seem to be more sarcastic and have a mean streak. It's not that
they cannot do good things or love others but there is this, 'I do it for me or because its acknowledged in the world as a good thing therefore I do it' attitude. It's hard to just point to something and say that is the problem with them because its not a tangible. But joy does come from the heart and soul while happiness can be reasoned out.
2007-03-22 01:12:57 · answer #9 · answered by Tapestry6 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The human predicament is that whatever beatific and happy state you find yourself at this moment, the time will come when you are being lowered into the ground or conveyed into the oven to be returned to the elements.
The man who headed the Manhattan Project, J. Oppenhimer, one of the brightest man in his days (taught himself Sanskrit for fun), realised towards the end of his life that he could not stop the process of degeneration into disentropy and chaos despite his brilliance and ability. All his accumulated knowledge and skills in theoretical physics, linguistics, etc., will just come to a full-stop and nothingness.
But is it all doom and gloom? As an existentialist I have to say both 'Yes' and 'No'. Nothing is unmitigated joy and happiness, neither is it unmitigated gloom and despair. Life will always have its mundane side (Mondays, paying the bills, dumping, flossing your teeth. etc.) but there may be moments when 'heaven' breaks through and we are allowed to see a bit of the light 'from yonder'. And when we do, rejoice and revel in that moment, but don't cling on to it, for it will only fade. It is but a foretaste of better things to come.
2007-03-22 01:05:10 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, people are pretending to be happy more often than ever before. They don't want to admit that they're missing something deep within their hearts that cannot be fulfilled by a job or material things. Family life is not always happy either because people are naturally flawed. We must learn to be content with who we are as people before we can find happiness in anything else.
2007-03-22 01:09:30 · answer #11 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋