We’re not happy people.
Just look at the stats. People are grumpier, sadder, tireder, and meaner than they used to be (no this is not Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs).
And why are we unhappy? Is it because the world is a harsher place to live, because we have less than we used to? No, in fact stats prove that the world has been continuously getting better over time. So what’s our problem? Maybe it’s because of where we live, America.
We live in a culture that praises material wealth and external richness over internal. We live in a culture in which we are judged by what we have, not by who we are. We live in a culture overrun with ads and commercials that constantly tell us what we are missing, what we don’t have, and what others have over us. This leads to higher crime rates because the poor, finding no other way to acquire these possessions that have been ingrained in their heads as must-haves rob. And on the other side of the coin, people work 12 to 15 hour days just to afford these possessions that are, again, deemed as must-haves. We live in a market driven economy, even if we don’t think so.
I used to think this was the best route, just let the people choose and they’ll always choose what’s good for them. Wrong. A dictatorship under the right person would do so much better. (Even if that sounds wrong and evil, it’s true.) If we continue to operate in a market driven culture we’ll just continue to be slaves to companies that know how to apply psychological tactics against us. (And most of us are unaware of these tactics.) But put in place a person or organization that is as aware of these tactics (or more) as the companies, and let them act as the counter-weight and the scales balance a little bit.
Less ads would be a great first step. Announcing what psychological factors within you are being pressed by certain ads like how digestible products must legally list ingredients is another great step. But these steps I fear shall never be implemented. Because it’s the people’s vote – and that’s the biggest deception of all. The mass-hypnotized people choose what is wrong for them because it looks more appealing and because they lack knowledge of the full harm it causes to them. And usually the right answer requires that the people suffer now to prosper later, and the people never ever want to suffer now. So the people choose what is wrong for them, over and over and over again.
And there’s no one to blame, because these companies aren’t bad people – Illuminati, as we’ve all come to believe. No these people are hypnotized too. They grew up in the culture so they were infected as well – so in their eyes they are producing good for humanity… when they aren’t.
What we need is someone with power who can give the people what they need rather than what they want. We need a parental figure who’ll feed us veggies when all we want, all we make, and all we consume is candy – which will eventually kill us. We need people like Tom Ford and Steve Jobs to look at our legal affairs. In their unique niches they listened to us and heard what we truly wanted (a faster mode of transportation and a phone that could do everything), they didn’t give us what we wanted (faster horses, and more complex phones), but instead gave us what we needed (cars, and phones so complicatedly simple that we had no choice but to shut up and stare at them in awe everytime we used them).
We’re just kids in adult bodies at this stage of life – we need true adults, and parents at that. True parents that care for us and not for their own wealth or standing in culture. True parents that want to see us grow. True parents that derive their happiness from our happiness – inner happiness, true happiness.
We need someone who shuns our culture, to lead our culture.
But the problem is that a truly happy culture will have little room for improvement. Like the Native American cultures of the old who were happy living off the land with what they had.
The unhappy shall always conquer the happy, because the happy – being happy will never develop as much technology seeking happiness externally. They would have already attained happiness inwardly.
If we were truly happy with faster horses, we wouldn’t have cars. If we were truly happy with postal mail, we wouldn’t have email, and if we were truly happy with ourselves we wouldn’t need items that scream “Hey, look how happy I am!”
So we live in a culture of fast improvements, because we are unhappy. Yet to be happy is to give up these improvements, these upgrades. And maybe genetically that’s why we are unhappy, because genetically we are bred for survival and improvement. And if evolutionary improvement is only found through unhappiness, guess what our body is going to choose every time?
Genetic layout causes males to be unhappier with one woman faster, so that men can go around spreading their ‘seeds’. Genetic layout cause females to be unhappy with the kind man faster in order for them to go out and seek the strong and brash even if they make them unhappier than the kind male. In the end, this is all about survival.
But as good marriages prove to us, we can fight with our genetic make-up and win… if we try. (But the question arises again in this matter, will we truly be happier doing so?)
So how do we create a culture that’s truly happy, yet at the same time improving at a pace so in line with our genetic layout that it actually changes (fools?) our genetic layout to seek happiness rather than unhappiness?
I don’t know.
Maybe we’re meant to live a long and unhappy, but prosperous, life. Maybe we’re meant to find true happiness and once we’ve done so die (no matter what age it’s attained at). Or maybe both routes are wrong. As I said, I don’t know.
What I do know is that continuing to live like we are is unhealthy and it needs to change, fast.
But I fear happiness and progress cannot be uttered kindly in the same sentence.
photo credit: raneko