I have been asked too many times lately the "Semantically Useless" Question: "Are you _Happy_?"
Always the asker is attempting Sincerity, but fails to understand the broken premise of their now-obvious views on the Nature of this thing we call "Happiness."
I say this not just because I'm a jaded old woman, but because when I awnser them, as I always do, "Sometimes I am happy, other times not," and shrug as if to say "thus is he Nature of Life, Non Mon Amie?" ... But sometimes the Asker just looks at me blankly, as if I did not understand _Their_ question. Oh Irony, my greatest Investment. They try to rephrase," Are you happy right now, are you happy overall in your life, yadda, and etc???" Again I repeat my "Sometimes," often forced into explaining to them _My_ views on the subject that what he knows of "Happiness;" That It is a completely /TRANSITORY/ and 100% _QUALITATIVE_ Experience, essentially just another facet of Experiencing a 3-Dimensional Existence(1 Length & 2 Width & 3 Height, or 1 W-Axis & 2 X-Axis & 3 Y-Axis & being _Propelled_ in a 4-Dimensional Universe (Time, or Z-Axis)...
...To illustrate our "Happinness COnundrum" further; If I asked you "How _MANY_ Dollar Bills you Have?" You could easily count the /QUANITY/ of DOllar Bills you have and awnser me, "I have $20!" Then I ask you how You /FEEL/ about your Dollar, you could answer me "I feel very HAPPY, thank You!"
But when I ask you, "And how do you feel about the number 20?" You may be understandibly confused. Why? Because _20_ is a _NUMBER_, used purely for counting. In nd of itself it is Neutral, neither Good nor Bad; It just is. Then I can follow that question with:"And will You please count for me how many "HAPPINESSES" You currenlty have? Again you may be most naturally confused, because a QUALITY, like "Happiness," only comes in about 5 forms:
i. Most Happy EVER =D !!
ii. Very, Very Happy :)))
iii. Very Happy :))
iiii. Happy. :)
iiiii. Not Happy :(
Dr. Timothy Leary ellucidated on this Scientific Concept of Human Consciousness Studies and had great success in applying it to describing the "Potential States of Psychadelic Experience," (only he adds 6 Neutral, 7 Mildly Negative, 8 Very Negative, and 9 Nightmare/Hellish). I hope you hve at least seen a glimpse, from what I have presented to you so far, of how various "Quality vs. Quantity" Conflicts exist virtually everywhere in our Western society (The only one I have any great expreience studying as a Social Scientist), causing so end of Confusion over what is basically a "Semantic" Misunderstanding by both "Sides."
That point being cleared up i will proiceed with my main points in the form of a Fictional Human Being's Life and the Actions and Consequences it incurs by his always well-intentioned actions. We are now Proud to Present to You, our Loving Audience & Codependants: "The Life of Joe..."
Like all people in this world; Joe wanted nothing more than to "be happy" and to "live a happy life." He was assurred by everything he saws on TV, The Movies, The Interwebs, and all that he heard on the FM, AM, Interweb, & Satellite Radios that "Being Happy most of the time" was entirely possible, and worse, it was being done by almost _EVERYONE_ around him and Joe was just one of those very few "unfortunates," he'd heard called, who were destined to always be poor and lonely and always searching for happiness.
Unlucky with love, his first attempt at "finding happiness" came in 6th grade when he smoked his very first Tobacco Cigarrette with few friends behind the school. That 1 Cig "made" Joe /FEEL/ so "Happy," that his Left-Brain (The part of Human Beings responsible for making sure that "Everything That Ever Happens _MAKES SENSE_, has some "Reason" attached to it; This means it LIES A LOT, but most humans never notice and just learn to live by lieing to themselves /shrug) tried very hard to discover where that "Hppiness" came from. It decided the small /QUANTITY/ of Tobacco had "made" Joe Happy, so Joe should take a _Small Dose_ daily, perhaps a few times a day, to "KEEP HIM HAPPY..."
As time passes Joe's body begins to build up a _Tolerance_ to Tobacco which neccecitates him smoking more and more _Quantities_, just to get the same small "Happiness" he once got from just a little. Does his brain tell him to quit? Hell no. Why? Elementary; Brain & Body are intimately connected. Once the Body is Addicted, so is the Brain, & Joe's brain is now becoming his subtle "Enemy," as it begins even in 6th grade to learn how to "Fool Joe's Conscious Mind & Emotions" into using more Tobacco, by any means necessary. Usually through the process of making Joe feel worse and worse until he is /FORCED/ to turn elsewhere for "Happiness."
So Joe learns about Methamphetamine and the same story plays out, except now he is already a tobacco addict, already is dedicating large portions of his income to it, so it may already be causing Joe more _SADNESS than HAPPINESS_.
Next is Booze; Same story again. People say that "Insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting different results." Sounds good, except i have NEVER met a single human who does not display this odd behavior, in one form or another.
So that's drugs, but let's do a "Normie." They turn not to Cigz, but to SEX or "LOVE." That's "_Natural_," right? Everybody does it and all that? Yet there too we see the exact same story as Joe's first trip with Tobacco. "LOVE ADDICTION" and "CODEPEDENCE" are some of the most widely spred and least discussed Psychological Diseases on the face of the Western World. People "Scared to be alone," so they put up with abysmal behavior from "Partners." People who never learned it's okay to LOVE THEMSELVES or that they have the POWER to MAKE THMSELVES FEEL WHOLE... So they comb the earth looking for that "person who will make them feel whole." A person who will "love them," because they can't/don't love themselves, and usually the partner is the same. 2 "Half-People," imaging that together they make "1 Happy Person."
But a Miserable Marriage? Why that has far less "Happinness" than many Full Time Drug Addictions, Hah! Other ways people "seek Happiness;" Work, Hobbies, Children, Religion, Doctors, Charity, Art, yadda, etc.
My "Theory of Happiness" is simply that It is a _TRANSITORY_ and _Independent_ COnsciousness, which moves as it wills.... to be continued...
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