What went wrong with our happiness(medium.com)
medium.com
What went wrong with our happiness
https://medium.com/@orzel.jarek/what-went-wrong-with-our-happiness-aa1f017ba05e
9 comments
> Traditional approaches often focused on prevention—building resilience, teaching coping skills, and creating supportive communities before problems arose.
Nicely said!
The "individual" was always considered as part of a greater whole and never all alone left to fend for himself. Community/People were central and Materialism was just an enabler and not the end goal.
Nicely said!
The "individual" was always considered as part of a greater whole and never all alone left to fend for himself. Community/People were central and Materialism was just an enabler and not the end goal.
Nietzsche said Man does not seek Happiness; only the Englishman does that. What Man seeks is Meaning and Purpose. That is not an exact quote but a gist of his philosophical outlook.
The fundamental problem is that the Scientific Revolution upended everything we had known and around which we had built our social structures. People were born into an existing "social framework structure" which they followed obediently without questioning and when something went wrong/did not understand, they simply attributed it to an almighty "G-O-D" and washed their hands off of it. Being absolved of any personal responsibility and not being forced to learn and make hard decisions and live with its consequences is highly cognitively consonant rather than dissonant and keeps one "Happy". Mere Scientific Knowledge without resolution into a coherent and understandable framework leads to more cognitive dissonance and hence keeps one "Unhappy".
The solution is to use Modern Science to understand Objective Reality and use ancient Philosophical Concepts/Frameworks from Hindu/Buddhist/Greek Cultures to mould our Subjective View of it (but without going off into la-la land).
The fundamental problem is that the Scientific Revolution upended everything we had known and around which we had built our social structures. People were born into an existing "social framework structure" which they followed obediently without questioning and when something went wrong/did not understand, they simply attributed it to an almighty "G-O-D" and washed their hands off of it. Being absolved of any personal responsibility and not being forced to learn and make hard decisions and live with its consequences is highly cognitively consonant rather than dissonant and keeps one "Happy". Mere Scientific Knowledge without resolution into a coherent and understandable framework leads to more cognitive dissonance and hence keeps one "Unhappy".
The solution is to use Modern Science to understand Objective Reality and use ancient Philosophical Concepts/Frameworks from Hindu/Buddhist/Greek Cultures to mould our Subjective View of it (but without going off into la-la land).
Before the Scientific Revolution people definitely had less freedom and agency.
And that condition was justified drive to more individualism, more impact in their own life.
However, in the recent years and decades it has gone too fare. We have become rootless and disconnected.
And that condition was justified drive to more individualism, more impact in their own life.
However, in the recent years and decades it has gone too fare. We have become rootless and disconnected.
That is why you have to go back to fundamental philosophical concepts i mentioned. They had studied the "Human Condition" extensively and prescribed different "Worldviews" (i.e. philosophical schools) and corresponding disciplines which people can choose from, to follow, according to their Characters/Dispositions.
The end goal is what the Hindus/Buddhists call "Kaivalya/Moksa/Nirvana" and the Greeks "Eudaimonia". This is not fleeting sensory happiness but a steady state of calm flowing happiness. While it is commonly thought of as necessitating stepping away from everything (i.e. renunciation) that is not necessary. You can engage with the World and yet stand apart from it by letting sensory enjoyments come and go while maintaining mental equanimity throughout.
The end goal is what the Hindus/Buddhists call "Kaivalya/Moksa/Nirvana" and the Greeks "Eudaimonia". This is not fleeting sensory happiness but a steady state of calm flowing happiness. While it is commonly thought of as necessitating stepping away from everything (i.e. renunciation) that is not necessary. You can engage with the World and yet stand apart from it by letting sensory enjoyments come and go while maintaining mental equanimity throughout.
The article suggests that the culprit is social permissiveness. But I think a more likely explanation is that unregulated capitalism has systematically destroyed our common community institutions and replaced them with impersonal for-profit transactional systems.
I woud not say that my article suggest social permissiveness. I would rather say that global capitalism and consumerism indirectly changed our culture into egocentric drive
It may be unintentional, but the emphasis on traditional values and spirituality vs relativism gives it a moralistic tone. I'd agree directionally with what you're saying, but this transformation did not emerge spontaneously, it was driven top-down by unregulated capitalism. People didn't choose to become merely consumers, they were herded into that role by capital.
Yeah, you are definitely right. It is invisible convience I mentioned in the post
We've become so convinced that our science-based approach holds all the answers that we've forgotten a crucial distinction: there's a difference between an informed life and a good life. Traditional approaches often focused on prevention—building resilience, teaching coping skills, and creating supportive communities before problems arose. But prevention doesn't fit our therapeutic language of diagnosis and treatment.
This reflects a broader cultural shift where we believe we can engineer solutions for every aspect of human experience. We're so focused on what we can fix that we've lost sight of what already worked - and it often worked without an intervention.