A Paradox In Society

[bodacious]

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[Luann]

I think the whole idea that you need the "good stuff" to be happy is just a believe in the first place, implanted in our brains at an early age to ensure compliance later on.

This is like so admirable, it should be in a movie or something, like the main character figures it out at the end

 

[goodandevil]

Every form of emotional and mental qualities is important. Why is happiness above all? It's like when I'm around people who complain about being alone. If you can't be happy being alone then those who see you unhappy (due to your loneliness) won't feel the connection of you being happy around them. Think about that for a moment.

Precisely so! Accepting the full range of one's emotions encourages the same in others.

 

[LUH 3417]

I think the whole idea that you need the "good stuff" to be happy is just a believe in the first place, implanted in our brains at an early age to ensure compliance later on.
I admire people who managed to get completely rid of this indoctrination. Ray is one of them.

How do we know ray Peat doesn't have a nice big house with a yard and good car?

 

[Ideonaut]

I think the whole idea that you need the "good stuff" to be happy is just a believe in the first place, implanted in our brains at an early age to ensure compliance later on.
I admire people who managed to get completely rid of this indoctrination. Ray is one of them.

I remember reading a Napoleon Hill biography. The wealthy steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was a patron of Hill and there was a lot of info about Carnegie in the book. Carnegie grew up in great poverty in Scotland. Carnegie said in later life that there is no greater blessing than growing up in poverty. I agree. You learn that lots of money and toys and social status crap are not necessary to enjoy life. You learn to reject all of that and at the same time to appreciate what one has, especially the free things in life like nature. Of course you can assume this attitude without the actual blessing of early poverty.

 

[Dobbler]

Threads like this are so good. I love you guys :)

 

[pimpnamedraypeat]

This is like so admirable, it should be in a movie or something, like the main character figures it out at the end

I know right. they go on this long journey and then at the end they find out what they were looking for was inside them all along.

 

[x-ray peat]

I think its been shown many times that money does buy you happiness up to a certain point and typically stops when your basic needs for survival and security are met. After that it doesn't really do much for you except put you on a never ending quest to get more stuff to compensate for something else that is missing in your life as has been said. However the need for status is also a very natural human and primate instinct. In some this drive may lead to poor health outcomes but in others it can lead to better health outcomes through less stress of being more in charge of your own destiny. Its a very complicated issue and is very hard to generalize what would lead to greater happiness and if hard work is really paradoxical to it.

 

[Waynish]

A great example of this is in my own dating life. I have noticed that skinny women who do way too much endurance exercise enjoy sex the least and have the least amount of personality to offer, despite being on the so called top of the totem pole. They may have their choice of a great relationship, but they aren't very satisfied and express this by being "picky." Now, say they gained some weight and upped their metabolism...they might be more interested in a relationship, but their rank, or whatever, has fallen, and it becomes harder to find one.

You need a larger sample size, my friend
Also traveling to various different cultures shows that this is not a constant. Sexuality is clearly suppressed in certain ways in the west - and misrepresented by overstimulating media. I will tell you, however, there are still many skinny, sexy, horny, and savvy girls (even in the west) - but its hard to quantify if such "bombshells" were really more or less common for previous generations.

 

[Tarmander]

You need a larger sample size, my friend
Also traveling to various different cultures shows that this is not a constant. Sexuality is clearly suppressed in certain ways in the west - and misrepresented by overstimulating media. I will tell you, however, there are still many skinny, sexy, horny, and savvy girls (even in the west) - but its hard to quantify if such "bombshells" were really more or less common for previous generations.

You know some good skinny girls man ?

I'm in a happy relationship now. My viewpoint has shifted a bit since I wrote the above. I thought it was more physical why these girls were miserable back then, but I think it's more cultural now. I think feminism has done such a number on women's happiness that being beautiful can really be a curse these days. Kind of sad.

 

[Dessert_All_Day]

People work hard to get what they think will satisfy them, and in the process remove their ability to be satisfied.

This might be true for some people, but I believe those people are just terribly irrational.

There are people that work hard and get precisely what they want out of life. And there are people that don't work very hard and become fulfilled too. It comes down to how good a person is at recognizing his own preferences and knowing what it takes to satisfy those preferences.