06-12-2002, 07:34 PM
Quote:I think a major reason why we're not happy is because we are constantly trying to be told we aren't happy. We're told not to be jealous, not to covet, not to put importance in material possessions in religious texts yet we can't help it. Society is based on jealousy. Capitalism is based on jealousy. You don't have it, you want it, and if you have it you want it more and better. You can never have enough things, you can never have enough money. That is the mindset behind capitalism and thus then our culture.
And talking about money can't buying happiness, I think for some (not many it can). I can also understand why people would like money better than people- it's function is known and it can help you obtain things you want, it doesn't change (minus inflation/deflation), it's attitude doesn't vary, you always know what it's purpose is and you don't have to worry about upsetting it. Of course you can never have all the money in the world so it's an endless quest.
And no, we don't know everything. There are an infinite number of things we don't know and will NEVER know. However it is the inability to comprehend that which we don't understand which is yet another reason for the creation of God. People would be afraid of an eclipse, etc. so how do you explain which you can't explain and sooth the natives' fears? Say that God did it. If you don't understand it, it's because God did it. Case closed, don't question it, the masses are happy because their insignificant lives are given purpose again.
Mind you, there ARE happy people in the world. The people who are happy in our culture are blissfully ignorant. The more you know the less happy you are because the more you know you don't know. The people who just mindlessly follows what they're told to follow. Make the barbecue on the fourth of july, enjoy your meaningless job, enjoy your meaningless life, take your family to Disney World during the summer, enjoy the lines, don't question the government, Oswald killed Kennedy, the media doesn't lie. Is this a good way to live? I don't know. On one hand these people will probably be more content than I ever will be, on the other it really is a pathetic useless life (a different sort of pathetic and useless than the one i'm living in mind you) and these people probably won't ever accomplish anything. They won't mind though, they don't think in that way.
I have a new found respect for IkeaBoy :loveya: