"When you tell people that happiness is a simple matter, they get annoyed with you."
- Russell
08 July 1998, 1447 words
When people say their deepest wish is to win the Lotto, find Mr. or Ms. Right, or be famous, they don't really mean it. What they do mean is that they want the happiness, pleasure or contentment which they imagine accompanies these things.
Happiness is a goal everyone has, except happy people. And that is the most crucial difference between people who have attained happiness and those who are still searching for it. As somebody wise once succinctly put it, "The surest way to avoid happiness is to look for it."
Now this does not mean that one should not try and attain happiness. There are, it is true, some people who are happy without having done anything to achieve this state. These people are usually those who have been lucky enough to be naturally healthy, who have those social gifts which let them form relationships with other people easily, and who possess enough money for comfort (but not so little or so much that they become obsessed with it.) But most happy people have, in some way, become happy through well-directed effort, although - and this is the trick - that effort was probably not directed purely towards the achievement of happiness.
But what really is "well-directed effort"? This question leads to what I call the "Leave a fool in his Paradise" problem. If happiness is a worthwhile end in itself, surely it is worth achieving by any means. People who have undergone brain lobotomies, for example, do not seem bothered by anything. Marijuana apparently induces a state of easy euphoria in most people who smoke it, cocaine is supposed to have even deeper effects, and the ecstasy of the heroin-user is apparently beyond description. Nor can you assume that the vagrant who eats out of dustbins might not, in his cackling disconnection from reality, be in a far happier state than you.
Yet no sensible person would wish to be a fool or a vagrant or a drug addict. But simply saying this begs the question. If happiness is a desired end, is there any good reason why we should not try and reach it through drugs, brain damage or stupidity?
In his seminal work, The Society of Mind computer scientist Marvin Minsky writes: "Pain simplifies your point of view...forces us to focus on immediate problems...by restricting the complexities that constitute our very selves...It must be the same for pleasure as well." So the error the drug addict makes (apart from taking drugs in the first place, I mean) is to mistake pleasure for happiness. They are not the same thing at all, for happiness generally adds to our selfhood whereas pleasure, carried beyond a certain level, actually destroys our sense of self.
The first time this fool-in-Paradise problem occurred to me, I was about 12 or 13 years old (and obviously I was not a happy adolescent to be thinking about such things at that age.) I dismissed the conundrum then by assuming that insanity or addiction was, by definition, an existence filled with pain. I knew, of course, that this was an unsatisfactory conclusion but, as a pencil-thin thirteen-year-old who liked books better than people, I could hardly do better. In fact, it was only late last year, long after having actually attained happiness myself, that I finally solved the question.
It turns out that the problem is only a problem if you assume that happiness is a goal instead of a means. (This is so obvious that I'm still embarrassed it took me nearly 22 years to figure it out - of course, I wasn't actually thinking about it all that time.) In order to have true happiness, happiness must always be a means rather than an end. You see, if happiness is a goal, then, once a person achieves that state, he faces all the insecurities of having to maintain his happiness. As a goal, happiness is therefore self-defeating, for a constantly insecure person cannot be a happy one.
But if happiness is a means, then the person who attains that state is focused on wider and more productive ends. Happiness as a goal is essentially a shallow ambition. One should be a happy human being in order to function properly. (By "functioning properly", I mean achieving ends which are both social and personal.) To make happiness one's goal is to court a narrow perspective, even when one understands that happiness entails interests outside oneself. And this is why the fool cannot be in Paradise: because happiness of that sort is a superficial and purposeless state.
So what should one's goals be? Well, I'm glad you asked. Several studies have shown that, contrary to popular belief, it is not the rich, privileged, robust or good-looking people who are necessarily happy. Instead, it is those who have spouses, friends, religion and challenging, meaningful work.
The philosopher Bertrand Russell, in The Conquest of Happiness (quite possibly the best book ever written about this topic) opines that "Fundamental happiness depends more than anything else upon what may be called a friendly interest in persons and things." And, to be sure, three of the most unfailingly cheerful persons I know, Candice and Charlotte and Susan, are also the three friendliest persons I know. Russell warns, though, that "A friendly interest in persons is a form of affectionateness, but not the form which is grasping and possessive and seeking always an emphatic response. The latter form is very frequently a source of unhappiness."
A study carried out by U.S. psychologists David Myers and Ed Diener found that 80% of people declare themselves to be "fairly satisfied with life", while 30% say they are "very happy." This percentage was constant for all age groups, both sexes, blacks and whites and over four decades of economic growth. So it is apparent that, except for those who suffer from illnesses like manic depression, most people have a baseline of satisfaction rather than misery. And when one considers small children it seems obvious that a positive outlook is a more natural state than otherwise. Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, in his book How the Mind Works, notes that lottery winners, after the initial boost, return to their previous state. The upside of this is that so do paraplegics and others who have suffered great misfortunes.
Even great illness does not necessarily result in unhappiness. The theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, author of the best-selling A Brief History of Time suffers from motor neuron disease. His ailment has left him unable to do anything save move one finger and smile. Yet he considers himself lucky to be working in a field which does not require physical effort. He even makes jokes about it: "One evening in November, I started to think about black holes as I was getting into bed. My disability makes this rather a slow process, so I had plenty of time."
I do not know if I could be as cheerful as Hawking in a similar situation. I do know, however, that I am happier now than I have ever been at any previous time in my adult life. Yet this is also the first time that I have been without a regular job, a steady girlfriend, and intimate friendships. But I am generally happy, mainly because of my impersonal interests: my writing, my exploration of various intellectual topics, keeping fit and so on. Casual friendships and good family relations also help. It is not a way of life I would recommend to most people, but it suits me. Russell mentions that he was a very unhappy youngster, one who frequently contemplated suicide, but in middle-age he thoroughly enjoyed life. "Very largely [this] is due to a diminishing preoccupation with myself...I came to centre my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection," he writes. This "diminishing preoccupation" is the starting-point in attaining happiness.
The distinction between true happiness and fleeting pleasure is, I think, one of fulfillment. The fool's or addict's goal is entirely his own satisfaction, even if the price is delusion. But the sensible person sees happiness only as a crucial element in a wider and more fulfilling life. In other words, happiness is a part of fulfillment, but not all of it. A large part of happiness consists in avoiding narrowness of interests and smallness of mind. This sounds easy enough, but putting it into practice needs a lot of practice. Moreover, such attitudes never become a habit, but require constant alertness. But, as the old saw goes, nothing worthwhile is achieved without effort: and surely a happy life is worth the trouble.
Copyright ©1998, Kevin Baldeosingh