Just a deep thought while I work on dissecting the ridiculous recent article in the WSJ about men being immature and women being left standing relationship and babyless (I’m siding with you, boys!). My insightful thoughts on that garbage to come later.
For now:
I always loved the line from Whitest Boy Alive’s 1517 : “As if happiness exists in the world at a fixed amount. And if you feel up somebody somewhere else feels down.” First of all, this is right in line with my balance theory. Life is all about balance. We should shoot whoever keeps saying “Everything in Moderation.” Moderation stinks. I want passion. I want 100 percent. I want to be all in. I want to eat half a pizza once in awhile. Those people that can have two bites “just to satisfy their craving” are crazy. That is not satisfying! As long as I balance it with 5 extra miles the next day, no harm done. I was able to indulge, right? You just need balance. If you go far out on the beam in one direction, you better have the will power and wearwithall to get back to the other side. I find those that choose to straddle the middle boring, but to each his own, as long as there’s balance. I have found that this theory works with pretty much anything in life.
Except happiness.
At first I used this fixed amount of happiness philosophy shared in that catchy tune to make myself feel better when having a rough time. I would tell myself that this just means that someone else in the world is getting their deserved happy moment. But then that would make me feel better and I’d realize that feeling better meant someone else in the world was feeling bad… Enter vicious cycle. I have decided there is always one exception to the rule and the world does not need to balance happiness. Happiness shall be infinite so go ahead and harness as much as you want.
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March 2, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Anonymous
OK I disagree massively. Firstly, exception to the rule? I think you’ll find that’s just a contradiction. There’s no point in a rule if there’s an exception. It’s like saying ‘well I think equality’s the way forward, except for tax. People who’ve managed to get more out of their lives should pay more.’ or ‘we shouldn’t interfere with the political states of other countries. Except the middle East, we need to control those areas by funding a vile, suppressive dictatorship so they don’t declare war on each other.’
The point of a rule is to guide you in your life *ABSOLUTELY*. Don’t like that? Don’t bother having one; can’t just pick and choose.
Also it’s ridiculous to assume that there’s balance in the world. Prime example; the Jews. According to your rule the rest of the world just happened to feel extremely happy for hundreds of years and some kind of universal dumpster just dumped their suffering on the Jews.
Putting aside the fact that it’s ridiculous, there were wars amongst most of the other peoples in the world, and most of them were never able to live a life free from oppression at the time so there’s no way they could have been constantly ecstatic.
Also the principle of ‘I’m sad so somebody else I’ve probably never met and have no emotional attachment to in the world is feeling happy, oh now I’m happy! But that means that somebody else I’ve probably never met and have no emotional attachment to in the world is sad… Now I’m sad’ is a fairly poor system.
The fact is everyone, even men, go through their hormone cycles and have their ups and downs and this cycle works on a schedule. The fact is everybody in the world could have at one time worked on the same cycle and have been born at the same moment and that would mean that when one person felt down everybody else would also realise they’re feeling down.
That would destroy this ridiculous idea of balance completely. The fact is that even this could be turned upside down if you have a certain meal or if you indulge in some form of sexual activity. If people stop trying to figure out why they feel sad and just accept that they feel sad they can become more accepting to the idea that ‘life happens’. Absolutely anything could happen at any moment that completely turns your life upside down. Just because it causes unhappiness doesn’t make it bad or good.
Furthermore if you’re happy stop asking why just enjoy it and don’t worry about how you’ll feel when it goes away or how anyone else is feeling. All the so called ‘philosophy’ that people are exposed to is such a load of rubbish because it, more than often, just stops people living. Don’t be part of that crowd. Live in the moment damn you!