Would you rather be content than happy all the time?
lala
Posts: 21,175 Forum Member
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It's an interesting question. To be content, or to be happy? Some would argue that the two are the same, and that to be content means you are happy. But isn't happiness more of a selfish emotion/state of being? To me it implies wanting everything to be perfect so that you wont have to worry ever again. But with perfection being an impossible illusion (at least to me), complete happiness about everything all the time is simply impossible right?
I'd much rather be content than expect myself to be happy all the time. Of course, being a human being, I'm going to strive for some sort of happy moment. But I'm comfortable and healthy with just being... well... comfortable. Although winning the lottery would help things of course.
I'd much rather be content than expect myself to be happy all the time. Of course, being a human being, I'm going to strive for some sort of happy moment. But I'm comfortable and healthy with just being... well... comfortable. Although winning the lottery would help things of course.
Which would you rather be? 18 votes
Content?
11%
2 votes
Happy?
0%
0 votes
A mixture of the two would do me fine
88%
16 votes
0
Comments
Yes a mixture of the two would be the ideal scenario.
I think I need to define what i mean by 'Happy'. I don't mean not having happy moments. Because we all will have those moments. But striving to be 100% happy all the time, which to me is kind of impossible isn't it not?
Most of the time we are just content with things, aren't we?
Playing devil's advocate here. I guess it isn't always a bad thing to want more or something different... Perhaps it is some kind of evolutionary instinct within us? After all, would we be innovating things if we all just stayed content? That's something to mull over I guess.
like most people have said a mixture of both really, but it would be really hard to be both for always.
well it would be hard to be either 100% for always, there is always a spanner being thrown in the works.
Not at all. I agree that wanting more was what drove us to research, discovery and invention*. Sort of like how hunger motivates us to find food. Which you could consider part of the bigger "wanting more" deal. A stable food supply is a lot better than having to be a predator every day.
If we somehow could genetically program ourselves to always be happy, we might end up doing nothing at all, because we had nothing to gain from it.
But again, and with a different analogy; Doing drugs you'll end up needing a larger dose each time to get the same level of excitation. I suspect our bodies will react the same if we constantly released dopamine, and it just wouldn't be feasible without an energy source that could produce those ever increasing doses throughout our entire lifes. It'll probably kill us long before that (as in, before we live as long as we do today).
*Sorry to bring it up in this thread, but I believe religion counteracts this by pacifying us by making us believe true happiness can only come in death, and by dampening our curiosity, making us not seek the real answers that can lead to real world applications.
I thought it is a load of cack.
Nope. But there is a lot of that on here though. :cool:;)
Yes I should have added another option- 'I'd rather feel like crap, and the world can go suck it'.
Some people are just naturally more happy than others and there is nothing you can do about it. So people should not expect too much out of life and just be content with what they've got.
...I'm not sure whether that is depressing or not?