Cause you either choose to live life happily or live life sadly, which do you prefer?
That is assuming that the opposite of happy is sad and that happiness is better than sorrow. But is happiness truly the opposite of sadness? If happiness is simply the state of experiencing pleasure, then antagonistic to this, it will be that absence of pleasure itself. But sadness is not just about the absence of pleasure, it is experiencing emotional pain and sorrow. Both happiness and sadness need not be mutually exclusive and opposite of each other.
You mean we can be happy and sad at the same time?
Why not? In instances, where our happiness is obtained as a result of some personal sacrifice; pyrrhic victories in life. How would you feel then? Paradoxical? Conflicting emotionally? That is because you are feeling both happy and sad at the same time. Something which your heart is not trained to do because it is assumed to be mutually exclusive of each other. The contradicting feeling could also arise because you want to choose only to have one of the feeling at that time. But you see happiness and sadness can sometimes be present at the same time in our life.
Still, do you prefer to have happiness in your life than sorrow? you have yet to answer my question.
Now comes the second assumption that everyone has, is happiness necessary better off than sadness? Being happy is good, for it is a positive way of living life. But being too happy with your life means stagnation as well. The constant satisfaction may result in unwillingness to improve your current standard of life, removing progress in your life. Conversely, being in a state of sorrow may stimulate some sort of desire for a more positive way of life. Low self-esteem may force a person to seek some sort of improvement in life to lead a better life that way.
So would you still prefer to live life happily or sadly?
Interestingly to say, i would live them both. That way i get the best out of both world. Anyway back to the very first question, I do not think happiness should be considered as the most important thing in life for its value is grossly overestimated. What happen if your happiness is classified as Schadenfreude (that is pleasure gain from others misfortune). Or that happiness like in the concept of utilitarian (maximizing the amount of happiness felt) is done at the expenses of the minorities? Or conscience is betrayed, like in the case of white lies? Living a happy life because of ignorance need not be a blessing as well when the lack of knowledge can eventually result in sorrow.
Sign, life is not that simple at all.
Labels: for those who are too lazy to speculate
