[lbo-talk] happiness pays?

Josh Narins josh at narins.net
Sat Apr 1 16:33:16 PST 2006



> On 4/1/06, Josh Narins <josh at narins.net> wrote:
> > Shorter "Happiness Pays?"
> >
> > Ignorance is Bliss.
> ...
> > And if there was no tension, life would be boring.
> >
> > And boring life would result in vapid art.
>
> why the presumption that happiness involves boredom, no tension, ignorance?
>
> the author contrasts happiness to depression, which is not the same as
> excitement, tension, or knowledge. (Peter D. Kramer, who wrote
> LISTENING TO PROZAC, has a book out that also opposes depression.)

I have not read any more material on this topic than you presented. It was posited that information/knowledge led to unhappiness in this presentation.

These findings demonstrate some of the maladaptive by-products

of self-reflection, suggesting that not only is the "unexamined

life" worth living, but it is potentially full of happiness and

joy.

Perhaps I am over-simplifying when I suggest that not examining things leads to ignorance, it is hard for me to imagine _any_other_result_.

There are, in this modern world, more than a handful of unhappy geo-political and global situations. Starvation, War, Poverty, Imminent-any-of-the-above. Should we consider them? Dwell on these unhappy things?

Surely it wouldn't be self-reflection, but it probably has, according to the Lyubomirsky theory, negative internal repercussions which could cause depression.

Tension is critical. Without any, nothing gets done, with too much, people snap. That's the tension in tension :)



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