We had yet another intellectually philosophical discussion in one of our boring midday bunks about this book written by Sigmund Freud. His view is how we can only truly feel ecstatic after going through a period of suffering. And so we are very accustomed to living in a suffering state. Only when something happy happens does our happiness graph momentarily spike up to a high level before dropping back to suffering levels. Very debatable and very unconvincing but the other parts tend to be more interesting.
There are 2 distinct bands-Suffering or happiness. If you're not happy, you're suffering and vice versa. It's a very exclusive thing where you can't be in between. Lets just accept that for the sake of discussion. Firstly, suffering is defined as a feeling. Hence, if you are able to control your feelings you won't have to undergo much suffering will you? There are three ways described to escape suffering. The first is to avoid everybody so that you won't have to suffer the pain of emotional relationships with other people. The second is to band together with everybody to withstand external factors. And the last...is...chemical intoxication. So if you choose any one of the three methods theoretically you should eliminate some suffering although the first and second are kind of ironic. His book is very difficult to read!
Moving on to happiness. There are 3 types of people. First is the predominantly erotic. This category of people derive happiness from their emotional relationships with other people. They are very affected by how other people feel, think and view their relationships with them. The second type is the narcissistic. They are able to derive happiness from themselves. When they do well in something, when the pick up a new knowledge, or when they benefit from something that happens. The last is the "man of action" aka the competitive. They derive happiness from competing and beating the competition. So we've come to the conclusion that most people are a mixture of the 3 categories. If you are predominantly one class, then there is a bit of a problem. For example, if you are 90% predominantly erotic, then if your relationships with other people start to take a turn for the worse, then you have nothing else to hedge your happiness on. You will be unable to derive happiness from other avenus and hence fall into suffering. Whereas someone who is spread out over the 3 categories may not feel as high as you at times do since their happiness is hedged but he is less likely to fall into suffering.
And that is the gist of our long discussion!
Help me fill out the survey please! =] If you're feeling nice you can ask your friends to fill up to haha
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=uyzpbqh3zjwkk0w334325
There are 2 distinct bands-Suffering or happiness. If you're not happy, you're suffering and vice versa. It's a very exclusive thing where you can't be in between. Lets just accept that for the sake of discussion. Firstly, suffering is defined as a feeling. Hence, if you are able to control your feelings you won't have to undergo much suffering will you? There are three ways described to escape suffering. The first is to avoid everybody so that you won't have to suffer the pain of emotional relationships with other people. The second is to band together with everybody to withstand external factors. And the last...is...chemical intoxication. So if you choose any one of the three methods theoretically you should eliminate some suffering although the first and second are kind of ironic. His book is very difficult to read!
Moving on to happiness. There are 3 types of people. First is the predominantly erotic. This category of people derive happiness from their emotional relationships with other people. They are very affected by how other people feel, think and view their relationships with them. The second type is the narcissistic. They are able to derive happiness from themselves. When they do well in something, when the pick up a new knowledge, or when they benefit from something that happens. The last is the "man of action" aka the competitive. They derive happiness from competing and beating the competition. So we've come to the conclusion that most people are a mixture of the 3 categories. If you are predominantly one class, then there is a bit of a problem. For example, if you are 90% predominantly erotic, then if your relationships with other people start to take a turn for the worse, then you have nothing else to hedge your happiness on. You will be unable to derive happiness from other avenus and hence fall into suffering. Whereas someone who is spread out over the 3 categories may not feel as high as you at times do since their happiness is hedged but he is less likely to fall into suffering.
And that is the gist of our long discussion!
Help me fill out the survey please! =] If you're feeling nice you can ask your friends to fill up to haha
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=uyzpbqh3zjwkk0w334325