On the Nature and Purpose of Happiness

January 29, 2011

Adam

The nature of happiness as an illusory and elusive state, and how the perpetual pursuit of this unattainable ideal provides purpose and motivation in life

Reflections

The nature of happiness, when it is imagined as “an ephemeral state of blissful and lasting contentment”, is both illusory and elusive. It is illusory in that the form described in the sentence before has no basis in reality. And it is elusive as, despite being imaginary, we nonetheless spend our lives chasing happiness in this form only for it to always escape our grasp. And yet, despite the absurdity of this situation, the pursuit of this non-existent form of happiness offers us some purpose – as long as we don’t let the pursuit of this happiness take over our lives.

Illusory Happiness

Many will baulk at the suggestion that happiness as “an ephemeral state of blissful and lasting contentment” is an illusion. This objection is entirely understandable as none of us feel comfortable being told that the object of our innermost desires is a sham. Some will even draw on past periods of their life to give strength to the idea that something akin to fairy-tale happiness does exists.

I too want us to recall some of our own ‘happy memories’, so to demonstrate just how just illusory they are. It is true that a lot of people can recall eras of their life - no matter how long or fleeting -that have in some way matched the description of fairy-tale happiness previously laid out. But I argue that it is only when we look back at these memories that they seem to match the description of “an ephemeral state of blissful and lasting contentment”.

When we look forward to the future, life seems like a patchwork of innumerable, unpredictable events. But when we look back into the past we often insert a ‘narrative’. Our life now ceases to be a collection of random occurrences, and instead each event forms a paragraph or chapter in a greater, encompassing story. This happens as we look back and compare different periods of our lives and retrospectively attach ‘themes’ into these different periods.

For example, the period after that break-up was characterised as being ‘dark’, and so contrastingly we look back at the section of time following the painful, long recovery with comparably happy sentiments. And yet, whilst we were actually living through that section of our life, we likely did not share these future sentiments that “this is a happy period of time”.

This is because at the point that ’happy memory’ occurred, we were too occupied ‘living in that moment’ to spare even a second to really recognise, reflect or ruminate on our emotional state. Similar is the sensation that we get recalling our memories whilst we are asleep. We are only aware that we were in fact dreaming after we awake from our dreams. And just like our dream, we can only recognise ‘happiness’ after it has passed.

Elusive Happiness

Looking towards the future, we yearn for that point in our lives where “an ephemeral state of blissful contentment” becomes an established and constant feature of our lives. Growing up, we are instilled with the myth of the ‘happily-ever-after’ – a stage in life where happiness becomes automatic and everlasting. A self-fulfilling prophecy, to borrow a worn phrase.

At least, this is what a steady diet of Hollywood films and Disney stories fed to us during our youth has conditioned us to believe. However, we do not observe the film’s events after the credits roll, and so remain ignorant of all the future adversities and challenges the protagonist would continue to face until their dying day. Nonetheless, we adopt the erroneous lessons of the fictitious world of Hollywood films and Disney stories and apply them to our own lives. But instead of identifying winning the heart of the Prince or Princess as the moment happiness becomes self-fulfilling, we might pin-point a long-hoped-for relationship or the fulfilment of career goals as the start of our happily-ever-after.

Perhaps we can look at the life of a would-be lawyer for a better example of the misplaced hopes of a real life, happily-ever-after. A hard-working law student who has made numerous sacrifices for their studies might single out their graduation as the moment that happiness will become automatic, or at least easier. But after the euphoria of donning that black gown and receiving their diploma passes, a new set of gargantuan obstacles materialize and prevent a seamless slip into a sylvan world. Now a graduate, the would-be lawyer quickly focusses on the new mountain of adversity ahead, and now identifies passing the bar as the point that a life of contentment will become automatic.

And obviously, when this next peak is surmounted, yet another peak reveals itself. The point at which the happily-ever-after happens might eventually then become when the lawyer is called to the Queen’s Counsel, and so on and so on. The pursuit of permanent personal satiation is only really reached when the would-be lawyer closes their eyes for the last time.

The Purpose of this Torture

And so, it appears that we are cursed to only experience “an ephemeral state of blissful contentment” via the recollections of specific memories. We are doomed to forever chase in vain a happily-ever-after that resembles a lasting form of this happiness. As sadistic as this may sound, this quenchless thirst that makes us spend our lives pursuing something that doesn’t exist may still offer some purpose.

The elusive nature of happiness is comparable to the Ancient Greek myth of Tantalus. Tantalus abused the hospitality of the Gods by sharing their secrets with his fellow man.In order to punish him for this crime, the Gods sentenced him to stand for eternity in a pool of water below a fruit tree. Every time that he knelt in the pool of water so that he might quench his thirst, the pool lowered out of the reach of his dry mouth. Every time he reached for the fruit to satiate his hunger; its branches moved far from his grasp.

However, unlike the pointless punishments of the petty Greek Gods that served to only express their incomparably cruel nature, our Tantalus-like torture may serve a more noble purpose. It seems like all living things need a reason, some drive, to keep going. For most things - be they Lions, Spiders or replicating cells - this survival is simply ‘survival’. The constant chase for the next source of sustenance keeps them going.

For a small percentage of the global human population fortunate enough to live in a place and age of unparalleled plenty, our every waking moment is not beholden to satisfying our hunger in the same way it is for animals. We - as socialized creatures with easy access to the sustenance we need – have set our eyes on deeper goals, namely achieving happiness.

Vastly different cultures teach that satisfying this need (albeit under different names) is a fundamental goal of life. Buddhists dedicate their lives to reaching the blissfully content state of enlightenment, while Western consumerist societies preach that fame and material wealth bring us to this idealized state of being.

Regardless of who has a healthier method of chasing happiness, both Buddhists and Western consumerist societies have the same goal in mind – the pursuit of “an ephemeral state of blissful and lasting contentment”. In all systems of belief, people are like Donkeys continuously chasing an inaccessible carrot dangled in front of them. Without this ultimately fruitless pursuit of an impossible aim, life could collapse into a lacklustre pile of dusty meaningless.

So, happiness as “an ephemeral state of blissful and lasting contentment” is both illusory and elusive. Nonetheless, this myth and the never-ending pursuit of “an ephemeral state of blissful and lasting contentment” has a positive purpose, as it can keep us going until our natural end.