Happiness is...
Some people consider happiness as a chore. Being happy nowadays would seem to require much effort. One may relate this state on unhappiness on Richard Schoch's assertion: "We have come to regard happiness as a sort of consumer product, the ultimate luxury item, and if only we just had enough money, we could go into the happiness store.” The mentality that happiness is a commodity where people can buy it everywhere seems to be very unfortunate. People can rectify this notion, however, this can be a very daunting task. Society bombards people with endless desire for materialism.
One may define hedonism as a the doctrine holding that behavior is motivated by the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain. People seem to hold on to a virtue that when they acquire material things, such action shall give them pleasure, ergo, happiness. One school of thought would say that hedonistic principle only gives a transient happiness. For instance, when a person buys a new television, such action shall bring him joy and pleasure, thus happiness. However, when the use of the television becomes almost as mechanical, and when a person is not even conscious that the television is new, then the pleasure is lost. It would seem that the item has lost its luster and would like just be any other item.
Seneca states: “The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.” One can say that this can be related the the detached view of Seneca to the world. People do not have control over the what is happening on the world. People may only change their reaction and attitudes towards what has happen. Schoch maintains that “[..] means a little bit of detachment, trying to distance yourself from all those things, and in that detachment and that distance can come a calmness, a reflective period, a moment of meditation. Seneca would call it serenity or tranquility. That, in fact, is another name for happiness."
Epicureans believe that in order to be happy, one should expect less. In return, the happiness expectation is lower. If the expectation is high, and it plans do not turn out to be, then the attempt for happiness may only end up in disappointment and frustration. This may explain why some people In poor countries are happy in simple things. Their expectation is low, because they have suffered greatly, and they seem to have an attitude to appreciate even the smallest favor done to them. In summary, one can glean that happiness is something intrinsic. It is something that requires effort intrinsically. Material things only supplies happiness in a temporary way.
Work Cited:
Richard Schoch: http://www.pri.org/arts-entertainment/books/in-search-of-the-good-life1782.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hedonism
