The Pleasures of Pessimism
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nybooks.com
Being the person that I am, I don't believe in happiness as people talk about it, and I got interested in what makes people believe in things, it seems to me that as religion is diminishing, people still seeks to fill their mind with a belief system. I read so many people on facebook quoting weird happiness, meditation stuff that makes no sense at all to me.
Honestly there is no point in seeking happiness. The more you want something the more it tends to run away from you.
What I know, is that people tend to seek happiness just so that they can attract other people to them, because it is somehow attractive. I find it desperate. To me happiness is just what drives society to socialize, mate and keep running, just like a machine.
And I have not even brought what I think how men and women view happiness, I'm sure there are large differences, especially when you think about the whole feminism and men's right movements.
Happiness understood in hedonistic terms, what most people nowadays search, is futile, because a single inconvenience will make us unhappy.
However, optimising for virtue, as the stoics understood it, can make feel that we are doing what must be done and this brings peace, despite of any inconvenience.
Living and humble life, setting realistic goals (but not lazy ones, of course), caring for parents, spouse and children, and thinking in terms of virtue can help a lot.
What does this mean, I've never heard of it before?
"Virtue ethics is currently one of three major approaches in normative ethics. It may, initially, be identified as the one that emphasizes the virtues, or moral character, in contrast to the approach that emphasizes duties or rules (deontology) or that emphasizes the consequences of actions (consequentialism). Suppose it is obvious that someone in need should be helped. A utilitarian will point to the fact that the consequences of doing so will maximize well-being, a deontologist to the fact that, in doing so the agent will be acting in accordance with a moral rule such as “Do unto others as you would be done by” and a virtue ethicist to the fact that helping the person would be charitable or benevolent."
Don't forget that there are still people living in terrible poverty, people imprisoned unjustly and slaves in every "first world" country. Equally there are people who are extremely wealthy and people above the law in every "third world" country :-)
Eh, at least people in the third world have a better future to look forward to. In the first world you can expect decades of watching your country crumble, wondering if you'll be blessed with death before it gets too bad.
That's why it's important to be humble. If you're not you can still go in those third world country and accomplish things.
It's entirely natural for first world countries to "get worse" as the rest of the world improves.
Although such a response is understandable, it's also very counterproductive. Give it 300 years and all nations will be facing these "first world"-problems.
We should not be sweeping these problems under the rug, but try our best to solve them for everyone.
Saying someone shouldn't be unhappy because there others who have it worse is a bit like saying someone shouldn't be happy because there are others who have it better.
"...once you stop setting yourself impossible goals, lead a simple life, find humility, have a minimum amount of discipline, you won't be so unhappy."
"I read so many people on facebook quoting weird happiness, meditation stuff that makes no sense at all to me."
I think if you looked into it a bit more, you might discover these two statements are contradictory.
As George Bernard Shaw said, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
I accept my unhappiness as the price of striving to be the best I can be, however little that might amount to. Anything less is a waste of my one and only chance (i.e. an all too brief existence) to make a difference in this world.
What purpose and justification could there possibly be in "stop setting yourself impossible goals, lead a simple life, find humility", etc., as the original poster writes? That's just trying to put a good face on defeatism using flowery language. If that works for people, more power to them, but let's not pretend it's something that it isn't.
He's woefully underappreciated outside of Italy, despite being highly influential on the likes of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.
Check out his Essays and Dialogues.[2]
It's no wonder he's a bit underrated though--this edition of Zilbadone is the first complete translation in English... and it was published in 2013! I think there were some prior translations, but generally Leopardi seems unrepresented in the English speaking sphere.
I'm excited to dig in once I finish up some other books.
It's a bit hard to read. Start here: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/old-testament-of-th...