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Comment by ramesh31 | Hacker News Reader

Paradoxically there has never been another moment in all of human history greater than right now for an individual to seek their own happiness. A lot of this just comes down to comparison. We see wealth and excess as the norm to strive toward now, and that anything less is considered failure. There is no "honor in the struggle" anymore. It's just "Why don't I have that thing already? My life sucks".

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> There is no "honor in the struggle" anymore.

I’m not sure this is true. From my point of view, struggle is valued no less than it ever was, at least when it’s clear there will be a payoff at the end. Struggling to chase a carrot on a stick that can never be caught isn’t admirable, it’s a waste.

Nah, I really don't think so. There were periods of economic booms and less inequality, those gave people more margin for error.

I am not sure it is really a paradox though.

It is straight from Buddhist text that the desire for things that are not easy to get leads to misery.

It isn't a paradox that a culture predicated on the idea that happiness comes from the acquisition of things that are hard to get would find itself producing misery if Buddhist text are correct. That is exactly what they say will happen.

What if your own happiness is contingent on the well-being of the planet and the other life here, which we are rapidly extinguishing? For people who are not soulless, wealth-chasing imbeciles there is no possibility of finding happiness. Soon though these same forces of human nature that are destroying our environment will come back to kill all of us, and that is the only silver lining!

yep, definitely no middle ground between “happiness contingent on the well-being of the planet and other life” and “soulless wealth-chasing imbecile”

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