Chapter 11 Chapter Ten Is Happiness Possible?

Now that we have had ample discussion of unhappy people, we now turn to the interesting topic of happy people.From the statements and writings of some of my friends, I am almost on the verge of drawing the following conclusion: Happiness, in the modern world, is impossible.However, through reflection, travel to foreign countries, and conversations with my gardener, I have found that this view has been dispelled without a trace.In previous chapters I have dealt with the misfortune of my friends; in this chapter I want to examine the happy people I have met in my life. There are two kinds of happiness, of course, there are many levels in between.The two classes I speak of may also be called the real and the fantasy, or the physical and the spiritual, or the emotional and the intellectual.Of course, the choice of an appropriate name among these different names depends mainly on the argument, and here I do not intend to prove any arguments, but only to describe.Perhaps the easiest way to describe the difference between these two kinds of happiness is that one kind is open to all people, and the other kind is fond of those who can read and write.When I was a little boy, I knew a well-digger, and there was a lot of happiness in him.He was extremely tall and muscular, but he could neither read nor write.When he got a vote for Congress in 1885, he knew for the first time that such an institution existed, and that his happiness was not based on knowledge, nor on the law of nature, the perfection of species, or public ownership of public facilities.The ultimate victory of the Adventist, or whatever creed the intellectual considers essential to the joys of life, rests only on physical vigor, sufficient labor, and the subjugation of such obstacles as stones, which are not insurmountable.My gardener's happiness was of the same type as his, who fought hares all year round, and he spoke of these little creatures as the Metropolitan Police spoke of the Bolsheviks; Brutal, and only an equally astute opponent can stand against them.Like the four gates of heroes who gathered in the halls of Valhalla, they hunted every day a wild boar, which they killed every night, but strangely came back to life the next morning.My gardener can also slay its deadly enemies without worrying about the dead coming back to life the next day.Although the gardener is more than 70 years old, the ground never stops. In order to work, he has to ride a bicycle 16 miles up the mountain road every day, but the fountain of joy is inexhaustible. From "Those Rabbits".

You may say that readers like us cannot experience this kind of pure happiness; if we wage war against animals as small as rabbits, what happiness can we experience from it?It seems to me that this view is superficial.A rabbit is much larger than a yellow fever bacillus, yet a man of knowledge can derive pleasure from wrestling with the latter.As regards the content of the emotions, the pleasures of the most highly educated do not differ from those experienced by my gardener; the difference made by education is only in the form of the pleasure.The joy of success requires difficulties to follow, and even if such difficulties are overcome in the end, it must make success uncertain at the beginning.This may be why not overestimating one's abilities is one of the sources of happiness.The person with a low self-esteem is constantly surprised by his successes, whereas the person with a high self-esteem is often surprised by his failures.The former kind of surprise is delightful, the latter depressing.Therefore, it is wise to neither be conceited for no reason, nor feel inferior, but to be aggressive.There is no movement.

Among the more highly educated members of society, the happiest are now the scientists.Many of the most eminent among them are unsophisticated in their sentiments, and they derive from their work a satisfaction so profound that eating and marrying are unspeakable pleasures to them, Artists and literati regard the scowls of their married lives as a matter of decency, while scientists often enjoy this ancient family joy to the fullest, because the higher parts of their intellect are entirely occupied by their work. Occupying, without allowing intrusions into spheres of their own incapacity, they are happy in their work, for in this day and age science is developing so rapidly and so powerfully; not be suspected by outsiders.Therefore, there is no need for them to have complex emotions, because simple emotions have no resistance.Complicated emotions are like the foam on a river; when a smooth flowing river encounters an obstacle, it produces foam.As long as the vigorous current is not hindered, it has no small waves, and the careless are often blind to its hidden power.

In the life of the scientist all the conditions for happiness are fulfilled.He has an activity in which he can fully demonstrate his abilities, and he achieves achievements that are important both to himself and to the general public, who sometimes do not even understand them.In this, he is luckier than the artist.When the public cannot understand a painting or a poem, their conclusions are often: this is a bad painting or this is a bad poem.When they couldn't understand relativity, they all concluded (with good reason) that they were not educated enough.The result is: Einstein is admired, but the painter is hungry in the attic, Einstein is happy, but the painter is not happy.Against public skepticism with consistent self-doubt, few are truly happy in this life, unless they can shut themselves up in an exclusive circle and forget the indifferent world outside.Scientists, on the other hand, do not need a small circle because they are valued by everyone except their colleagues.The artist, on the other hand, is in the miserable situation of choosing to be despised, or to be a scoundrel.If the artist has an astonishing talent, then he is bound to be doomed either way: if he uses his talent, the outcome is the former; if he hides it, the outcome is the latter.Of course that's not always the case.There was a time when good artists were respected even at a young age.Although Jules II may have been unfair to Michelangelo, he never belittled Michelangelo's painting talent.The modern millionaire who can give millions of dollars to an old artist whose talent is exhausted will never consider that the artist's activities are as important as his own. Perhaps these circumstances have something to do with the fact that, in general, Arguably, artists are less happy than scientists.

It must, I think, be admitted that many young men of the intelligentsia in Western countries are increasingly unhappy at finding no suitable employment for their talents, which, however, is not the case in Eastern countries.Nowadays, young people in other parts of the world are probably not as happy as the educated youths in the Soviet Union. The young people in the Soviet Union want to build a brand new world, so they have a corresponding fervent belief. Some were starved, some were exiled, some were purged, so that they could not force young people to choose only between doing evil or doing nothing, as in all Western countries .To educated Westerners, the beliefs of the Soviet youth may be ruthless, but what else can they object to beliefs?These young men were indeed building a new world, a world that fit people's will, and which, when built, would almost certainly make the average Soviet man much happier than he had been before the revolution.This world may not be suitable for educated Western intellectuals to live in, but they don't have to live there.Thus, judging from every practical point of view, the beliefs of the Soviet youth are well-founded, and apart from any criticism based on theory, the condemnation of this belief-saying that it is inhumane- It makes no sense.

In India, China, and Japan, external political circumstances disturbed the well-being of young intellectuals, but there were no internal obstacles as in Western countries.Many activities are extremely important to young people, and if such activities are successful, then young people will be happy.They feel that they have a decisive role in the life of the country and the nation, and they have a goal that they have been dreaming of day and night-although the realization of this goal faces many difficulties, it is not impossible; while young people with higher education in the West , in daily life, often show a cynical attitude, this attitude is a combination of ease and weakness, weakness makes people feel that all the busy work is not worthwhile, and ease makes this painful feeling acceptable. tolerate.Throughout the East; college students can hope to have a great influence on public opinion which is impossible in the West.However, Eastern college students have far fewer opportunities to make a fortune than Western college students.It is precisely because he is neither weak nor restless that he is a reformer or a revolutionist, and not a cynic, whose happiness depends on the public good, and who, even in the face of death, is perhaps better than the cynic. More people enjoy more happiness, and it is real.I remember a young Chinese who came to our school as a guest and planned to go back and establish a school similar to ours in the area of ​​the reactionary forces.And while his head might drop as a result of doing so, he was so peaceful and happy that I couldn't but secretly admire him.

I do not, however, claim that only such mundane happiness is possible.In fact, only a few people can have them, because they require a highly unusual ability and a wide range of interests.It is not only great scientists who take pleasure in what they do, nor only great politicians who take pleasure in the causes they preach.The joy of work is open to every man of exceptional ability, so long as he derives satisfaction from the application of his skill, and does not claim the admiration of the world.I once knew a man who was disabled in both legs when he was a teenager. In the long years that followed, he was very peaceful and happy.The reason he was so happy was that he had written a five-volume treatise on the blight of roses.In my opinion, he is the first-rate expert in this field.I don't have access to a whole host of conchologists, but from those who do, I know that the study of shells does bring happiness to those who enjoy it.I also know one of the finest typographers in the world, who is a role model for all those who aspire to innovate typefaces.But the esteem of those who are reputed to him does not give him as much pleasure as the real pleasure he derives from the exercise of his technique--a pleasure roughly equal to that which a good dancer derives from dancing.I have known other typesetters, too, who could type mathematical letters, Nestorian manuscripts, cuneiform, or any remote and difficult script.I have not specifically studied and examined whether these people are happy in their private lives, but I believe that their constructive instincts are fully satisfied during their working hours.

People are used to thinking that in our machine age, skilled work offers less pleasure than in the manual age of yesteryear.I don't believe this is true at all.It is true that today the skilled worker is engaged in a very different kind of work from the activities that attracted the guilds of the Middle Ages, but in the machine economy he is still vital and indispensable.Those who make scientific instruments and precision machines, those designers, those aircraft engineers, drivers, and many others, still have a profession in which skills can be developed almost infinitely.As far as I have observed in the past, in relatively backward areas, agricultural workers and farmers are not as happy as car or train drivers. Farmers who work on their own land sometimes plow, sometimes sow, and sometimes harvest. This kind of work is indeed colorful, but It was a matter of God's will, and these peasants were sure of it.However, for the man who makes modern machinery, he can realize his own power, and he can feel that human beings are the masters of nature, not slaves.Of course, this kind of work is extremely tedious for those who merely tend the machines, since they mechanically repeat the same operations with little variation.And the more tedious the job, the more likely they are to let the machines do the work.The ultimate aim of machine production-and indeed we are far from reaching this stage-is to establish a system in which machines do all the boring work and humans do the varied and creative work.In such a world, work would be less tedious and less oppressive than it was in the days of agriculture.Since the beginning of agriculture, human beings have become accustomed to a dull life in order to get rid of the threat of starvation.When people relied on hunting for food, work became a pleasure.It is not difficult to find proof of this in the fact that the wealthy still take pleasure in these ancestral occupations.But since the introduction of agriculture the human race has entered a long period of dullness, melancholy, and insane stupidity, until today we have been liberated by the beneficial operation of machinery, of course sentimentalists can talk about something The intimate relationship with the soil, the sophistication and wisdom of the sophisticated farmers described by Hardy, etc., but one of the wishes of every rural youth is to get rid of the slavery and lonely nights that are willing to endure wind, rain, drought and flood.They went to the city to find work, because the atmosphere in the factories and movie theaters was down-to-earth and intimate.The basic ingredients of the common man's happiness consist of friendship and co-operation, and men get more of them from industry than from agriculture.

For most people, belief in a career is one of the sources of happiness.I am not thinking only of revolutionaries, socialists, nationalists, and the like in other oppressed countries, but of many lesser beliefs.Those I know who believe that England is descended from ten lost tribes are almost always happy, and those who believe that England is only the tribes of Efrem and Manasse are equally happy.However, I do not wish the reader to believe in this, because I would not advocate any happiness which seems to me to be based on a false belief, and for the same reason I would not encourage the reader to believe that one should rely only on Love of life, though it seems to me that this belief always brings perfect happiness to people, it is easy to find things that are not fanciful, and those who are really interested in this matter, in their leisure time. Time also has a kind of satisfaction, which can relieve the feeling of emptiness in life.

The closest thing to devotion to a common cause is the indulging in a hobby, and one of the most eminent mathematicians alive divided his time evenly between mathematics and stamp collecting.I thought the latter part might serve as a consolation when he didn't make progress in the first part.Of course, the difficulty of proving propositions in mathematical theories cannot be solved by collecting stamps, and stamps are not the only items that can be collected. Just imagine the realm shown by ancient porcelain, snuff boxes, Roman coins, arrow clusters and stone tools. How ecstatic and delightful does it make you?But many of us are noncommittal about these simple, mundane pleasures.Having experienced them as children, we all later, for some reason, thought they were irrelevant to one's maturity, which could not be further from the truth.I believe that any happiness and joy that does not cause harm to others should be cherished.For my part, I collect rivers: I take pleasure in going down the Volga, up the Yangtze, and have always regretted not seeing the Amazon and the Orinoco.These feelings are very simple, but I am not ashamed of them.Let's look again at the high-pitched joy of a baseball fan.The passionate and greedy eyes of these baseball fans are watching the newspapers in their hands, and the radio station is broadcasting the exciting scene.I know a first-rate American writer, his works used to give me the impression of extreme melancholy, but since we met for the first time, the result is different, I remember when the radio station was reporting a life-and-death incident At the end of the baseball game, the writer forgot me, literature, and all the troubles of worldly life, and he screamed with joy because his favorite team won.From then on, when I read his works, I no longer felt that depressing feeling from the misfortune of the characters in the book.

Yet manias and hobbies, in many cases, perhaps in the vast majority of cases, are not fundamental sources of happiness, but mere escape from reality, mere oblivion of certain moments of excruciating pain and difficulty to face. .Fundamental happiness depends most upon a kind regard for persons and things. Friendly concern for people is a form of affection, but not the greedy, predatory, and obligatory form of reward.The latter is most likely the source of misfortune.The form that brings happiness is the enjoyment of observing people and finding pleasure in their unique personalities, rather than wishing to gain power over them or make them adore themselves.If a man treats others in this manner, he finds a source of happiness and becomes the object of friendship; his relations with others, whether close or distant, bring satisfaction to his interests and affections; He will not be morose over the ingratitude of others, for he expects nothing in return, and will seldom receive it.Feeling rage in another person.The violent nature, for him, becomes a source of pleasure, and he treats them with equanimity.The achievements that others can only achieve through hard work are effortless for him.He is happy, so he will be a pleasant company, which in turn adds much happiness to himself.But all this must come from the heart, from sincerity, and it must not give rise to thoughts of self-sacrifice that spring from a sense of duty.At work, it's bad; people just want to like each other, not to be patient and submissive.To like many people naturally and effortlessly is perhaps the greatest source of personal happiness. In the previous article, I also talked about the so-called friendly care for things.This statement may sound forced; perhaps it should be said that a sense of friendliness towards things is impossible.Nevertheless, there is something akin to friendliness in the interest that geologists have in stones and archaeologists in sites, and this interest should also be a factor in our attitudes towards individuals and societies. May be interested in hostile rather than friendly things.A person who hates spiders may collect data on their habits in order to live where they are less frequented.But this interest can never produce the kind of happiness that the geologist derives from rocks, although the interest shown in inanimate objects is not so much a component of everyday happiness as the friendly attitude towards one's fellow beings. value, but it's still important.The world is vast, but our own strength is limited. If we confine all our happiness within ourselves, it will be very difficult not to ask for more from life, and the result of greed will definitely make us You're not even getting what you deserve.A man who can forget his troubles by virtue of some genuine interest, such as the Trinity Council or the history of the stars, will find himself finding balance and peace when he wanders back into an impersonal world , so that he can use the best method to deal with his troubles, and at the same time get real, even short-term happiness. The secret of happiness is doing: make your interests as broad as possible, and make you as friendly as possible to those people and things you are interested in, rather than hostile. Here I have made a preliminary exploration of the various possibilities of happiness, which will be discussed further in the following chapters, and some suggestions for how to get rid of melancholic peace of mind.