Is the Pursuit of Happiness Making Us Miserable?

Wed May 19, 2010 1:49 pm » by **Demobe**

The pursuit of happiness is one of the unalienable rights enshrined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. But is our relentless striving to feel good no matter what actually making us miserable? Would we be better to accept that life comes with good times and bad, and make peace with that? This IQ2 debate, held in Sydney in March 2010, pits those who believe that happiness is a worthwhile goal that can be found in pleasures material and social, against those who hold that people should abandon unrealistic goals and seek quiet comfort within.

Wed May 19, 2010 1:53 pm » by **Drjones**

YES..the PURSUIT itself means that it is something you will forever be CHASING...it seems to be structured around CONSUMING...getting more and more....i say we can be happy right NOW..also happyness for one may not be happyness to another.Why do we need to pursue happyness??..it is not something that can be pursued,it is an internal mechanism...not something you can physically purchase or chase down...is it??

Wed May 19, 2010 2:23 pm » by **Theduck**

Im happy...

Wed May 19, 2010 2:34 pm » by **Drjones**

theduck wrote:Im happy...

But you could be happier?...then when you are happier,you could be happier still... :lol:

Wed May 19, 2010 3:04 pm » by **Theduck**

drjones wrote:
theduck wrote:Im happy...

But you could be happier?...then when you are happier,you could be happier still...

Nah I can get slightly peeved at times but I'm still a happy guy, I realize no matter where I am or what I've got only my mind makes me happy really, why not control my mind instead of it controlling me, realize that we should constantly hone and focus our emotional control to benefit us in life.

Control = Win :lol:

Everyone's different, sometimes the happiest people are the ones not effected by our so called 'advanced' way of life.

Realization is the in word lmao

Wed May 19, 2010 3:38 pm » by **Theduck**

Hope you don't mind, just came across this...

One Peace At A Time

A film about a messed up world… and how we could fix it. Sprinkled with music from Bob Dylan, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and Willie Nelson, One Peace at a Time lyrically weaves a tapestry through 20 countries and is as magical as it is informative. Activist Turk Pipkin (The Sopranos, Nobelity) continues his global journey of knowledge in action with a goal to create a virtual roadmap to a better future by focusing on specific solutions in these troubled times. Join Pipkin as he chronicles the model Indian orphanages of The Miracle Foundation, family planning initiatives with Thailand’s Mechai Viravaidya, Ethiopian water projects with A Glimmer of Hope, and Architecture for Humanity’s global design challenge for communities in need in the Himalayas, the Amazon and the slums of Nairobi. Be part of the solution – One Peace at a Time. With the insights of Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize), Steve Chu (Nobel Prize in Physics and President Obama’s Secretary of Energy) & Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize) with Helene Gayle (CEO of CARE, International) & special appearance by American legend Willie Nelson.

Haven't watched it...trailer

Wed May 19, 2010 9:40 pm » by **Demobe**

thx for the info ducka/dj :flop:

have you also notest when sometimes you have a bad day. like on work. you get only angry customers.
its like sending energy waves and saying today i pist off.crazy

Wed May 19, 2010 10:04 pm » by **Theduck**

Everything comes easier from a state of relaxation

Wed May 19, 2010 10:38 pm » by **Allreadydead**

You can't chase happiness, either your happy with your lot or your not! (Neat bit of poetry!)

Buying loads of things may make you happy in the short term, but material stuff doesn't work for me, it use to when I was younger - Jesus!, I wanted everything in the ad man's wonderful version of life. Then I grew a little wiser - and now after half a century on this planet, I believe I know what true happiness is (for me anyway). It's simple, yet difficult to explain.

So, for example, a real bit of happiness was teaching my young daughter to make sandcastles on the beach - silly, I know, all it cost was a bucket and spade, some time and a little effort.

All one sunny day, we made sandcastles, some collapsed, some got washed away by the tide,but still we made them, sticking bits of shells on them, and digging moats to catch the incoming waves, laughing and chasing about, her little face all smiles as we built them.

Yes, years later, I can sit and smile about our sandcastle adventures, I can feel the sun, smell the sea and feel the warm breezes, just as if it was yesterday. Happiness is where you find it - Sometimes, I look down at my hands and imagine how that wet sand felt.

And I see her smiling face all over again, wide eyed and laughing. Simple happiness, for me anyway at very little cost - and I'm a happy man!

Thu May 20, 2010 4:56 am » by **Adstar**

In this world the pursuit of an idealistic world will always lead to misery because those who go out to pursue it are fallible.

Any perfect system or way of life by necessity needs perfect people to make it work. No such people exist. Therefore all such attempt to create such ends in tragedy and sorrows.

All Praise The Ancient Of Days