Happiness, as we would like to believe should be within reach. It should be attainable and not a distant dream. And it should be equitable. Joy isn't something that can be bought, earned, gained, manipulated or traded. It is fairly distributed, unlike some other valuables of life. It's something fleeting though it seems, it's difficult to hold on to. Or so have we have been led to believe.
However, whenever I am with my 4 year old cousin, I meet with an exception. She is always happy! Simply because she always does what she feels like, you can threaten her, tell her fake ghost stories to scare her off, scold her etc, but she is incorrigible. She can't be bought off because you can't offer her anything she would trade her freedom for. Well, ok I can give her a chocolate bar every 5 minutes to make her keep quite but sometimes she just forgets our deal in 2 minutes and go right back to what she loves doing.
I believe her happiness comes from ignorance and lack of interaction with our society, mostly due to the communication gap we have. But apart from that she has no bank loans to repay, no elaborate sense of morality, no sense of overwhelming responsibility for her family, no burden of taking the name of her ancestors to new heights, no peers and classmates to compete against and feel superior of, no neighbors to show her new car off too... She doesn't want anything complicated from the world, and what she does want, she refuses to acknowledge its worth. She just 'acts' ignorant. Ignorance indeed must be bliss!
So what am I saying here? Can one be happy right now, no awaiting to meet the soul-mate, no death to pass through before one reaches heaven or hell, no successful accomplishments of projects, no financial goals to be met by the time we retire? Is my cousin really happy? Is ignorance really bliss? How do I now get ignorant that I have already been institutionalized in to living by the norms of our society? Was I born happy and now somehow lost it? Was it my fault if I lost it or did someone take it away from me? Why?
Can Joy last forever? And what does one do if one is happy right now irrespective of age, money and morals? That should be condemned, for then one would have no limitations! Why would such a person work hard in the fields, or fear the law, believe in God or even fear death? How would we deal with such a person? For he would just do what makes him happy not try to provide his best for the society's welfare, or be a God-fearing modest being, he wouldn't make any compromises to please people, he would not seek praise or be afraid of denial. Such a person would be in effect no good to anyone but himself!
By that definition every child including my cousin is an outlaw. They are anti-social, they don't give a damn about who says or thinks what, they live in their world happily and seem to be quite proud of it. They must be educated. Forced to go to schools for so long and so aimlessly that they forget the things that once brought them joy. Lost in the burdens of homework, and monthly tests they lose the sense of joy. Thankfully for the society, in almost all cases we eventually are able to take away their joy, make them like us, joyless.
Which brings us to the root of the conceptions about happiness! A happy, self content person is out of the control of society. He doesn't seek advise, approval, praise and doesn't fear rejection, judgement, wrath and denial. He is just indifferent so to say to opinion of society. Not of individuals but of the society. There is a difference. Individuals like happy people, they inspire them. Society fears them, they inspire others to seek happiness too.
This notion questions the fundamental fabric of society. That to live in harmony we must make sacrifices. That we must understand and try to be understood. We must seek approval for our deepest convictions, and take permissions from society to live our lives as we wish to.
However, whenever I am with my 4 year old cousin, I meet with an exception. She is always happy! Simply because she always does what she feels like, you can threaten her, tell her fake ghost stories to scare her off, scold her etc, but she is incorrigible. She can't be bought off because you can't offer her anything she would trade her freedom for. Well, ok I can give her a chocolate bar every 5 minutes to make her keep quite but sometimes she just forgets our deal in 2 minutes and go right back to what she loves doing.
I believe her happiness comes from ignorance and lack of interaction with our society, mostly due to the communication gap we have. But apart from that she has no bank loans to repay, no elaborate sense of morality, no sense of overwhelming responsibility for her family, no burden of taking the name of her ancestors to new heights, no peers and classmates to compete against and feel superior of, no neighbors to show her new car off too... She doesn't want anything complicated from the world, and what she does want, she refuses to acknowledge its worth. She just 'acts' ignorant. Ignorance indeed must be bliss!
So what am I saying here? Can one be happy right now, no awaiting to meet the soul-mate, no death to pass through before one reaches heaven or hell, no successful accomplishments of projects, no financial goals to be met by the time we retire? Is my cousin really happy? Is ignorance really bliss? How do I now get ignorant that I have already been institutionalized in to living by the norms of our society? Was I born happy and now somehow lost it? Was it my fault if I lost it or did someone take it away from me? Why?
Can Joy last forever? And what does one do if one is happy right now irrespective of age, money and morals? That should be condemned, for then one would have no limitations! Why would such a person work hard in the fields, or fear the law, believe in God or even fear death? How would we deal with such a person? For he would just do what makes him happy not try to provide his best for the society's welfare, or be a God-fearing modest being, he wouldn't make any compromises to please people, he would not seek praise or be afraid of denial. Such a person would be in effect no good to anyone but himself!
By that definition every child including my cousin is an outlaw. They are anti-social, they don't give a damn about who says or thinks what, they live in their world happily and seem to be quite proud of it. They must be educated. Forced to go to schools for so long and so aimlessly that they forget the things that once brought them joy. Lost in the burdens of homework, and monthly tests they lose the sense of joy. Thankfully for the society, in almost all cases we eventually are able to take away their joy, make them like us, joyless.
Which brings us to the root of the conceptions about happiness! A happy, self content person is out of the control of society. He doesn't seek advise, approval, praise and doesn't fear rejection, judgement, wrath and denial. He is just indifferent so to say to opinion of society. Not of individuals but of the society. There is a difference. Individuals like happy people, they inspire them. Society fears them, they inspire others to seek happiness too.
This notion questions the fundamental fabric of society. That to live in harmony we must make sacrifices. That we must understand and try to be understood. We must seek approval for our deepest convictions, and take permissions from society to live our lives as we wish to.
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