RE: Cynical view of happiness.
July 8, 2016 at 9:19 am
(This post was last modified: July 8, 2016 at 9:26 am by paulpablo.)
(July 8, 2016 at 8:18 am)SteveII Wrote:(July 8, 2016 at 8:08 am)paulpablo Wrote: Being in pain can definitely affect my happiness.
That makes sense in a biological evolutionary way, physical pain is your body's way of saying I'm going to send this feeling of severe discomfort to you so that you don't do that again.
I'm not saying people in pain can't laugh or be happy but it has a definite affect on your happiness without doubt.
If being in pain caused no discomfort and was easily ignored to the point of easily feeling contentment and well being while being burned that would be dangerous for the human body.
Say if you were to do a poll of the the happiness of every person who was on the rack (old english torture device) I think all of them would be unhappy, pretty much purely because of the pain of being stretched til you hear your tendons snap, or maybe it's the muscle or bone that snaps first I can't remember.
You can be in constant pain (say from an ailment) and still choose to be content and therefore happy. So I still think pain (or lack thereof) is not a component to happiness, contentment is.
I previously said I'm not arguing that all pain completely overrides happiness.
I'm arguing that outside stimulus, including pain, CAN override a persons choice of being content, happy, state of well being.
So to say "Your immediate reaction to getting punched in the face would not have bearing on your overall happiness or contentment. Being in pain has nothing to do with it."
Regarding the "Pain is nothing to do with it" part, I think is wrong. I think pain is an outside stimulus that CAN have everything to do with a persons happiness.
I've taken ecstasy before, and from my experience it's quite difficult to choose to be sad while the drug is taking its effect on the dopamine and serotonin levels of the brain. I imagine if you win the lottery while having an orgasm, while on this drug, it would be nearly impossible to choose to be feeling a bit down (unless other outside stimulus was in effect)
At the other end of the spectrum I imagine it's difficult, maybe even impossible, to choose to feel content while having your flesh burned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__5WX9s8W9g
Unless you're British. ( I saw this on one of Rob Values posts and needed an excuse to post this one up again)
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
