It's maybe more to do with meaningfulness.
A key part of feeling like you're living a good life is a sense of meaning, that your life is significant.
And meaningfulness comes largely from emotional intensity (positive or negative) combined with the idea that the emotional event is connected to something larger than yourself that you care about (your nation, family, the kingdom of God, the advancement of civilisation, art, defeating the enemy, etc). This is further enhanced by comradeship: intense emotions shared are more meaningful than alone.
Other factors can also affect this (complexity, symbolic resonance, and memorialisation), but the key components of meaningfulness ar experiences of shared emotional intensity connected to a larger narrative.
And which is more likely to generate that: A drama filled life, or a 9-5 office job followed by reality TV? People love drama because they want to feel they are truly alive.
A key part of feeling like you're living a good life is a sense of meaning, that your life is significant.
And meaningfulness comes largely from emotional intensity (positive or negative) combined with the idea that the emotional event is connected to something larger than yourself that you care about (your nation, family, the kingdom of God, the advancement of civilisation, art, defeating the enemy, etc). This is further enhanced by comradeship: intense emotions shared are more meaningful than alone.
Other factors can also affect this (complexity, symbolic resonance, and memorialisation), but the key components of meaningfulness ar experiences of shared emotional intensity connected to a larger narrative.
And which is more likely to generate that: A drama filled life, or a 9-5 office job followed by reality TV? People love drama because they want to feel they are truly alive.
