Happiness

[Cormac]

Stuff the flip flops.

It's winter here, and I run around in bare feet. This morning, I walked down to the sea in bare feet with my darling wife, and splashed around like a small child. At age 64, I still love it!

[Robert_S]

Reading all this returns me to my though that to attain bliss one must achieve total ignorance. Children tend to be happier than adults, poor people tend to be happier than those in rich complex societies.

Not sure if you're (seriously?) equating poverty with ignorance?

I think simplicity may be a factor here, too. And the perception of the gap between the haves and the have nots.

no I wasn't equating them at all. I was saying that in the thread the two common claims were that simple people and poor people tend to be happier.

Or at least look happier. You see, a rich, powerful or pretty person can afford to be moody, if you're lower down on the status chain, you're more dependent on other people's good will, which extends more readily to cheerful people.

It also deflects suspicion of revolutionary tendencies.

[Sean Hayden]

[JimC]

I think you nailed it, Psycho. Being able and willing to look deeply inside, so to speak, is crucial, in my experience. I've long been puzzled why so many people I know get morose and fatalistic when they turn their gaze inward. It's like they're not comfortable being who they are, but are afraid to try to understand it so that they might be able to do something about it.

For me, it tends to be "resigned and numb" rather than morose...

Fractionally better, perhaps...