November 23, 2006
doug karr’s happiness manifesto
[Douglas Karr writes this lovely manifesto about happiness:]
Our culture is inundated with messages that lead us down a path of self-destruction. Happiness is equated with things we do not have… cars, money, 6-pack abs, awards, lifestyles, or even just a soda. Knowledge is equated with wealth, albeit accumulated or inherited. This is the disease of our culture, assuring us that we are never smart enough, never wealthy enough, never have enough.
The media entertains us with stories of wealth, sex, crime, and power – all things things that may hurt us or others when taken in excess. Our government even participates in the misdirection, tantalizing us with lotteries. Every marketing message and every commercial is the same, “You will be happy when…”
We are not happy with our spouses, so we get divorced. We’re not happy with our homes, so we relocate our families and buy bigger until we can’t afford them. We shop until our credit is used up and we go bankrupt. We are not happy with our jobs, so we join in hurtful politics to try to accelerate our promotions. We’re not happy with our employees so we hire new ones. We’re not happy with our profits, so we let faithful employees go.
We are a culture of individuals who are told that hording is the best path to happiness. The grass is always greener – the next girlfriend, the next home, the next city, the next job, the next drink, the next election, the next, next, next… We are never taught to be happy with what we have now. We must have it, and have it now. That’s when we’ll be happy.
Since it’s only possible for the selected few to have it all, the bar is always higher than we can reach. We can never achieve happiness as defined by our culture. How do we cope? We medicate. Illicit drugs, alcohol, prescription medications, tobacco are all necessary and popular since they take the edge off of our unfulfilling lives.
In truth, we are on top of the world. We are the leaders with everything element of success that a culture is measured against. We have the mightiest armies, the most fantastic natural resources, the greatest economy, and the most amazing people.
Yet, we are not happy.
Don’t rely on anyone or anything outside your own self to drive your happiness. It is up to no one but yours. When you own your happiness, no one can steal it, no one can buy it, and you don’t have to look elsewhere to find it.
God bless you and yours this fantastic Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is 1 day out of a year. Perhaps we should have ‘Self-giving’ and reverse our calendar. Let us spend the rest of the year being happy with what we have and one day spoiling ourselves with what we don’t have. Let us be happy with our family, our children, our home, our job, our country and our lives.
You’ll be happy when… you find happiness in yourselves.
Thanks, Doug! Good topic for Thanksgiving etc.
[gapingvoid manifesto submission guidelines are here.][Manifesto archive is here.]
Thank-you, Hugh! And thanks so much for posting this, wow!!!
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I see one typo and am sure there are a few grammatical errors… but I’m happy with it
I’m a huge fan.
An equation for happiness:
Happiness = (Actual demands being met) / Expectations
From the above, you can see that it’s easier to become happier by expecting nothing (an happiness goes all the way to infinity) rather than accumulating more and more material things
Although I would not regard myself as religious, over the last few years I have found the “Serenity Prayer” a useful set of rules for approaching many situations:
“God grant me the serenity to
Accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And the Wisdom to know the difference”.
The first step toward happiness is to cease and desist intake of mainstream media. Another step was to allow myself to buy anything I wanted so long as it was a tool toward manifesting art. Ah. Life is pretty good these days.