My personal opinion of which theory of happiness
would work best in our world today is stoicism. Because there are going to be
hard times and times when you just want to throw in the towel and throw your
hands up into the air and shout, why me!? But stoicism says that we cope with
those hard times and we learn how to still go on with the world, even though it
is not always fun. I felt like when we were talking about all the theories as a
class everyone was trying give the worst possible circumstances for every
theory. But that is the thing with stoicism, your dog could run away, your
husband could cheat on you then leave you, your kids could be addicted to drugs
and alcohol, but you would have learn how to cope and get on with life. The
world isn’t going to slow down because you are having a hard year. S*@% happens
and the only way that we can ever get over the hard times is get by with what
we’ve got.
I think that in the world we live in today, they
would give both of the kids a prize. People these days think that if you
participate then you deserve a prize, which is not the case. If you win then
you deserve the prize. In the sports world at the end of very last game of the
state tournament, both teams do not get the trophy, the team who practices harder
and plays harder in the game wins and gets the trophy. In my grandparent’s
generation that’s how they thought, both parties can’t win. But this generation
has twisted that way of thinking into everybody is a winner. I don’t think we
are as hard on our kids so that’s why everyone expects things that they do not
deserve.
Other than stoicism, the big earnings theory is the
most helpful. If you do charity, you will be blessed. Treat others how you want
to be treated, what goes around comes around, you get the point. The least helpful
theory is hedonism. You can’t treat yourself in one thing all at one time. All
of the examples we came up with as a class, none of them were healthy to over
indulge yourself.
