Happiness

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.