Response to Moewe
Well it's been a while since I read your comment but here's the gist of my response.
You're wrong.
Well not completly, but knowledge is not happiness, it is merely knowledge. Here are a couple of examples.
E.G. 1
Marissa and I were at my dad's house making a lot of noise in the kitchen, just having a gay ol' time. We had inadverdantly woken my stepmother up. Know she knew exactly what was happening, i.e. she had the knowledge. But what to do about it? Now in a sense I guess you could say that this is just more knowledge (the knowledge of what to do to make one most happy, which you would have if you knew everything). But let's restrict this to knowledge that is accesible to humans. She knew what had woken her up. Now she could have been upset (how come these kids wake me up at all hours of the night when they know I have to wake up ealry tomorow etc). She could have come downstairs and told us to be quiet so she could sleep. But she decided to take a more postive spin on it. "I heard you guys laughing downstairs and thought how nice it was that you were in good spirits and so I just put earplugs in and went back to sleep".
E.G. 2 (very similar)
They were doing some landscaping at Marissa's house and there was a ladder that went to the roof. We (bree, marissa and myself) climbed up with some alchohol and walked around the roof. We walked on top of everyone's bedroom. Not the nicest thing to do after midnight. We walked paritcaluarly loudly on Lulu's ceiling (marissa and bree aren't big fans of Lulu). This is of course disturbing, and Lulu knew exactly what was going on. Well I don't know if she knew how bree and marissa feel, but we'll assume that Lulu knew that they had some disrespect for her because they were walking on top of her room. So what does she do? She comes and joins us on the rooftop and has a gay ol' time with us. Good times.
So what do we learn from these examples. It's not just what you know, but how you react to it. And here I have a direct response to you. Happiness is not knowledge (why is depression associated with genius?), even knowing what will make you happy does not make you happy. Doing it does. I am not an idiot, and I think I know how I can make myself happiest. However some of those things will make me unhappy (usually in the short term). Like quiting drinking for example. But happiness is not the knowledge of this, the action of it almost is. The actual feeling is happiness. But this thing I call fulfillment I think is the action. Knowing what to do and doing it, that is fulfillment and that makes you happy.
hopefully I will write more on this later. It makes me happy.
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 |  No, you're wrong
 strfisher
2004-07-01 14:03
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I really should let michael moewe defend himself here, but I would just like to point out the fact that your entry in no way refutes his basic idea. In fact, it supports it to a certain degree. From what you've written I'd say that you don't think michael's idea is wrong, just incomplete. No, knowledge in and of itself does not necessarily bring you happiness. However, knowledge is integral to happiness. You need knowledge in order to know what it is that will bring you happiness. The more knowledge you have, the more likely you will be able to choose the best course of action. Now, you made a good point that simply knowing what will make you happy is not enough, you also need the dicipline and motivation to actually do that which you know will make you happy. But this doesn't mean michael is wrong. Let's look at your examples:
1. Susan: Now, you say that she knew exactly what was going on, she knew we were happy and having a good time and so she acted accordingly. What if she didn't have that knowledge. What if she was woken up and didn't understand what the noise was and didn't know what to do to stop it. Chances are, she would have been a lot less happy because she would be disturbed and not have the knowledge to know what to do about it. Knowledge gave her the ability to act in a way that made her happier.
2. Lulu: ok, before I go into this, can I just say Lulu and Josh? ew. And why u gotta make me look all mean? I wasn't even up there on the roof when u guys were stomping around. That was the night u were all trying to hit on lesbian emily and I was trying to sleep. ass. (See, I have the knowledge of what happened and it enables me to act accordingly - insulting you and pointing our your flawed logic and extremely flawed memory). Anyway, again, did the knowledge of what was happening or what to do make Lulu happy? no. But it did enable her to take action to make herself happier. If she hadn't known what was going on, if she'd only known that there was a loud noise coming from the roof, she would not have been able to take the action to come outside and climb on up.
Finally, I don't entirely agree that the action of doing what you belive will make you happy is fulfillment. Do I feel fulfilled when I devote hrs to studing for finals? Were you fulfilled every time you turned down a drink last yr when you weren't drinking? (and btw, now I feel all bad for aiding and abetting your alcoholism, knowing that you would be happier if you weren't drinking...but I don't think that refusing to let you drink my liquor is going to make me fulfilled). Anyway, I do think that there is something to this idea, I just think that it's incomplete. Now I'm off to write articles because I realize that if I do a decent job here and get a good recomendation and get a good (paying!) job next summer and then get a good actual job the summer after that and start making oodles of money and buy myself love sex drugs jewelry a private jet and my very own island I will be well on my way to happiness. Just kidding. I don't really need the jewelry. (Reply to this) (Thread) |
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