posted
I just ad athought. I know that most people would agree in that there is so little happiness left in this world. I was just wondering if there would be enough to go around. Aren't we humans just too many for this planet?
Posts: 3389 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote: I know that most people would agree in that there is so little happiness left in this world.
Hmmm. I don't know most people would agree to that. I wouldn't agree to it. Yes, there are too many people living lives without what we would consider basic necessaties, and also too many in down-right crappy conditions. But I think you under-estimate the human capacity for joy. And, it's pretty presumptuous to think that people can't be happy, or even can't be as happy, in less-than-ideal conditions.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I disagree with that, what information do you have to show the world was so much happier 100, 200, 300 plus years ago. I'm rather sure our middle class of today are much happier than the majority of the landless peasantry of the middle ages. Even in the times of the Romans you really weren't much of a person if you didn't own land.
That and to be honest people seem to focus so much on the negativity, a thousand good acts are overlooked for a single evil one. Tragedy is much better at grabbing headlines.
What would you think of a life where half your children were fated to die, and most to die once they hit 20. Where people feared a great many things, and did not really understand what happened to them. To times of neverending conflict and always worrying if some rival nation would take over and decide that your ethnicity wasn't required anymore. Sure these things do still happen in our world today but not nearly as often as they once did.
I look at the world much more optimistically today than a did a few short years ago. yes there are always things to improve on, but from my knowledge of history and the world it is better today than yesterday.
Posts: 1753 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
Plus, I think anytime you use the phrase "I know that most people would agree..." you're just asking for it. Not only can you not possibly know such a thing, it just focuses people's attention on if they agree with that statement or not rather than what they think of the idea that follows.
For instance, I agree that there are too many people in the world. Not because I think that there's not enough happiness to go around, that's a point I've never thought to consider. But because I believe in moderation and balance in all things, and I think our population is slipping (charging) out of moderation and balance. That's one of the reasons I've chosen to voluntarily and purposefully not procreate.
But since I didn't agree with your initial statement, my first impluse was to refute that rather than consider your question. Which, upon consideration, I don't agree with either. I think there are too many humans for humanity... not for the planet. The planet won't really care if we get over-populated. We probably will, though.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Some of us get happier when there are more people around. Hey, there's always someone who hasn't heard my favorite joke yet...right? So, it just might be that a world with more humans in it creates even more happiness than a world with relatively few humans in it.
but, of course, we should also discuss the definition of happiness.
posted
I don't agree, because I think the underlying premise is absurd. Happiness is not some resource like fossil fuel that we can use up or run out of. Happiness is a state of mind. It does not "go around" at all; we all make our own happiness.
You could say it "goes around" in the sense of one person making another person happy. But does the first person then lose their own happiness, or a portion of it? Do you reduce your own happiness by making other people happy? Do you then have to go find a new source to replenish your happiness?
Supply and distribution of happiness are not issues. There is nothing to run out of.
And no, there aren't too many humans for the planet. The planet can handle it. We may lead ourselves to ruin through overpopulation. As I, in fact, believe we are. I think overpopulation--or to be more precise, overcrowding--is the root cause of most of humanity's problems. But the planet won't care. The planet will survive just fine whether we do or not.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I agree with VtY - we do make our own happiness. It's one of those Gifts or Miracles - that we *can* be happy even in horrible circumstances.
Posts: 54 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote: Do you reduce your own happiness by making other people happy?
Going along with that question, I always figured happiness was one of those rare things that increased for yourself the more you gave it away. [/Hallmark statement]
Posts: 378 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I think there are too many humans for humanity... not for the planet. The planet won't really care if we get over-populated. We probably will, though.
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