Why is there little happiness and why is sorrow so great?

11 comments

1. Because that’s how you view the world

2. Good times aren’t good unless you have bad experiences to contrast them with.

3. Because your entire time on this planet boils down to 3 emotions… fear, sadness, and happiness… 2 are negative and easy to stay in, 1 is positive and requires hard work to keep.

4. Read some Schopenhauer (who was heavily influenced by Buddhism). In a nutshell, Schopenhauer argues that life is suffering, all actions we take that derive pleasure or joy are little escapes from the suffering of life but end up causing us to suffer greater because we desire those escapes more and more. Once we eliminate our desire (or “will”) to escape suffering and accept it, it becomes less unbearable and through mindfulness and humbler pursuits we can live a long, happy, fulfilling life.

   Equip yourself with philosophical disciplines such as Stoicism, which while not holding such a pessimistic view of the world still argues that we should view the world around us through a lens of seeking to understand it and our inner selves and focusing less on the aspects we can’t control and more on those aspects of our lives that we can directly control and instead of wallowing in them, seek to change them.

   And finally, top it off with Nietzsche, who delivers us tools in the form of self betterment for the pursuit of becoming the greatest of men.

   The world is only as bleak as we make it out to be.

5. Possibly because you’re sitting comfortably in a climate controlled room,

   With abundant food and clean drinking water available…

   With the sum total of thousands of years of human knowledge just a few clicks away….

   With no natural predators, save your own sloth and gluttony…

   Consequently, you lack any sense of perspective on the subject of sorrow.

6. Because God is a cruel bastard who is okay with children who suffer.

7. Central Banking Cartels

8. So that you can cherish the good times.

9. Survival. Brain uses bad things to survive over good things. Avoiding something bad is more important than remembering good.

10. Unrealistic expectations

11. Make happiness greater. If you focus on despair, that’s all you’re going to find.