Thoughts
I was thinking about what it meant to live. In a world of utility, joy is a luxury. As long as the society functions, people can be unhappy. Productivity and efficiency measures our progress, our quality of life, at least as a whole. Economics decides what's good for America.
But I'm bothered by this. People say there's more to life than money, deeper "family" values, morality, religion, but economics structures our lives more than these do by themselves. It dictates where we live, where we go to school, what sort of things we can afford, the types of people we generally interact with, what we strive for as a culture, how we measure our status, how we measure our selves.
But to me, that's a shallow way to look at life. Money doesn't teach you to be happy. It's only a means to deeper ends.
Would we really need nice clothes, nice cars, nice nice houses if we truly loved? Would we need to go out and buy new things if we were truly happy? To me, our social addiction to money has transformed the way we see reality. We're all about getting things done and getting noticed, never bothering to look beyond the business at hand and ask why we do it. In most cases, I think it's for happiness and love: we long to belong to someone or something beyond ourselves. We chase belongings, but we long to belong.
Our possessions and opinions condense around our ego like a hard shell. We stay productive, wealthy, and of high status, but love remains as difficult as ever. We're making it harder to be happy in a society addicted to seeking happiness.
To me, life is a song calling us to dance. When we truly open our ears to its harmonies, dance comes natural. It's in our nature. Music is the fabric of our being, that which fully captures humanity at its core, even if we cannot see this core ourselves. Music, not money, is a surer route to happiness.
But I'm bothered by this. People say there's more to life than money, deeper "family" values, morality, religion, but economics structures our lives more than these do by themselves. It dictates where we live, where we go to school, what sort of things we can afford, the types of people we generally interact with, what we strive for as a culture, how we measure our status, how we measure our selves.
But to me, that's a shallow way to look at life. Money doesn't teach you to be happy. It's only a means to deeper ends.
Would we really need nice clothes, nice cars, nice nice houses if we truly loved? Would we need to go out and buy new things if we were truly happy? To me, our social addiction to money has transformed the way we see reality. We're all about getting things done and getting noticed, never bothering to look beyond the business at hand and ask why we do it. In most cases, I think it's for happiness and love: we long to belong to someone or something beyond ourselves. We chase belongings, but we long to belong.
Our possessions and opinions condense around our ego like a hard shell. We stay productive, wealthy, and of high status, but love remains as difficult as ever. We're making it harder to be happy in a society addicted to seeking happiness.
To me, life is a song calling us to dance. When we truly open our ears to its harmonies, dance comes natural. It's in our nature. Music is the fabric of our being, that which fully captures humanity at its core, even if we cannot see this core ourselves. Music, not money, is a surer route to happiness.