So basically this? (Destiny)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Friday, August 14, 2015, 17:24 (3387 days ago) @ Cody Miller

:)

If you're referring to the "everything is awesome and nobody is happy" joke that he does, I actually disagree with the premise on a fundamental level. Being unhappy with the Status Quo, working to fix that, and implementing something new is how you get a better future. He used the example of people complaining about flying. Back in the day, you had to take an Ox cart, and it took you two months to go from coast to coast. But see, that was better than walking. If he were alive back then and said that the Ox carriage is amazing because it beats walking, and you can't complain about it, we'd have no cars or airplanes today! Everybody would be just happy with their Oxen.

Yes, phones are amazing, but the bad ones don't scroll right away when you swipe them and are slow, wasting your time. It's better than going to the library, but you know what's even better? A phone that is responsive :-)

Interestingly, happiness seems to be relative as well. People are more unhappy when there are bigger differences between them and their neighbors. Even though the poor in this country have it way better than the poor in Bangladesh, they are basically just as happy. Louie's mistake is thinking happiness is on an absolute scale.

Point taken, except that I disagree that he's thinking happiness is on a absolute scale--precisely the opposite. Much of happiness is about having perspective, and that's what he's talking about. It's no injunction against improving the status quo to recognize what's amazing about it. If you can't do that right at this moment, then you never can because there's always this imagined ideal against which your reality sucks.

I also think there's great wisdom in recognizing that they thing we're complaining about is often not the source of our complaint. How many arguments between couples are about the thing that's really bothering them? With work you can figure out what the real problem is, but it's not a given that not unloading the dishwasher is the real cause of the divorce.