Author Topic: The Happiness Fantasy  (Read 2298 times)

Slee_stack

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 876
The Happiness Fantasy
« on: October 31, 2018, 02:21:37 PM »

diapasoun

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4426
  • Location: California
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #1 on: October 31, 2018, 03:30:44 PM »
I am gonna read the hell out of this. (Just sent that link to a friend, too.)

expatartist

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2270
  • Location: Hong Kong/Paris
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2018, 09:20:14 PM »
Brilliant link, thank you. A couple of very good points like the divorce of Eastern spiritual practices from their roots. Urban Asia is struggling with the same issues. There's a lot of mobility and loneliness in the cities: people leave home and community to move for opportunity, but life can be isolating unless you make real efforts to connect.

John Galt incarnate!

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2038
  • Location: On Cloud Nine
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2018, 04:22:29 PM »
life can be isolating unless you make real efforts to connect.

Yes and no.

In the age of the internet, information science, etc. one can live at a remove yet still be "plugged in."

pecunia

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2840
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2018, 05:34:36 PM »
I like the discussion about the advertisers.  We don't realize how manipulated we are.  Turn off the TV sometime and watch the ads with the sound off.  Wait for one of those drug commercials.  See all of the smiling faces moving in slow motion within beautiful sunlit natural settings.  Happiness is being promised by their products.  They are like a dance that draws you in.  There is never any dead air time for one to think.  If the sound comes back on, you will hear the phrase, "Ask your doctor."

I'll bet a lot of people ask for those drugs without even having the disease they are meant to alleviate.

Happiness comes from good experiences with others.  These ads promise that experience.

BicycleB

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5263
  • Location: Coolest Neighborhood on Earth, They Say
  • Older than the internet, but not wiser... yet
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2018, 08:59:47 PM »
Wow, very thought provoking.

MasterStache

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 2912
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2018, 06:10:30 AM »
Thanks for sharing. Going to add to my "must read" list.

Schaefer Light

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1328
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #7 on: November 12, 2018, 09:57:12 AM »
I like the discussion about the advertisers.  We don't realize how manipulated we are.  Turn off the TV sometime and watch the ads with the sound off.  Wait for one of those drug commercials.  See all of the smiling faces moving in slow motion within beautiful sunlit natural settings.  Happiness is being promised by their products.  They are like a dance that draws you in.  There is never any dead air time for one to think.  If the sound comes back on, you will hear the phrase, "Ask your doctor."

I'll bet a lot of people ask for those drugs without even having the disease they are meant to alleviate.

Happiness comes from good experiences with others.  These ads promise that experience.
The beer and liquor commercials are exactly the same.  And you don't need a prescription to buy alcohol ;).

Mississippi Mudstache

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2170
  • Age: 40
  • Location: Danielsville, GA
    • A Riving Home - Ramblings of a Recusant Woodworker
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #8 on: November 12, 2018, 10:27:02 AM »
Thanks for pointing this book out. I haven't done any serious reading in a while. Might have to correct that oversight.

Kl285528

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 183
Re: The Happiness Fantasy
« Reply #9 on: November 12, 2018, 11:18:03 AM »
Great article. Couldn’t help but notice all of the Calvin Klein ads scattered around the page!

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!