I did use “pursuit of happiness”, but maybe “pursuit of satisfaction” might be more on point.

Like I said its hard to pin down definition to describe such conditions. In a book I read “The Paradox of choice” it states and I am paraphrasing that the more options a person have the less likely the are able to choose and become satisfied.

Another thing it states for example is when it comes to life-altering decisions, like medical intervention that people don’t want to choose, but that the expert they know let it choose for them.

Because in essence people don’t want to make the wrong choices in life.

By writing it as “Pursuit of Happiness” I tried to separate it from “Happiness” itself. Those who are on pursuit of it, are not necessarily happy or going to be happy. Some throw themselves at it by following the feelings on a whim even. But to no avail.

“Pursuit of happiness? Is simply to be happy. To be loved, yes. But also to be at peace with ones self- To be confident, that you’ve done the best you possibly can. Which does not mean lying to yourself- Perhaps happiness is being honest with yourself and others.”

I agree, but this is how we look at it, Our bar/thresholds are different from others, Our self-control is different than others. There is a reason why the proverb “Ignorance is Bliss” exist.

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“I think you can pursue the truth with the understanding that being correct is not the sole or only reason for pursuing truth- Sometimes it’s just a personal goal.
I do believe we can know truth and we can know untruth too.”

I just tried to strip it down to most basic entangle concept.

“Merging with the crowd, does not need to occur. In fact it’s healthier to not to so- Hence my unvaccinated status. Refusal to merge with the crowd does not mean you will be self loathing- I see it as the opposite- It means you have the kind of faith, belief and satisfaction within yourself that doesn’t require the conformity”

I agree, the reason I brought it up is that crowds are basically a shortcut in life to get the sense of happiness.

It hard to pin down a certain definition on an situation. Maybe something like “Survivor Guilt” is more appropriate to describe it instead of “self loathing” . Anyway it is not something its easily worked out, because of the other things you could feel is “sense of superiority”, but that is a dangerous path to take.

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“Human nature- it’s worst propensities can be exacerbated by technology- In fact technology can dehumanize, my opinion, to the extent that we will fail to see the value in our humanity.”

True, to closer we are to others to more we can hurt them. Under normal circumstances there is always a distance between people, but technology does close the gap if you let it.

“And dismiss it as something as unimportant- Once we reach that point, is it possible to turn back?”

Hard to say, looking at the dictionary being humane is : ‘compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behavior or disposition : the quality or state of being’.

I think happiness is a very good thing- and I like how you’ve defined it ” Its a wonderful feeling to have and get t(h)rough your every day life”
But are people happy? I know of some people, who in my opinion cannot be happy. They buy things, to fill empty places in their souls- But that’s how I see them. Do they see themselves that way? I think if they were honest they would acknowledge the excess shopping is being done because they are not happy. Or they people that can’t stand to be alone with their thoughts? How can one be happy if one cannot tolerate reflection. Or contemplation? There cannot be growth without this type of reflection..
Pursuit of happiness? Is simply to be happy. To be loved, yes. But also to be at peace with ones self- To be confident, that you’ve done the best you possibly can. Which does not mean lying to yourself- Perhaps happiness is being honest with yourself and others.

I think you can pursue the truth with the understanding that being correct is not the sole or only reason for pursuing truth- Sometimes it’s just a personal goal.
I do believe we can know truth and we can know untruth too.
Merging with the crowd, does not need to occur. In fact it’s healthier to not to so- Hence my unvaccinated status. Refusal to merge with the crowd does not mean you will be self loathing- I see it as the opposite- It means you have the kind of faith, belief and satisfaction within yourself that doesn’t require the conformity

Human nature- it’s worst propensities can be exacerbated by technology- In fact technology can dehumanize, my opinion, to the extent that we will fail to see the value in our humanity.
And dismiss it as something as unimportant- Once we reach that point, is it possible to turn back?

kaz, thanks for the thoughtful comment- I can reply at the moment in a way that will do your comment justice but intend to do so later today
Thank you

Majority of the people on earth are on a “pursuit of happiness” and your have those who are in “pursuit of victory”, you probably have many other pursuits going on, but to keep it simple I am going to focus on these two.

These pursuers, one for happiness and one for victory have different threshold for certain feelings , but also have different threshold for a satisfactory answer.

What I made up this “pursuit of happiness” to be in a situation where you are loved/wanted, and don’t want to let that go. When something does add up, find a non controversial explanation. Like the system is run by lobby’s a certain group this, a certain group that. That its all about the money. To accept that one can’t do anything about. As long as we keep our heads low that everything will be alright. So to live a life with a half-baked understanding of the world, which allows you to distance yourself from it and focus on your own happiness. And than use that half-baked understanding to protect its position.

“pursuit of absolute moral/truth”, where being correct is most important. You end up digging deeper into subjects and keep finding damning information which at the beginning hurts, but at a certain point you end up numb to the pain of it. The penalty for this self inflicted pain is that you also start becoming numb to “normal”. It stops giving you happiness; A wedge is placed between you and every bond who have gained over the years. Because this pursuer values absolute truth more than anything else, even close friendships; those you thought were indestructible go up in flames. Your mind if not careful because an incoherent mess due to the unorganized amount of data.

When you pursue truth. You will walk hell on earth, at least at this current moment. The moment you take this route, you are burning even when your skin is burned, you keep burning. Some who can’t handle the heat end up distancing themselves to protect themselves from the flames. And others who are trying to steer you away from your trajectory of hell on earth, where you end up casting them away.
Not because you don’t like them, but because you become disgusted.
Of the life they prefer to live, The way they handle things. You dislike their “pursuit of happiness”

So in the End you end up alone. Unable to be happy, Unable to merge with the “Crowd”, because your inner self right-out rejects it. Where you end up developing thoughts of self-loathing.

So what I am trying to say is. Its Human nature not technological development. Otherwise history wouldn’t have been filled with sacrifices and bloodbaths.