Blog PostsLife, Humanity and Happiness- A breif philosophy
By João Sterrett at Nov 08, 2011 |
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We are but a small blip on the radar of the universe. Our lives are ultimately meaningless, but yet riddled with meaning. Our lives are inherently social, yet intensely individualistic. Our lives are obviously objective, yet objectively subjective.
Our time in the world is long, extensive and arduous, yet fleeting, short and wonderful
For thousands of years, when people have believed in something beyond ourselves that has structured our world, people have turned to the sun for guidance, since it provides warmth, shelter, food and ultimately, life. Religion is often misconstrued and heralded as divine. However, religion is nothing more than stories that in essence worship the same thing- the creator of life, or in other words, the sun.
Living in one culture, and not experiencing others, limits your knowledge of the world. One often only perceives the world through their own lens. However, this lens is often nothing more than a product of a geographical orientation that biases how you view the world. Therefore, it becomes essential as a human being to discover other cultures, to visit your brothers and sisters around the world, to never be afraid of life, to never be stagnant in your own situation, to create new and novel situations and most importantly, to realize that life is short and that there is but one reality within which you know, which is your own. But what becomes most important of all, is to design your reality as best as you can. Bearing in mind the briefness of life, it is only logical to gain a bigger grasp on what life is. One must keep their mind open, and not be bound by the social constructs that come to dominate our world.
While humanity is brilliant, our system is not. It is oppressive in so many ways, and only a small minute class is conscious of this- this is the class of people that have taken our world and put restrictions on it. In other words, by fencing off a piece of property hundreds of years ago, and having someone say, “this is my property”, that person has limited the world, how we live, and how we are evolving. We are evolving into creatures of materialism. Creatures that succumb to commodity fetishism, the fetishization of products… we place mystical powers on man-made products. We become alienated from ourselves by buying items that have little long-term value, and only short-term satisfaction. We become alienated by this owning class by selling ourselves to them, quite literally. By selling our freedom for a wage, we become commodities. We become the products of these owners and they begin to fetishize us. There is little to do in terms of changing this in our life-time. We become an oppressed society, where only a minute percentage of people have control. We must realize that there are forces at play that are distinct, that are manipulable and that are corrupt. This means that since there are a few people in the world that create the reality that we live in through coercion, through force, through domination, and ultimately through hegemony, we as a people must recognize this oppression. We must act against the grain, contrary to domination and most importantly, counter-hegemonically, until the hegemon (the global dominant factors of the world) begin to represent humanity’s best interest. Not a constant game of struggling to acquire more material goods, that in essence, has little to do with our happiness
Happiness becomes the most important part of life. Our system can be measured quantitatively in utiles, which are an error-ridden way for measuring human happiness by the owning class. Regardless of this, one must to do their utmost to maintain their level of happiness, and be open to new sources. As one expands their knowledge of the world, one inevitable expands their ability for happiness.
After all, life is fleeting, life is short and life is wonderful.
