Poll: An eternity of happiness?

[retyopy]

So here's the deal. You can live for an eternity, feeling nothing but complete happiness. But therein lies the catch; You will feel nothing but happiness. Nor will you do anything but be happy. Will you do it?

I say yes, simply because I am lazy and hey, you'll be happy for eternity.

Oh, and don't you try and be sneaky with "Oh, being happy would get boring," because you will feel NOTHING BUT HAPPINESS. As in, NOTHING. Boredom is not included in happy-happy town.

 

[the rye]

I think there is something empty in the idea of eternal happiness.

Consider the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus is offered by Calypso immortality and life on a flourishing tropical island, he would not have to suffer any mortal pains, however he declines Calypso's offer. Homer conveys that a mortal life filled with conflict and hardships is far more desirable, the experiences of a mortal both good and bad carry more gravitas because life is short, the problems an immortal face's are trivial because they are immortal.

The lotus eaters are an example of the eternal happiness, but their life is considered a living death, they have lost what Odysseus defines himself by: suffering and hardship. He is miserable but life with the lotus eaters does not provide him with a love of life, and it is not the true experience of life.

Eternal happiness offers nothing but a superficial state of feeling, without the pains of life are existence becomes trivial. With pain and suffering a mortal has reason to endure, to live so that he might acquire happiness, that he might seek the better life.

 

[Luke5515]

Totally, what could possibly be bad about that?
Any argument that could be made against it, say "you wouldn't know real happiness since you've never known sadness" is tossed out because you are happy. You don't need to know what happiness is, you just feel it.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

But, but, but. . . . .I LIKE pain and suffering!!! How am I supposed to frolic and play with the Elder Gods in an orgy of destruction and chaos without it?!?!

OT: My puny mind cannot conceive an existence of experiencing only happiness without a contrast to define it. Such a state of being would devoid of meaning or definition and would thus become oblivion.

 

[retyopy]

I think there is something empty in the idea of eternal happiness.

Consider the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus is offered by Calypso immortality and life on a flourishing tropical island, he would not have to suffer any mortal pains, however he declines Calypso's offer. Homer conveys that a mortal life filled with conflict and hardships is far more desirable, the experiences of a mortal both good and bad carry more gravitas because life is short, the problems an immortal face's are trivial because they are immortal.

The lotus eaters are an example of the eternal happiness, but their life is considered a living death, they have lost what Odysseus defines himself by: suffering and hardship. He is miserable but life with the lotus eaters does not provide him with a love of life, and it is not the true experience of life.

Eternal happiness offers nothing but a superficial state of feeling, without the pains of life are existence becomes trivial. With pain and suffering a mortal has reason to endure, to live so that he might acquire happiness, that he might seek the better life.

But does it really matter? You're still just happy, you couldn't care less.

 

[finecrazydud]

my state of happiness is caused from denying it from others so if this makes me a better person it would be so worth it

 

[the rye]

I think there is something empty in the idea of eternal happiness.

Consider the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus is offered by Calypso immortality and life on a flourishing tropical island, he would not have to suffer any mortal pains, however he declines Calypso's offer. Homer conveys that a mortal life filled with conflict and hardships is far more desirable, the experiences of a mortal both good and bad carry more gravitas because life is short, the problems an immortal face's are trivial because they are immortal.

The lotus eaters are an example of the eternal happiness, but their life is considered a living death, they have lost what Odysseus defines himself by: suffering and hardship. He is miserable but life with the lotus eaters does not provide him with a love of life, and it is not the true experience of life.

Eternal happiness offers nothing but a superficial state of feeling, without the pains of life are existence becomes trivial. With pain and suffering a mortal has reason to endure, to live so that he might acquire happiness, that he might seek the better life.

But does it really matter? You're still just happy, you couldn't care less.

Ah yes of course the person feeling eternal happiness wouldn't care, why should they, they are happy. They cannot feel sorrow, envy, hate, fear. But there life seems lifeless in a sense. Is their experiences of happiness anything beyond a simple hedonistic fulfillment.

Eternal happiness doesn't seem good because without the full spectrum of human experience we lack a true sense of identity, any need to create or to think. Furthermore someone living in a state of eternal happiness can no longer appreciate tragedy, or recognize how sadness might help define a persons sense of morality of identity.

Plainly put it is not living it is existing, to be eternally happy is for nothing to be meaningful and for everything to be trivial.

 

[Ohlawdylawdy]

No because I love feeling pain, hunger, boredom, anxiety, sadness, frustration, anger, etc. (in case that wasn't painfully obvious already)

 

[loc978]

Nothing but "complete happiness"? Sounds like a fuckin' lobotomy to me. No thanks. I'm with this guy [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-FqP9_qRK8].

 

[Thespian]

Nah. I don't just want to be happy. That'd be like going your whole life just eating chocolate. Sure, chocolate is, well, it's fucking amazing, but I don't want to miss out on some other experiences. I don't want to be just happy, I want to be wise, learned, hardened, vibrant. Being eternally happy would essentially be choosing to only experience 2% of life.
Besides, if I wanted that, I'd just dope myself up on morphine or some sort of illegal high-inducing drug and say "roll on, death" since a blinding happiness till you die in your sleep is essentially the same as until eternity.

I'd use this analogy:
A nice warm bed is much more enjoyable if you sleep in it after a long, hard day's work, than if you've been lying in it all day long.

Happiness would be much more meaningful if you've previously experiences sorrow, loss, pain, guilt, anger, jealousy, fear, anxiety, depression, obsession, rejection, et cetera.

 

[retyopy]

Nothing but "complete happiness"? Sounds like a fuckin' lobotomy to me. No thanks. I'm with this guy [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-FqP9_qRK8].

That was really...

Grumdiggle. It makes sense in my mind, okay?

 

[lRookiel]

It doesnt get boring either?,

I'd still say NO! because well yeah... this guys thing pretty much sums it up for me.

Nothing but "complete happiness"? Sounds like a fuckin' lobotomy to me. No thanks. I'm with this guy [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-FqP9_qRK8].

 

[Alcamonic]

Despite the feel of happiness, my mind would still be sane and knowing the fact.
Then I rather choose a life completely null of emotions, or just be like I am now.

I do like cats though!

 

[retyopy]

It doesnt get boring either?,

I'd still say NO! because well yeah... this guys thing pretty much sums it up for me.

Nothing but "complete happiness"? Sounds like a fuckin' lobotomy to me. No thanks. I'm with this guy [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-FqP9_qRK8].

Yeah, that was pretty Grumdiggle, wasn't it?

 

[Jedoro]

Well, in principle, it's a restriction and I don't like those. I like being able to feel much more than just happiness, because it's a wider perspective on life and humanity.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

to be eternally happy is for nothing to be meaningful and for everything to be trivial.

I'm a Nihilist, so I basically feel that anyway. All aboard the happiness train!

 

[Kae]

No I'm too bitter and serious all the time, and though I'd be happy that would not be me and since I wouldn't be myself then I wouldn't want to do that because although I'm not the best looking person in the world or the smartest, I like being myself a little too much and being myself includes being bitter and cynical about most things, really the same reason I don't do drugs, because the one time I got high even though I was happy as fuck I did not feel like myself and I really didn't like the feel of that after the effect wore off, and you may say but you'll never get that afterwards feeling that you got from the drugs because you'll be happy forever, but the point is that NOW I know that I would be giving up being myself to live an empty life of fake happiness, screw happiness I'm fine with pain, sorrow and suffering because that makes the happy moments of my life all the more sweeter.

 

[Ieyke]

Thou shalt not seek eternal happiness. That way lies the path of Slaanesh.

At least that's one logic to it.

 

[Blobpie]

Let me tell you a short,sweet story about my self.

This takes place about a month ago; I had graduated high school a couple months before and i was living at home, and thinking about what i wanted to do with my life.

And so i was browsing these forums because anything i could think up just wasn't any good, then out of the blue i felt misery which i had never felt before. I realized my life had no purpose, i had no reason to live as of that moment. This gave me something i had never had before, i had been given a need to change my life. A drive,a goal and ambition. So i began to soul search, for my purpose.

A month latter and i believe i have found a purpose, and to be honest i have never been happier.


The moral of my short,sweet story is that; true happiness is earned, not given. Otherwise it isn't true happiness.