Rachel Baran
The pursuit of happiness
27/52
Yeh the photo's not anything super groundbreaking, but the idea's been on my mind since I (finally) got around to reading Brave New World a few months ago. If you haven't read it yet (you should), it's basically about a eugenicized utopian society where the people are manufactured and fed pills to keep them complacent, where they're never unhappy but the whole point is that they're never truly happy either.
The one part that's kept circling around my head is the one near the end where a director or someone in charge is talking to one of the protagonists about the whole deal, and says that "happiness is never grand", but compensating for misery is. I realized a while ago that I'd much rather have everything going wrong than right any day; honestly I think anyone who's got half a brain knows that happiness, or what society wants us to see as 'happiness' anyhow is boring as hell. Nobody writes books or songs or movies or makes art about a person who has everything together for a reason. Happiness feels nice for a minute, but it's suffering that makes us feel real, or makes me feel real at least, because it makes the good things so much better. Pain is a teacher, not something that should be avoided.
I'm also just really, really, really against how much we medicate people today, especially children. Did you guys know that kids in the foster care system are prescribed medication for ADHD 16 times more often than kids outside the system? Unrelated, but what I'm trying to point out is that we often medicate those who have more difficulty than the average person appearing 'level', when they might not actually need medicating. If we didn't overmedicate due to individuals not wanting to work with those with behavioral issues those numbers would be equal. We aim to 'fix' people and make them 'happy' when maybe happiness isn't what we should be striving for, but knowledge or understanding or empathy, things that are actually attainable. Unhappiness is inevitable and yet we stigmatize unhappy people, prescribe them drugs and tell them to get over it, make them feel crazy for being human. It's nuts. Obviously I do think medications are necessary in a lot of cases, but definitely not all.
Meh, just be smart yall. For future people's sake.
HAPPY SUNDAE or knowledgeable sundae I guess <3
The pursuit of happiness
27/52
Yeh the photo's not anything super groundbreaking, but the idea's been on my mind since I (finally) got around to reading Brave New World a few months ago. If you haven't read it yet (you should), it's basically about a eugenicized utopian society where the people are manufactured and fed pills to keep them complacent, where they're never unhappy but the whole point is that they're never truly happy either.
The one part that's kept circling around my head is the one near the end where a director or someone in charge is talking to one of the protagonists about the whole deal, and says that "happiness is never grand", but compensating for misery is. I realized a while ago that I'd much rather have everything going wrong than right any day; honestly I think anyone who's got half a brain knows that happiness, or what society wants us to see as 'happiness' anyhow is boring as hell. Nobody writes books or songs or movies or makes art about a person who has everything together for a reason. Happiness feels nice for a minute, but it's suffering that makes us feel real, or makes me feel real at least, because it makes the good things so much better. Pain is a teacher, not something that should be avoided.
I'm also just really, really, really against how much we medicate people today, especially children. Did you guys know that kids in the foster care system are prescribed medication for ADHD 16 times more often than kids outside the system? Unrelated, but what I'm trying to point out is that we often medicate those who have more difficulty than the average person appearing 'level', when they might not actually need medicating. If we didn't overmedicate due to individuals not wanting to work with those with behavioral issues those numbers would be equal. We aim to 'fix' people and make them 'happy' when maybe happiness isn't what we should be striving for, but knowledge or understanding or empathy, things that are actually attainable. Unhappiness is inevitable and yet we stigmatize unhappy people, prescribe them drugs and tell them to get over it, make them feel crazy for being human. It's nuts. Obviously I do think medications are necessary in a lot of cases, but definitely not all.
Meh, just be smart yall. For future people's sake.
HAPPY SUNDAE or knowledgeable sundae I guess <3