An Illusion of Happiness

We tend to not realize the importance of a moment until it is gone, the feeling of you running down the after eating a full school lunch, or seeing your cousins around the holidays. The emotions that we start to associate with special occasions in our lives, we create the illusion of a happiness because of those moments. We have favorite memories tied to our favorite places and we remember those despite the happenings around us. Looking back at all my favorite memories and places I can't recall anything negative happening, just the feeling of bliss and joy. The The illusion of happiness, the illusion that something that isn't actually there, exists. 

Remember that time you aced a test your barely studied for or got an A on that English paper you forgot to write? The joy and happiness you felt in those small moments when you forgot about all your troubles and lived in that moment. Remember that emotion, that feeling, and ask yourself, was that true happiness? According to Webster's Dictionary, the meaning of happiness is, "a state of well-being and contentment: joy. " So, what exactly does that mean? What is considered contentment or joy? Is it a sense of feeling something or is it a psychological aspect where we can just convince ourselves that we are happy? Are there different types of happy? Let’s dig a little further and see how some of the following thought of the idea of happiness. 

Philosopher Lynne McFall, wrote a passage which first appeared in Happiness (1989) titled, Pig Happiness? Prior to her passage, John Stuart Mill states, "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied." (528). Implying a variety of different questions that McFall fails to acknowledge throughout her passage. She focuses more on the different forms of happiness instead. "Pig-happiness takes on different forms." (McFall, 528). The deluded fool; one of the five forms of happiness McFall mentions in her passage can be explained as someone who wants something or to believe in something, they will perceive it in a way that makes them happy even if the actual situation is not. "Suppose a women's ideal is the love of a good man. If the man she loves despises her and is despicable, is she happy so long as she is deceived? If she dies believing in his undying affection and moral perfection, was hers a happy life? Is the fool's paradise paradise, or at least happiness?" (McFall, 528). She ends her example with a serious of simple, yet complex questions. For me, in this scenario, the first reaction I had was to say of course she's not happy, the man doesn't really love her, but after giving this more thought, my answer changed and here is why.  

At first, I thought this woman was ridiculous, how can you not know that someone is deceiving you? How do you not see that he is not a "good man". We have all heard the phrase "what you don't know won't hurt you", and this is the perfect example of why that is true. The woman is unknowing of the man's true intentions and only sees what he allows her to see of him, which is the good man that she wants. She lives under the illusion that she is with a good man and she can be happy with that. McFall does an excellent job of portraying one of her ways of happiness through the idea of illusion. We can allow ourselves to see the best and the worst in a person or even in a memory, if we choose to and we too, can end up living our lives as The deluded fool.

Another example is Simon Critchley, a British philosopher, wrote an essay titled Happy Like God. In his essay he breaks down a scenario and explain what he believes is the meaning behind happiness. “If anyone is happy, then one imagines that God is pretty happy, and to be happy is to be like God.” (Critchley, 561). He compares the idea of being happy with the illusion that one can be like a higher power based on their emotions. However, he also displays a more similar approach to McFall’s The deluded fool when he talks about Rousseau on the boat and drifting along, feeling at peace while cloud watching and listening to the birds along the way; the feeling of not worrying about the past or the future, just the now. Giving the illusion of not having responsibilities, work or any other distractions. “…And then it is over. Time passes, the reverie ends and the feeling for existence fades. The cell phone rings, the email beeps and one is sucked back into the world’s relentless hum and our accompanying anxiety.” (Critchley, 561).

The answer to the broad question of “what is happiness?” remains unknown and there is no exact answer. The one common idea McFall and Critchley had in common was that happiness was derived from what you made of it. From laying down in a boat to allowing yourself to only see the good in a person who deceiving you, and to even acing that test you did not study for. Agreeing with McFall, depending on who you are as a person, the scenario you are in and the mindset you allow yourself to be in everyday, can highly impact your idea of what is happiness. Personally, happiness is what you make of it so go out and do what makes you happy.