Wow. A lot more responses than I thought there would be over the last couple of days. I have been rather busy IRL.
it's not possible to be in a good mood all the time, unless you have severe brain damage, but no i wouldn't want that. but i took it to mean no happiness whatsoever
Complete absence of wealth seems like a rather impractical thing too.
Good mood, joyousness, etc, are unequivocally good, except at funerals. Some of us find a type of meta-joy of the experience of just being human, this makes sense to me because so much of life is not joy, you may as well value the bad bits for exactly what they are on their own terms and get meaning from them. This leads to wanting happiness really not being a core desire. It comes and goes at its will, wanted or not. Here's a little secret, some e4's, I won't mention who, sometimes look forward to some cathartic sadness, anger, true jealousy, etc. Though in health they are 'happy' to take it as it comes, and it always does if you're really living.
There are plenty of other circumstances when a serious demeanor is appropriate. Dealing with a friend in pain. Handling a crucial decision. Doing things that require concentration. Taking care of something that requires doing something uncomfortable…
Nevertheless, I think I know what you were getting at.
You can define happiness however you like, but "smiling all the time" is a very narrow definition.
From Wiktionary:
happy (
adj.)
Content; satisfied (with or to do something); having no objection (to something).
I don't believe anyone who says that they don't want basic satisfaction and contentment with their life. Frankly I would characterize someone who says otherwise as deeply depressed or ill.
The definition I was referring to was more in line with:
From dictionary.reference.com
Happy(adj.)
feeling, showing, or expressing joy; pleased
Happiness(noun)
good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.
I am talking explicitly about the
affect of feeling happy. Not general satisfaction with life, nor engagement/flow, nor finding meaning or purpose. I am talking about being in a good
mood or high
mood. The desire for
pleasure
It may be a narrow definition, but not an unusual one.
A doctor working under stress to save a patient, a runner working through the pain of the last miles of a marathon, and a cop working a murder investigation may find meaning and purpose in what they are doing, or engaged in a state of flow (which in fact is neutral in affect), but their moods in these activities are usually not high.
From the very beginning, my emphasis has been on
mood. I could have perhaps chosen a better word, but I am surprised the distinction between these differing types of happiness is unfamiliar to you. We’ve talked about it before.
[MENTION=22833]Legion[/MENTION] [MENTION=10653]Such Irony[/MENTION] [MENTION=9486]gromit[/MENTION] [MENTION=8584]SpankyMcFly[/MENTION] [MENTION=20829]Hard[/MENTION] [MENTION=1449]Magic Poriferan[/MENTION], would your responses change knowing that I am referring explicitly to
mood?
[MENTION=7280]Lark[/MENTION] , the reason this question is important to me, is that I think we as a society place such a premium on high mood that many avoid people who don’t care so much for it. I think a large reason why a lot of people are more miserable than they would otherwise be, is because they are put upon to be in a higher mood…not just more grateful, or more satisfied with life, or engagement. People are told to smile more, The lack of smiling is seen as an indictment of character or attitude.
I think [MENTION=10714]Qlip[/MENTION] [MENTION=22833]Legion[/MENTION] and [MENTION=3325]Mole[/MENTION] have some idea of what I was getting at. I could have perhaps been more articulate. But I am referring to the philosophy of hedonism. I use the word “happy†because that is the word hedonists use too.