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> Someone should really invent a way of life which aligns comfort with happiness. They have: Consumerism. (You could also argue Hedonism if you equate pleasur
by DavidPiper 3y ago
> Someone should really invent a way of life which aligns comfort with happiness.
They have: Consumerism.
(You could also argue Hedonism if you equate pleasure with dopamine, but I feel like hedonism has a stigmatised "grossly self-indulgent" connotation that hasn't yet been applied to merely consuming things.)
- _heimdall 3y agoHas consumerism really aligned comfort and happiness? I guess with a short enough time scale maybe, but most people don't seem happy to me. The sheer number of distractions (and pharmaceuticals) in our lives seem to be a symptom of deep unhappiness that we are consciously or subconsciously burying.
- DavidPiper 3y agoI'd argue that those distractions and pharmaceuticals are specifically designed to keep/make us happy for that exact reason. However, I agree with you: I don't think people engaging in Consumerism in this way are _actually_ happy. (I.e. I don't consider the happiness Consumerism provides on the time scale you mentioned to be happiness in the sense we're talking about). I just think that Consumerism is the cause and not the symptom. I believe - and admittedly this is a leap - that people who "follow Consumerism" do consider it happiness. The promise of happiness after consuming (what sellers and advertisers exploit) does come true for that short time after consumption. When that time runs out, people consume again, and the cycle continues. (I'm coincidentally reading Brave New World at the moment so I'm a little down the rabbit hole here. And I think I'm mostly arguing semantics on a point we agree on.)