Essay 2
In American society today too many people focus on what can make them happy but forget who suffers because of it. William James once said "one could not accept happiness shared with millions if the condition of that happiness were the suffering of one lonely soul." The problem is our society counteracts this quote, our happiness comes from the result of someone's suffering even if we dont realize it. The main point os Williams quote is to say that no one would want to be happy if they knew that their happiness came from someone else's suffering, which to an extent is true but a lot of time we live contrary to that belief. I would like to think that if we knew that our joy come from someone else's suffering that we would stop what
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Next time you go shopping and buy a nice Christmas gift that you know would make someone very happy, take a moment to look at it and see where it was made, more than likely it will say "made in China" or "made in Thailand". Most of our goods that provide our happiness come from foreign countries just because the labor is cheap. In China the hands that make our clothes belong to a man who goes to work all day and makes less than $2 per hour, just so he can try to put food on the table for his family. These men and women (and sometimes children) have to work in terrible conditions and with no benefits and they barley scrap by each month. These workers work all day in a sweatshop, make very little money, and go to bed hungry just so we can get the material possessions that make us happy. Not only do people in other countries work for our happiness, but a lot of people in America have to work for our happiness. In many cases a parent will work two or three jobs just so they can make ends meet and provide for their children. I distinctly remember growing up with my grandparents and they were constantly working, my grandfather did Manuel labor all his life and my grandmother did whatever she could, they both worked tirelessly in order to give my brother and I a place to stay and food to eat, even when they had to go to bed hungry, just so we could be happy. There are millions of cases like this around the United …show more content…
Every single one of the famous actors, movie stars, pop stars, musicians, and even athletes all live there lives to make entertain us. People don't understand how much a celebrity has to sacrifice to keep us happy. Every celebrity gives up there chance at a normal life, they give up their privacy, their happiness and sometimes their life so we can be happy. Most of the time when we see a celebrity we think about how much money they make and how lucky they are but we forget to mention how they have to hide their emotions from the public, how they have to starve themselves to look a certain way, or how they have to give up every ounce of their free time to practice and perform, all so w can be happy. There are many cases of a celebrity committing suicide due to the fact that they are depressed and they
The struggle between happiness and society shows a society where true happiness has been forfeited to form a perfect order.
Part of that is because some people’s perspectives of celebrities allow them think as if they’re on a pedestal and are more important than the average human. When people vision these celebrities as these quintessential people it enable’s their own thoughts and opinions on the celebrity. It’s like brainwashing, these celebrities only show the media what they want, which allows them to put up a whole façade and mask who they truly are. During the O.J Simpson trial it opened more people’s minds to visualize the concept that celebrities have the ability to be just as deranged as the average person, and that we are all equal, but the only difference that’s separates us is the fact that their job is in the lime
John Stuart Mills, in chapter five of his autobiography, “A Crisis in My Mental History: One Stage Onward,” (1909-1914) argues that happiness doesn't come from thinking negative it comes from thinking positive and happy. He supports his claim by first explaining that those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness then he uses the happiness of others, then on the improvement of mankind, and finally he explains that people find happiness by doing what they enjoy to do. Mills purpose is to try to get the people to see that doing stuff for others can also make you happy. In order to accomplish this he wrote this article. He creates a informative tone for the Harvard students.
People who are viewed as happy in our culture today are also seen as being rich, having a loving family, and a great occupation. Our society is attracted to material things, rather than spiritual ones. Can a person who does not have many possessions and an elevated social position still live a happy life? Epicurus believed that each one of us could achieve true happiness, and our only problem is that we stubbornly search for it in all the wrong places. Epicurus states that we only need three things to be happy besides the essentials needed for survival: friends, freedom, and an analyzed life. I will be comparing contemporary American notions of happiness to the Epicurean view.
Brave New World, acknowledges government control which results in the failure of a society. It is a world created where everything is under control, being observed, and synthetic. The society was manufactured in a test tube therefore, it was factory made. The people were born and developed in the test tubes, so their human nature became adapted so an individual cannot identify or approach it. Every little detail of a person's life is prearranged. These people's lives revolve around their community, their existence, and security; never their individual happiness. They are basically living for their society as a whole. This society was designed to be successful but it failed to give people their individuality. The individuals sacrificed their identity to make sure that everybody was able to survive, advance, and live a life of happiness. When there are limitations on behavior patterns in a society it can restrict one's ability to be truly happy in every aspect.
After observing and researching all the sources portraying celebrities I have came into a conclusion that todays society it seems like all we want is to be accepted and we tend to look at other people and judge. Its not right, we all are different and thats what makes the world go round. It would be a pretty boring world if we were all the same. Celebrities deal with this everyday, I think the paparazzi know more about some celebrities lives than they actually do. They judge them for who they are and what they do, it is not right nor fair.
...ome very valid points. I think he wrote it to help the reader out. He wanted to open the reader's eyes to these issues so they wouldn't be searching for happiness in the wrong places. But, is there a "right" place to look for happiness? This is never clearly answered in the essay but we are left with some helpful insight.
I beg to ask the question, what if happiness, isn’t to just be happy, but to understand pain.
Americans do not realize the amount of clothing we wear on a daily basis is actually made in Cambodia, such as Adidas and even the Gap. The women that work for these sweatshops in Cambodia sew for 50 cents an hour, which is what allows stores in America, such as H&M to sell inexpensive clothing (Winn, 2015). The conditions these Cambodian workers face are a noisy, loud, and extremely hot environment where people are known for having huge fainting attacks. When workers were on strike a year ago, authorities actually shot multiple people just because they were trying to raise their pay. There is plenty of evidence of abuse captured through many interviews of workers from different factories, and is not just a rarity these places see often or hear of. Factories hire children, fire pregnant women because they are slow and use the bathroom to much, scream at regular workers if they use the toilet more than two times a day, scam hard working employees with not paying them their money they worked for and more, and workers are sent home and replaced if 2,000 shirts are not stitched in one day. Expectations are unrealistic and not suitable for employees to be working each day for more than ten
From the moment of birth, to the moment of death, humans are flooded with emotions both good and bad. Individuals are continuously seeking fulfillment, some failing to find it while others succeed. Many seek adoration; love, accomplishment and greatness. In literature, authors take the readers on journeys that allow imagination, granting the possibility for the reader to grasp inner desires and decide what is truly important in life. Literature allows readers to dive into a different world where happiness and fulfillment is plentiful and eternal, also described as a utopia, while other pieces of literature direct the reader into a world of dissatisfaction which is a dystopia. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is in 26th century England. With the help of advanced technology and drugs, happiness fills the lives of the people living at that time period. But, the people are missing out on one of the most important feelings of life. That is sorrow or unhappiness. The society in Brave New World is very different from modern-day society; many aspects of life are removed such as family, monogamy, and religion. The citizens of Brave New World live in false happiness with all the necessities of life provided for them but have the lack of an inferred deeper satisfaction. In Brave New World happiness is the lack of unhappiness because the inhabitants can never truly know what happiness is without experiencing true unhappiness. The lifestyle in Brave New World is built on the notion that happiness is the only thing necessary in one’s life. This novel suggest that the reader should seek things besides happiness because the citizens in the World State live bleak and monotonous lives which show the faults in this so-called ‘perfect’ society. In thi...
knowing we are stuck with what we have or in some cases we are losing money we decide to work to achieve happiness knowing that what we are working for is something better or larger in income. This happiness ignites a desire to work more to achieve bigger and better things and to achieve more money causing a sense of happiness. Porter says, “American
We are part of a generation that is obsessed with celebrity culture. Celebrities are distinctive. Media and consumers alike invented them to be a different race of super beings: flawless, divine and above all the real moral world. In a 1995 New York Times article “In contrast, 9 out of 10 of those polled could think of something
According to Brooks (2014), people seek happiness but indirectly obtain several tests that affects their emotions in many ways. Indeed, when people are is questioned about their past, memories coming back to her mind are often the most important positively as negatively. A positive event can be the birth of a child, success. In contrast, a negative event is often links to death, failure, a dismissal, and so on. Suffering or pain also gives us an outside perspective. Without a doubt, suffering makes us human we like it or not. For example, when a friend tells that she has failed an exam and we realize that we could get it easily, it is hard to understand exactly her emotion because we have never been in the situation. But when the same situation arises and you become the concerned, you understand the effect that this failure may have on you emotionally. In this sense, we understand that suffering makes people human because it helps them to be connected to a situation already happened before or which could happen in the future.
Do we as a society have the right to punish celebrities when they misbehave? Do celebrities have the right to become livid when they are focused on their immoral behavior? Do they love the media attention only when it benefits them? Before we can answer the above questions, would we, furthermore, can we live our life as a celebrity if given the opportunity? The perks of illimitable wealth, vacationing all over the world, housekeepers, chefs, being in receipt of freebies from designers, multiple homes in diverse parts of the world, chauffeurs, the finest foods, and all the other perks that come with being a celebrity?
According to the article “The Effects of Celebrity Role Models on Kids and Teens” by Eliza Martinez,“Many celebrities do not make a secret of alcohol or drug abuse and the glamorization of dying due to an overdose in the media might make your child feel that using these substances is acceptable.” The fans see the celebrities’ work and not the person themself. This is the main reason celebrities make such terrible role models. The fans will idolize them, but they don’t know what the celebrity is like on a personal level. They don’t know the opinion of the celebrity on certain issues. If they did and they agreed with the celebrity, then there is a whole other reason to look up to this person. If a fan disagreed, then they could still like their work and just agree to disagree, but it will never be like that. It is no one’s fault, but that is the main reason celebrities aren’t good role models. That is why parents, siblings, friends, other family, and even fictional characters work as role models. The people that look up to them know their role model personally and therefore know whether or not they agree with the role model’s