Jim Holt fails to label happiness as yet another social evil in "Against Happiness", an essay in the sunday magazine of the New York Times from June 20, 2004. In this essay Holt argues that: "Sad people are nice. Angry people are nasty. And, oddly enough, happy people tend to be nasty, too." This presents an intriguing, counterintuitive arguement to his readers, and while this is definately an intresting arguement to engage in, Holt falls short of convincing me of happiness' darkside. Sometimes he seems to just be rambling- this piece feels more like a discussion than an arguement, many times in the essay he reports evidence which may be convincing, if it wasn't immediately deflated by counter evidence or the author's own cautiousness, and worst of all, the report used to support his otherwise irresitable thesis, doesn't support it at all.
The appeal in "Against Happiness" seems to be purely emotional. It seems that Holt belives that if the reader questions happiness enough, and gets sideways enough about the definition of happiness, they might be confused and paranoid enough to start beliving that maybe, possibly, if happiness were like that, and if happy people might do that, then I guess it may be possible that happiness could be bad in a certain circumstance. According to Holt's research, happiness is: a mood, an "'everything is fine' attitude that reduces motivation for analytical thought", "positive affect" (Holt later comments that "Elaborate scales have been invented to measure individual happiness, but researchers admit that difficulties remain), "well feeling", "a shallow and selfish goal", "a psychiatric disorder" (although Holt rebuffs by saying "that may be going a bit far"), and "An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another" (Holt again steps back, "theres no need to be that cynical"). Thats a confusing combination that leads to a very loose definition of happiness, which makes this a difficult arguement to follow.
The evidence Holt uses might work if he didn't undermine it by questioning it or prividing a counterpoint. He seems to be overly cautious, almost like he's having a hard time believing it. On one hand, "the United States consist...
... middle of paper ...
...al. Maybe it was just an overlooked mistake by Holt, but considering that NYT's fact checking department was involved, and considering Holt writes in trusted, widely circulated publications like The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Slate, this is a mistake he simply should not make.
Holt's misuse of evidence, poor use of other evidence, lack of support, lack of definition, and almost neutral stance make his arguement impossible to get behind. His message comes across unclear, and I'm still not sure what to think of it. It lacked the power to illicit an immediate response from me, and I'm sure many other readers. Please do your readers a favor Mr. Holt- next time you decide to kick an idea around, don't stake your claim in bad science, don't convince by confusion, and please use less "journalistic caricature".
DeSteno, David, Dasgupta, Nilanjana, Bartlett, Monica Y. & Cajdric, Aida (2004) Prejudice >From Thin Air. Psychological Science 15 (5), 319-324
Misreporting Science in the New York Times: Against Happiness
By Martin E. P. Seligman
July 29, 2004
http://learnv.ycdsb.edu.on.ca/lt/FMMC/hpteacher.nsf/Files/mcmanad/$FILE/auth2.html
Begley introduces sources such as Ed Diener, a University of Illinois psychology professor, who has studied happiness for twenty-five years, to further the point of her claim. In the article, she accounts an interaction Diener had with Scotland's Parliament and business leaders on the value of using traditional measures to compare what policies makes the country happiest. The Scottish were all in favor of increasing policies that increased wellbeing, but not because they make people happier. "They said too much happiness might not be a good thing, they like being dour, and didn't appreciate being told they should be happier" (555). Diener later concludes that levels of happiness coincide with longer, healthier, relationships. He contrasts this conclusion with an article he cowrote with, stating “once a moderate level of happiness is achieved, further increases can sometimes be detrimental to income, career success, education, and political participation” (556). Diener believes that negative emotions make you “more analytical, more critical, and more innovative” to help direct your thinking. Diener gives much evidence and experience towards Begley’s claim of happiness not being the best for you. Another source Begley uses to back up her claim that
The power of stereotypes stored in the brain was a daunting thought. This information enlightened me about the misconceptions we carry from our cultural experiences. Also, it startled me that according to (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013) “those who showed high levels of White Preference on the IAT test were also those who are most likely to show racially discriminatory behavior,” (pg. 47). I reflected on this information, and it concerned me that my judgments were simply based on past cultural experiences. This mindbug was impacting my perception of someone before I even had a chance to know him.
Burkeman is an author who is incredibly well educated on the subject of seeking happiness, has wrote multiple works (such as The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking) on the subject, and his stylistic approach of “present the goods, make them stay” in this particular article is both clever and monumentally effective. The use of the casual tone catches the reader’s attention better, simply because it’s ironic and is in a sense, odd to read. Every paper should accommodate a certain tone to fit the subject matter. If a research paper took on a casual tone, readers wouldn’t take the author seriously, however, Burkeman utilizes an indifferent tone not only to stay true to a theme of irony, but to make the reader stay and want more. This is further proven by his use of the Museum of Failed Products as his hook and his leading example as to why everybody should stop shunning their failures. Climatically, when he has the reader’s unfaltering attention, he presents the ‘why’ behind his seemingly crazy theory behind finding happiness. Burkeman provides multiple credible sources from several different studies to prove that he not only took the time to research this subject, but he is effectively proving that he knows what he’s talking
Everybody in this world has the right to happiness. However, I don’t think we should seek our happiness by all means. I don’t agree that people should be selfish in order to get whatever they want. I’m not saying that there aren’t any selfish people in this world, but some people are more selfish than others. So we need to have some balance in what we want and what would make us happy. Also we need to make sure that we don’t burden ourselves for the sake of others’ happiness. Therefore, I’m not convinced that Mr. A and Mrs. B did the right thing; also, I know that sometimes we may give up our right to happiness to please others, and sometimes we have to do whatever it takes to meet our happiness.
The book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is fiction and truth wound together to create a frustrating and addicting novel of fiction about the Vietnam war. O’Brien created stories by using his experiences during the Vietnam whether they are true stories or not is an unattainable knowledge for the reader, the only person of that knowledge is only O 'Brien himself. Through his writing he emphasized the the fact that you cannot perfectly recall the experiences of your past when your telling a story but the way it is told is “true sometime than the happening-truth(O’Brien 171) which helps give The Things They Carried depth beyond that of a “true”, true story.
“The How of Happiness” chapter of Sonja Lyubomirsky emphasizes how making the happiness of our life and how it relates to our bodies. I realized the happiness is a part to contribute our life get better. It cannot deficient because it will make my life is getting depressed and sad. The determined happiness makes me surprise and interesting because that is the normal happened around my league. For example, the beauty and material wealth can make us feel happy. Although it is not a long-term happiness, it still can make us feel happy. According from the book, a wise (and rich) person once said, “I’ve never borrowed a significant amount of money in my life…[because] I never thought I would be way happier when I had 2X instead of X.” (p.45) That
It seems the goal of most individuals in life is to find purpose, overcome obstacles, and be as happy as possible each and every day. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley introduces a new theory on happiness: that happiness cannot exist while human minds are subjected to the truth. Similar to the phrase ignorance is bliss, the main theme throughout the novel is that happiness and truth cannot coexist properly in a society. While happiness is the ultimate goal of the utopian society depicted in Brave New World, it does not come without a price: denial of realities, and the freedom to make individual choices. However, most people living in the society have no choice whether they wish to be happy or not.
He seems to imply that happiness is simply a relative state, which is entered by seeing one of the more positive aspects of a situation. Overall, Gilbert argues a strong case for happiness comes from our interpretations of our experiences. However, happiness also takes into account a wide range of other aspects of our lives, including our thoughts and actions, and even genetics. Therefore, happiness should be defined as the amalgamation of how we think and act, and how we interpret our experiences as positive or negative. What this means is that in order to become happier, we must simply force ourselves to become more optimistic.
Some authors choose to write stories and novels specifically to evoke certain emotions from their readers as opposed to writing it for just a visual presentation. In order to do this, they occasionally stretch the truth and “distort” the event that actually occurred. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a compilation of short stories about the Vietnam War with distortion being a key element in each of them.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman lived in a time when sexism was a much more predominant than it is today. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Gilman uses symbolism and irony to express feminist thought. Charlotte Gilman experienced unfair treatment similar to what is described in her story in her lifetime and was a pioneer of feminism. She uses the narrator, Jane, as an example of how harsh certain treatments can be and of the toll they can have on someone mentally. Charlotte Gilman uses the narrator of this story to express her opinion of how horrible unfair treatment can be and the effects it can have on someone.
The chosen poem can speak out too many different people. Patricia Walter titled her piece “Be Happy, Not Perfect”. This poem may draw in a person with its outstanding connection to younger readers all throughout the world. The message in the poem portrays many moods going from frustration to tiredness through a personal level. Walter uses figurative to bring attention to the moods she’s trying to evoke. She lures readers in by changing the mood and tries to keep everyone engaged. Throughout her writing, she hints that the poem can be related to her on a deeper level making the mood stronger and more evident from beginning to end.
Throughout Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, a plethora of stories are told concerning the lives of a select number of soldiers in and out of the Vietnam War. In his writing, O’Brien also conveys his own thoughts on the art of storytelling and the nature of stories themselves. In these passages, O’Brien provides a detailed analysis of the challenges of storytelling, the effects of time on memory, the role of imagination in storytelling, the reason for retelling a story, and a story’s purpose and process for the reader.
In Tim O’Brien’s novel, “The Things They Carried,” imaginations can be both beneficial and corrosive. This novel consist of story truth and real truth. Throughout the novel, imagination plays a big role. Tim O’Brien wrote his book about the war mainly based on his memory of the war. He did not remember every details of the war, thus he made up some false details to the stories to make it seems more interesting. He wants the readers to be able to feel how he felt and understand how everything happened as he tells the story. He wants to provoke the emotional truth. O’Brien tries to prove that imaginations is not completely a bad thing and that it is also a good thing. O’Brien starts to create stories about what could have happen and what he could not do at the war in addition to the original war story. With the power of imaginations, O’Brien is able to talk about something that he could have done but did not do in his past. Imaginations helped him escape the reality. Imagination has the job of finding the real truth, attempting reconciliations and creating reality.
VanTassel-Baska, J. (1986). Acceleration. In C. June Maker. (Ed.). Critical issues in gifted education: Defensible programs for the gifted. (pp. 179-195). Texas: PRO-ED.
Facebook privacy and security have many benefits, problems, and challenges. There is a benefit for every security setting on Facebook but the real concern comes along when it comes to facing the problem and how this problem goes into different steps of challenges, and how we can fix that problem in order for privacy not to be a huge issue. A person that has access to Facebook wants to share their everyday moments to the world such as sharing personal posts, photos and videos, and that’s what Facebook is basically known for.