True Happiness in The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut and Hans Weingartner's The Eduakators
A large parcel of the population has as their ultimate goal in life achieving well-being. Unfortunately many try to achieve it through the wrong means. For instance, in The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut, Malachi Constant thinks he is truly happy, but what he really does is fulfill his hedonism, satisfy his shallow needs, without truly searching for a higher form of well-being. Not only does a life focused on hedonic satisfaction not achieve true happiness, it also leads, along with the urge to accumulate, egocentrism, and greed, to an unethical life. The Sirens of Titans depicts this kind of life, which is also represented throughout The Edukators, directed by Hans Weingartner. Both Malachi Constant and Hardenberg believe that money is the solution to all of their problems while ignoring the problems their own lifestyle is causing to other people and society as a whole. Happiness, our own and other people’s, is achieved by focusing our lives in the right things.
Even though hedonic satisfaction is necessary for living a happy life, focusing only on hedonic pleasure will have the opposite effect. If you focus on money and the things it can buy as the source for your well-being, you are excluding a series of factors that are necessary to achieve a true state of well-being. The following passage from the article “On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being” clearly details that:
Drawing from the eudaimonic view and from SDT, Kasser & Ryan (1993, 1996) related money and materialism to well-being. They predicted that people who place a strong value on wealth...
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...se’s life. The only way humanity can achieve true well-being is if abdicates its urge to accumulate and refocus its mostly hedonic ways to a more eudaimonic way of life.
Works Cited
The Edukators. Dir. Hans Weingartner. IFC Films, 2004.
Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1979.
Nenno, Nancy P. “Postcards from the Edge.” Light Motives: German Popular Film in
Perspective. Eds. Halle, Randall and McCarthy, Margaret. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003. 61-84.
Reed, Peter J. "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr." Dictionary of Literary Biography. ed. 1978.
Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. "On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of
Research on Hedonic and Eudamonic Well-Being." Annual Review of Psychology 52 (2001): 141-166.
Vonnegut, Kurt. The Sirens of Titan. New York: Dell Publishing, 1998.
To Thoreau, life’s progress has halted. It seems people have confused progression with captivity driven by materialism. To Krakaeur, people are indifferent to pursing the sublime in nature. To Christopher McCandles the world around him is forgetting the purpose of life. People are blind to nature. In the eyes of these men the world is victim to commercial imprisonment. People live to achieve statuses that only exist because man made them. Fame, money, and monotonous relationships do not exist in nature; they are the pursuits of soulless fundamentalism. The truth is that people pursue meaningless goals, and people don’t want to hear or know how they are foolish. When exposed, reality is so unsettling that it seems wrong. Yet, to be free of the falseness in life is in essence the point of singularity that people realize if there is no truth in love then it is false, if there is no truth in money then it is worthless, if there is no truth in fame then it is undeserving. Without truth everything is a worthless pursuit of a meaningless glass ceiling.
Fredrickson, Barbara L. and Michael F. Losada. "Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing." American Psychologist 60.7 (2005): 678-686. Web. 10 Jan. 2014.
Its aim is “universal happiness” because if people are happy there’s more likely to be social stability. People must be made to “like their unescapable social destiny”, officials insist. Brave New World, the antihero known as “the Savage” rebels against the happiness agenda, telling his smiley-faced rulers: “I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin… I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.” I believe that we should claim the same right against prying in our emotional lives today.
The Article “Perfection Anxiety” written by A.A Gill illustrates through his findings, that while the means to have everything you desire is by no means bad , neither is it the best. Throughout the article he talks about the phenomenon of “perfection anxiety”, a condition causing it’s host’s feelings of significant ennui, a circumstance found within the abhorrently wealthy portion of the world’s citizens. This psychological disorder is found to occur when the incomprehensibly rich have realized essentially, that they have run out of things to spend their money on, continuing to spend only to appease the ever imposing expectations and judgments of the wealthy.
Death is inevitable; if you want happiness in life, try A. Margaret Atwood, the author of “Happy Endings,” uses six separate short stories to depict outcomes with different scenarios. The author practices the use of flash fiction, which adds to the entirety of each version. Though this short story has portions of unusual context, the content can teach a reflection on life. As the reader analyzes all six versions, the gender roles are evident as the story progresses. Atwood starts the short story by introducing the two main characters, John and Mary, and then proceeds to tell a variety of options as to who they are and what happens to them.
Our national happiness peaked in the 1950’s, the same time that this consumption mania exploded” (Leonard). The same idea is developed in Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael, when the Gorilla Ishmael states “The story the takers have been enacting here for the past ten thousand years is not only disastrous for mankind and for the world, it’s fundamentally unhealthy and unsatisfying. It's a megalomaniac’s fantasy and enacting it has given the Takers a culture riddled with greed, cruelty, mental illness, crime and drug addiction” (Quinn 87). Daniel Quinn points out that the state of health and security of the society are greatly diminished as a result of the addiction to materialism. In a study, psychologist Galen Bodenhausen of Northwestern University found out that people who depend on constantly feeding their consumerism, buying expensive cars, electronics, jewellery, luxurious properties and the latest modern fashions, rated themselves higher in depression and anxiety compared to people that invest their time in prosocial activities (like working for a good cause) (Bodenhousen). Anxiety and depression leads people to a never-ending cycle of exhaustive work
Also, paying for things like family vacations leads to happiness as one is able to bond with their family and for some people, obtaining more financially is something that genuinely makes them happy (Nicolao, Irwin, and Goodman, 2009). This seemingly proves that the act of pursuing more materially breeds happiness. However, studies indicate that when they spend money, most people receive happiness from ‘experiential purchases’, that is purchases like vacations where one doesn't receive anything materially from the event other than photographs and memories, rather than from material possessions. This clearly shows that the acquisition of material things doesn't bring happiness, which clearly shows that modern life’s descent into becoming a hamster wheel of attaining more financially doesn't bring
This is a thought-provoking book about the pursuit of material goods. Kasser is not a preacher, but a scientist. He presents his evidence carefully, and concludes that materialism is a game not worth playing even on its own terms of promoting human happiness.
Bowman, James. "The Pursuit of Happiness." The American Spectator. N.p., Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
In a society where owning cars and designer clothes became the definition of happiness, more and more individuals live with an unrealistic materialistic mindset. From advertisements to social media status supporting this misconception, our society has accepted the idea of a materialistic idea of happiness. Although our media-saturated society has implanted the thought of materialism being the main focus of one pursuing and achieving happiness, studies have shown proof that higher rates of well-being are not linked to the possession of material goods, financial status or even marital status; true happiness and our well-being are connected to our daily positive thoughts and actions and also how well we respond to life events.
Since the beginning of time, humans have spent the majority of their lives, trying to attain the ultimate state of joy, called happiness. This feeling of overall happiness, has a unique and distinct definition depending on a person’s personality, beliefs, and moral values. Since people perceive happiness in their own individual way, the meaning of happiness amongst people has changed tremendously, throughout different generations. Over the last fifty years, it is evident in our society that the newer generations and the older generations certainly have different views on the purpose of life, and on how to achieve happiness. Even though the meaning of happiness, is constantly changing throughout different generations, I believe that the pursuit
Money and Happiness are two things that we have all given a lot thought. We put lots of effort into these two things either trying to earn them or trying to increase them. The connection we make between money and happiness is strange because they are two very different concepts. Money is tangible, you can quantify it, and know exactly how much of it you have at any given time. Happiness, on the other hand, is subjective, elusive, has different meanings for different people and despite the efforts of behavioral scientist and psychologist alike, there is no definitive way to measure happiness. In other word, counting happiness is much more difficult than counting dollar bills. How can we possibly make this connection? Well, money, specifically in large quantity, allows for the freedom to do and have anything you want. And in simplest term, happiness can be thought of as life satisfaction and enjoyment. So wouldn’t it make sense that the ability to do everything you desire, result in greater satisfaction with your life.
Money is probably one of the most important things in this world. Without it, life would be very hard. With it, you become economically stable making life would be easier in some ways. But the real question is, can money actually make someone physically and emotionally happy? There are many sides to this debate; some who say yes and others who say no. Though most people agree with the statement, “Money doesn’t buy happiness,” there is still a large amount of people who disagree with it. They believe that money does indeed buy happiness and that it’s the most important thing in the world. There is no right or wrong answer to this question, it’s just a matter of what you believe in and your values.
However, that is far from reality as the majority of wealthy people nowadays are depressed and some going as far as committing suicide. Unfortunately, countless of people believe that wealth can buy one's happiness but that is false. It can elevate an individual mood for a limited period of time but it cannot change how one is. In fact, in Taylor article,“ Understanding Money and the Meaning of Life” Taylor learns from Needleman that wealth cannot change one's internal makeup, “ Money truly can not buy happiness, especially if you’re unhappy, to begin with. “If you are worrying about vegetables now, you’ll be worrying about yachts then,” Needleman jokes. “You’re a worrier. It’s in you, not the money. Life, except for the obvious physical needs, is not so much defined by the external situation as by the inner one. Having money won’t change your internal makeup.” Multiple individuals would agree with Needleman statement one cannot expect that once an individual acquires wealth they will be living a blissful life and that all of their problems will be rid
"For many people happiness is a pleasure, but life, wasted for pleasure, is a slavish life worthy of an animal. For others, happiness is honors, glory. However, glory is external, depending on appropriations and recognition. For someone, happiness is the multiplication of wealth, and there is one of the most absurd purposes – life, which is contradicted to nature, because the wealth is a means for something else, and as a goal does not make sense" .