11/13 Open Thread: Happiness is a Chore and a Fraud
When I was very young I had everything figured out and easily formulated. The ideal society would generate the greatest good for the greatest number of people. "Good" wasn't some metaphysical or abstruse thing, condition or phenomena, but was determined by the pleasure principle, that which produced pleasure, all things otherwise being equal, was good. Obviously, thought I, if there were multiple participants, to the extent not covered by substitution of pleasure for good in the phrase "greatest pleasure for greatest number", there needed to be bounds, such as one person's pleasure couldn't cause another person pain, and like that. Readily conflating happiness and pleasure, the ideal was that we should all be as happy as conditions permitted as much of the time as was possible. Simple (and simplistic) enough. Silly too, in substituting one undefined term for another and calling that an answer. but, like I said, I was very, very young.
Even then, the concepts of pleasure and happiness were being skewed and distorted by the great US marketing machine, as, to some extent, was the related concept of fun. The pleasure dome of Xanadu, or its equivalent could be had, for enough bucks. Laying in the sun on a nice beach was great, but think about Aruba, in the resort's beach lounge chair with a wait person bringing cold exotic drinks while beautiful specimens of the opposite sex frolicked or lounged nearby ... . Over the years, unless one maintained a tight grip on such ideas as "the simple pleasures" (whatever they might be) or the calm inner peace and pleasure of various intellectual pursuits or practices like yoga, Taoism or zen, the distortion provided by the great marketing machine came to totally dominate what those things meant. Fun has come more and more to involve water parks, Great America, Disneyville, Radio controlled powered toys, or, depending upon one's age, skiing, water skiing, ATVs, jet skis, off roading sky diving, sport fishing and, generally, playing with toys, preferably expensive ones. Pleasure involves good eats, good drinks, good music, good parties, good movies, good concerts, good TV shows, good sports matches and the like. And what of happiness? Happiness is still some sort of ephemera, a phantom with many elements of pleasure and fun at least in large part as above defined. Spontaneous joy and simple contentment still exist and occur, but are not what is actively sought after. That which is sought after is either work, or entails work to procure it.
I have cycled in and out of that trick box my entire life, even though I had also learned early on that the key to it all is contentment, especially being content with what one is and has. Pleasure is pleasant, basically "not-pain", and also not-angst, not-stress, and the like or those momentary feelings that eclipse ongoing pain and stress and angst. But, right around every corner there is something arguably better, something luxurious, delicious, wonderful and very, very shiny. Simply maintaining happiness has become stressful, requiring constant self-reminders that all that bullshit is simply that, bullshit. Time and again I have to stop and figuratively slap myself and say, "hey, schmuck, you're happy, enjoy it, revel in it, just do whatever and enjoy doing it and that you can." (My longstanding decision to be affirmatively content with myself and my personal situation is admittedly in extreme conflict with my raging dissatisfaction with the economic and socio-political reality of our lives and my duties to myself and future generations to speak out and resist. I can handle the severe cognitive dissonance because I have profound dissociative skills, a lifelong talent/curse that I amplified by doing pranayama on LSD. This is not recommended for the intrinsically sane.) That is why it is a chore, because one must struggle to maintain it against a barrage of bogus "wants" and "needs", and it is a fraud because it is being misrepresented as involving the fulfillment of those bogus "wants' and "needs." And that was more or less my state of being when I stumbled across an article very much on this selfsame topic, but even more so. I need only struggle to realize and enjoy my happiness, to grab it when it spot it lurking in the background. It turns out that the great noise machine has perpetrated far worse upon vast numbers, a false need to not only be constantly happy, but to project that and wear it as a personna.
The happiness ruse by Cody Delistraty was published by aeon on October 31, 2019 and starts with the rhetorical question How did feeling good become a matter of relentless, competitive work; a never-to-be-attained goal which makes us miserable?. It can be found here:https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-being-happy-become-a-matter-of-relentless... and is not really susceptible to fair use extraction, so I highly recommend reading it for yourself. It starts with the arguably ethically questionable study performed on a human infant by a psychologist named John B Watson, who then "progressed" to work in, what else, advertising for the firm of J. Walter Thompson where he instilled fears and insecurities as a means of creating artificial perceived needs for assorted products. From this already inauspicious beginning, the author leads the reader to see how the great noise machine has stopped instilling and targeting specific fears and has instead begun to target and manipulate a perceived need for happiness, as manifested by this, that or the other that you lack and need.
Happiness is in many ways the marketing breakthrough of the past decade, with self-care and anti-stress products now rounding out the bestseller list on Amazon (think of ‘gravity blankets’, ‘de-stressing’ adult colouring books and fidget spinners), where they nestle alongside chart-topping tomes by ‘happiness bloggers’. All of this is made possible by a specific, disturbing and very new version of ‘happiness’ that holds that bad feelings must be avoided at all costs.
...
This imperative to avoid being – even appearing – unhappy has led to a culture that rewards a performative happiness, in which people curate public-facing lives, via Instagram and its kin, composed of a string of ‘peak experiences’ – and nothing else. Sadness and disappointment are rejected, even neutral or mundane life experiences get airbrushed out of the frame. It’s as though appearing unhappy implies some kind of Protestant moral fault: as if you didn’t work hard enough or believe sufficiently in yourself.
The author contrasts this current culture of happiness as fetish with assorted older and otherwise different views on the matter, and notes in passing that the current including an interesting contrast between Hobbes and Epicurus, and notes that this problematic viewpoint seems to be decidedly Anglo-American and most certainly not French. He also notes that this leaves westerners between 4 and 10 times more likely than easterners to develop clinical depression or anxiety. He is also quick to point out the unsubtle hand of the great marketing machine in bringing this state of affairs into being.
The desire to twist our negative emotions into something upbeat is a way of thinking that leaves us open to the kind of ad-man manipulation in which Watson specialized. But it’s not a desire that entered our culture from a vacuum. There’s a significant economic incentive for businesses when people believe that happiness is something that we must work – and buy – toward. Happy workers tend to be about 12 per cent more productive. Google has a ‘chief happiness officer’. The ‘treat-yourself’ ethic is still a major sales driver, and nearly every beauty brand now bases its advertisements on ‘self-care’. Meanwhile, the APA revised its fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2013) so that any bereaved person grieving longer than two months might be considered to have a mental illness requiring medical treatment – for example, antidepressants such as Wellbutrin.
...
If Wellbutrin sounds a bit like the happiness-inducing drug ‘soma’ in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World (1932), it’s probably because it – and all of this happiness conditioning – is a bit Huxleyan. With the rise of positive psychology in the midcentury, which piggybacks on Hobbes’s 17th-century ideas, Huxley foresaw how the Epicurean ideal of happiness was being – and would be – transformed. ‘The right to the pursuit of happiness,’ he wrote in 1956, ‘is nothing else than the right to disillusionment phrased in another way.’
So, do read it and see what does and doesn't apply to you, your friends, neighbors and acquaintances, and what it implies and forebodes. Take away whatever is there for you to take away. It is better than I expected it to be.
Title Image is A Little Happiness
It's an open thread, so have at it. The floor is yours
.
Comments
Great essay Enhydra
The idea of acceptance and contentment with what we are and have is important, IMO. The balance of striving for improvement or better ways of experiencing life versus endlessly seeking the next dopamine fix is tricky.
...and happiness is just an illusion
cheers
Good morning QMS. Thanks for reading and for the 4 Tops.
You summed it quite nicely:
I often find that I am happiest when I am unaware of that fact, when I'm so immersed in something ordinary but pleasant enough that I'm unaware of the passage of time and even events around me. It is later, upon reflection, that I realize that that atemporal period of nor wanting, seeking or chasing anything was a satisfied and happy time. Your phrase "endlessly seeking the next dopamine fix" made me think of the chickadees out in the yard, so constantly busy and hyperactive, endlessly bounding around from thing to thing to thing.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Wellbutrin and stop-smoking pill Zyban = same active ingredient
Perhaps there’s some kind of a lesson there.
The physiological and neurological aspect of the nicotine habit is very difficult to overcome and I was always surprised that a pill could be so effective in neutralizing it.
The quoted passage makes it sound like Wellbutrin creates some kind of neurotransmitter-mediated dependency of its own.
Here’s a funny twist on the idea of maximizing the sum total of human happiness (notice that in the cartoon, their downfall seems to have been forgetting to tell the computer about the “for the greatest number” condition):
https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=2569
Any similarity to Zuckerberg or Bezos ending up with all the marbles as the end result of turning all of human life into cloud services is, I’m sure, purely coincidental.
Good morning lot. Yes Wellbutrin, like prozac is some sort of
classic "happy pill". That awareness triggers a dive into R&R history to find ...
Meanwhile that is a fantastic cartoon, thanks a bunch.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Pleasure vs Happiness
I just caught this clip last week. An interesting take on your theme today.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkjxKZ1dwB4&t=58m0s]
I've got it cued up to his conclusion on happiness vs pleasure. (Preceding that he goes into the biochemistry of the difference if any of you want to geek out.) He focuses on a similar ad to the one you post, and then launches into marketing vs propaganda.
These doctors fighting for sensible dietary guidelines face the wrath of these corporations.
Well on today's theme, I hope you all are happy and feeling productive! All the best.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning Lookout. Thanks for that clip. I only watched
from the point you had it queued up to. A very good exposition, and the emphasis on the difference between pleasure (dopamine) and happiness (serotonin) is great. It was good to see him take a shot at multitasking and, of course, processed foods.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning, el,
wonderful read to get through coffee and into the day; thank you.
Being a product of one happy family and one not so, often through these years have i asked why the difference? One family, Mom's, Puritanical, meaning they saw life as hell, not a place to be happy in; the other, Dad's, happy-go lucky in spirit, musicians and lacking religious foundation. The take-away resides, i think, in the families ability to express love, Dad's easily embraced each other and neighbors; Mom's, no hugs, with a keep the distance attitude in community.
I've not time to ramble on this morning and may return later as i enjoy this conversation you've begun and believe in quick summation, it's best to be as free as possible to live in the emotions instead of bottling them up into per-ordained societal norms, but i spent my formative years in the theatre in the roots of our emotions and may have a skewed view in all this.
Have to run to therapy. thanks again for a great column and have a good one.
Good morning smiley. I know what you mean about the
puritan side of things versus happy go lucky, though seriously diminished on the latter. It can be pretty stifling.
Have a good therapy session and a great day.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning all. This started life as a dupe.
So, what the hell:
Take your pick ...
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
was that robin williams
in the don't worry video?
Yep.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Happiness is...
While reading this essay, an episode of Doctor Who kept coming to mind. Season 10, episode 2 - Smile.
I haven't had much experience with happiness. But I do know that what happiness I have felt, it came from other people or animals and not from things. That feeling like I had when I looked at my kids for the very first time. That feeling I have when I see someone I have not seen in a while and they hug me so tight. Maybe I'm confusing happiness with love? Maybe happiness is love.
Anyone remember the old Charlie Brown book called, "Happiness is a Warm Puppy"? When I was little, my sister had that book and I read it all the time. I colored the pictures in it too and made my sister really mad. If I remember correctly, on each page it read, "Happiness is..." with something different finishing the quote. So, going by what that book taught me...
Happiness is a cat falling asleep in your lap.
Thank you for this essay.
Good morning Jen. Yes a cat falling asleep in your lap is
indeed happiness. Thanks for reading.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Dr. Who?
Who was my first intro into modern media space concepts.
Got it in black and white on a tiny tube in the AZ mountains.
Some pubic station from PHX
Agree with the vacuum you describe
people thinking happiness as being a thing
any less than the sorrow
an open soul feels
First base.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Just bunting
in base ball parlance
still gets you to first
Happiness = Wisdom + Virtue
That was Aristotle's formulation, if I remember correctly.
This concept of fun has always bothered me, since forever.
Fun was invented and developed within the post-war American consumer culture.
You drink Coke, not for nourishment, but because it's fun.
You'll find discussions of happiness and contentment in various different philosophical traditions, but fun ? What the Hell is Fun ?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZfudD4vKA width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Good morning Az. If you are at all familiar with my opinion
of the Beach Boys and their ouvre, you'll understand that I just love this comment. Yes, that encapsulates fun, right there, that band, that song, that irremedial absence of cognition, all it it. Thanks.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Also "fun",
"Stack-o-lee told the devil
let's you and me have some fun
you stab me with your pitchfork
and I'll shoot you with my 41."
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
T-shirts, cut-offs and a pair of thongs ...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tytTebj8ic width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Wore those every day, played cards on the beach, all that.
They just re-wrote little deuce coupe and be true to your school with surf & beach related words, and never went near the beach except one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
mighta been a .410
you were shooting for
squirrel gun
depending on the load
Excellent Article and a Fine Essay Here. Thank You for Bringing
it to my attention.
I've struggled with this nearly my entire life, only being "happy" in those moments of grand excitement or in creative work that has become my livelihood.
In writing my last book, the Tao of Disc Dog, I happened to fall into Taoism rather hard; realizing that I was not really a buddhist, but was a Taoist, at heart.
Acceptance of the balance, and realizing that I can't experience happiness without sadness or melancholy was quite a strange transformation for me. Being present, even in melancholy or sadness is, strangely enough, happiness for me now. It might not be pleasurable, but it is better than chasing the nut or running on the treadmill of happiness for my next fix.
That boom and bust idea of happiness is a terribly damaging emotional wheel. One is destined to not only be sad while riding that wheel, but tremendously un-happy for most of the revolution.
After taking my Tao dive, I've found that I'm rarely un-happy these days. I might be sad, melancholy, or not happy, but I'm not unhappy. Interesting perspective shift for me. It seems like some of you here have experienced it as well.
On the science front, Watson was a fraud, IMO, and despite the fact that we share a name, I find him quite odious. I believe he is partly responsible for the apathetic, sociopathic modern aristocracy due to his emotional "science" and it's widespread dissemination at the turn of the 20th century in high brow publications.
The dopamine hit that most modern Americans and researchers tend to see as "happiness" is a sham as well. It's fleeting and easily calloused, requiring higher and higher doses for the hit to register on the happy-ometer.
I appreciate all the comments here. Great discussion. I wish you all the best and hope you can find your happiness as simply and readily as I can find mine these days.
Peace~
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Good morning k9 - thanks for reading and glad you liked it.
A deep dive into the way of the Tao, to the best of my knowledge, never leaves one unchanged. Everybody I know who has gone there has come away with a new understanding of and capacity for happiness.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning, el ~~
The concept of happiness is fleeting, at best. It is what one wants it to be. It is what one expects it to be. Disappointment is the result of our inability to define happiness and what it means - it only sets up an expectation. If one can stop having expectations, I suspect much more happiness will ensue.
I quit smoking cold turkey a year after my spouse dropped dead of a heart attack and I figured smoking wasn't good for me. I love coca-cola, unfortunately. I do indulge and drink a coke a few times a year. I think it's okay.
Fun - hmmm... I've had a lot of fun in my day but it makes me feel guilty. Being raised Catholic, I can wear guilt with the best of them. It's something I've had difficulty overcoming. I'll accept any ideas on how to shed my guilt-trigger. Anyone?
I am a relatively happy person. I am an optimist. I love dancing.
Have a great hump-day, everyone!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Good morning RA. your comment that
echoes a classic Buddhist formulation, that the cause of suffering is the desire to have and control things, and that the cure for suffering is the cessation of that desire. Thanks for reading.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I guess I'm a natural Bhuddist!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I struggle to reconcile the evident wisdom of
detaching oneself from "wanting", with my wholly unjustifiable belief that passion is fundamental to our humanity, and surrendering passion -- including the passion that craves some particular satisfaction -- in favor of enlightened bliss is not just a cop out, but an abandonment of what it means to be a human being.
i doubt very much great art has been produced by individuals who had successfully given up "wanting to have or control". it's selfish of me, i suppose, but i'm glad that Eric Clapton was torn apart inside by his infatuation with Patti Boyd Harrison, else we never would have had Layla (which title itself came from an ancient Persian love poem). i'm glad that Vincent Van Gogh was denied peace of mind -- though i wish he'd received a little goddamned recognition. Beethoven's 9th is not the product of a calm and serene mind. Consider the very last poem that WB Yeats -- probably the greatest english-language poet of the last 200 years, and possibly ever -- wrote. It was composed in Italy in the spring of '38, as the Spanish Civil War raged and Fascism tightened its grip on the minds of his Italian hosts:
Politics
How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here's a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there's a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war's alarms
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!
And indeed, compare this to an earlier Yeats work:
The Scholars
Bald heads forgetful of their sins,
Old, learned, respectable bald heads
Edit and annotate the lines
That young men, tossing on their beds,
Rhymed out in love's despair
To flatter beauty's ignorant ear.
All shuffle there; all cough in ink;
All wear the carpet with their shoes;
All think what other people think;
All know the man their neighbour knows.
Lord, what would they say
Did their Catullus walk that way?
Yeats spent an enormous chunk of his adult life craving the physical and emotional affection of a woman named Maud Gonne. He understood more than a little about passion, about the wanting of something; the power of it can be traced all over through his works.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
That is THE dilemma of our ge and time, perhaps of all of our
existence. For some things there is a resolution, for there can be bliss, joy and happiness in some quests and interactions even though they require striving and seeking. That is why, for example, I included the following:
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Some guilt is only useful
for setting parameters.
Against the extremes perhaps?
Beyond which the creed does not cover.
Your belief in being worthy of happiness...
guilt free wishes. Amen
"Happiness Machines"
The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines"
Good morning Hindsight, thanks for reading and for providing
that video clip.
Have a good.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Marketing "Happiness"
It comes as no surprise that while people collectively show signs of self awareness, business swoops in to capitalize and then distort a very natural response to the soul killing nature of our inauthentic lives.
While there may be the "airbrushed happiness" pervading social media where people try to one up each other by posting their "fantastic" vacations, parties, and other social experiences, the overriding message we receive out there in the world, by far, is of a negative nature.
Putting a "happy face" on because you are more concerned that you are not part of the current "happy" zeitgeist, rather than getting in touch with why you are stressed or unhappy is, in my view, a bigger problem then the idea that society feels pressured to be "happy".
Distinguishing between relative happiness and absolute happiness is a personally unique experience that involves self growth and awareness. "Happiness" for many of the friends I left behind in New York, revolves around their careers, their bank accounts, and prestige. I left New York to curate a completely different life because I had no interest in living that kind of life. It was a personal choice where I defined what "happiness" meant for my life.
Marketing and advertising can shout from the rooftops whatever they please about their definitions of happiness. I will not be swayed. I have defined what happiness means for my life, and as with everything, my daily life may ebb and flow, but what is genuine remains constant. Sadly, I seem to be in the minority, because there are plenty of people out there who think "happiness" comes with batteries.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Good morning Anja. I suspect a common thread connecting
those who have found or at least aspire to true happiness is casting off all of the false measures and goals of success, self-worth and putative happiness, and simply finding that core principle of enjoyment of who one is and what one does and produces.
Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Very true
And as we head into the gluttonous nature of the holidays, a very relevant discussion to be having. Thanks for the topic and a great OT!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
what is genuine remains constant
no question
sounds like you prefer that
Interesting
I read your essay and was struck about how the most important elements of happiness are missing from it. Literally, after reading it, I said to myself--this essay isn't about happiness at all!
Almost entirely missing from the essay is a focus on--people. (Except for a mention about members of the opposite sex frolicking, which portrays people more as objects or things.)
I find almost all of my happiness--which is in no way a fraud--comes from people, my interaction with them, or their (or my) positive accomplishments. My group of friends who I share things with, and who share experiences and privacies with me. The laughs, the challenges, and overcoming those challenges. The stories that result.
One big glimmer of happiness from a couple days ago--Tulsi got 6% in a qualifying poll! Very cool stuff.
Please note that I don't mean to call your essay invalid or anything like that--I'm sure it holds true with a majority of people. I was just immediately struck by a discussion of happiness, and no mention of people--just mostly "things".
Good morning apenultimate. You have it right. The principle
elements of real happiness aren't at all emphasized, though a couple of hints do sneak in, because it is about what is being sold and/or passed off as happiness in today's culture. For those who buy into that culture and societal milieu, striving for or personifying "happiness" is very much a chore. For those who understand and appreciate true happiness, the constant bombardment of the self by all of these false messages and propaganda makes maintaining an awareness of one's happiness as a steady state property or process something of a chore because some portion of ones consciousness and energy is needed to constantly deflect all of the noise.
Thanks for reading and for providing your own insights, and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Speaking of marketing happiness — there’s “Happinez” magazine
which is kind of a yoga / hipster / “spiritual” / New Agey “mindstyle” magazine, published in France, the Netherlands, and Germany.
https://www.happinez.fr/
https://www.happinez.de/
https://www.happinez.com/
Kind of hilarious, first one has to agree to cookies, including
3rd party tracking coopies, and then a large bar suggesting that you "follow" them on various media and subscribe to what is certainly a spamletter, above the visa and mastercard logos you can, via two sets of links, first and foremost shop, or go to the blog which appears, from the presentation, to be largely superficial, junk sciency and/or readers' digest pyscholgy and largely aimed at females. The age, income and cultural milieu of the target audience is youthful, upper middle income, socialite wannabe and coffee table book, or so it appears to me. Now I have to go get rid of all of their cookies. Heh.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I always agree to the cookies
they taste well and I am incapable of believing that not accepting them would change anything. /s
https://www.euronews.com/live
Good evening mimi, thanks for reading. I tend to agree, but
a surfeit of cookies sometimes makes me sluggish.
Thanks for reading.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
“Stop — pay toll” on the road to Shambala
but souls who have linked E-Z Pass to their credit card can breeze right through.
happiness is a warm gun
Great essay EL!
I always like Dr. Wayne Dyer's take of: 'always striving, never arriving'. The endless pursuit of toys leaves one, wanting more toys. The acquisition game never ends, best not to start playing it.
Happiness is a Warm Gun
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Good evening dysto. You have just described the goal of all
marketing campaigns.
Thanks and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
The German business and political elite are all agog today
Happiness for them, it seems, is Elon Musk’s surprise plan to build a giant Tesla factory on the outskirts of Berlin.
Because Germany rocks.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Wonderful essay
I posted the article on Facebook and tagged a like-minded friend.
Gratitude = Happiness
IMO
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Good evening marilyn, glad you liked it. Have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Evening el
Et al
Long day. Happiness is writing a climate initiative for the March ballot. Let the people decide. Happiness is watching the shadows of the leaves dance across the room. Happiness is a fancy passing. A moment. A breath. A color caught in passing. watching my cat sit in the sunniest spot he can find. Thanks for the great OT. Be well...
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook
Good morning, magi. Yes, it is indeed all that. Be well and
have a great one yourself.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --