I’m sure we’ve all had points in our lives where we said, “I have a beautiful house, a beautiful wife, a fast car, a job that doesn’t make me hate myself…” or “I have a million dollars, but no friends…” or “I’m rich and famous, but I have no money…”
“… why am I not happy?”
Excellent question! I recently read this mind blowing blog post which I recommend you read too:
Essentially the blog post says that there are two forms of “pleasure.” There is Fast Euphoria and Slow Euphoria. Fast Euphoria you get from racing your friend in a foot race, or working late into the night on your Anarcho-Techno-Marxist Manifesto. You can also get it from amphetamines! It feels good and it’s high energy. It’s thrilling.
Opposite that is Slow Euphoria. You get this from finally cleaning your entire house and getting rid of all that junk, or a hug from an old friend, or sipping tea with your cat on your lap and watching the sunrise. You can also get it from opioids! It feels good and it’s low energy. It’s contentedness.
The first thing to realize is that there is a difference between happiness and pleasure. Humans were meant to pursue pleasure. The reason we are not happy is because we were not meant to be happy.
We look for mates, and money, and status because it feels good in the moment. We are being rewarded with Fast Euphoria to reinforce behavior such as: hard work, persistence, creativity etc.
Ideally, once you have a mate, money, and status, you will experience some Slow Euphoria. But not too much Slow Euphoria. Too much and humans lose incentive to work hard, persist, and be creative.
What does this mean for the Meaning of Life? It’s important to realize the forces of nature that push and pull us in the same way it’s important to understand weather. And once we understand the weather, we can start farming…
Suppose we live in a world controlled by Anarcho-Techno-Marxists robots. They offer free amphetamines for people who vote, and free opioids for people who buy houses. This is not really a world we want to live in, but only because it makes us unhappy! Think about how much happier we will all be once they can plug wire receptors directly into our brains and trigger emotions remotely!