Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Happiness Post
After reading Franklin's "The Way to Wealth" and Jefferson's "The Declaration of Independence," I'd like you to look at this post, "10 Easy Things That Will Make You Happier, Backed By Science." Next, I'd like you to ruminate in the comments section about whether or not you think contemporary mainstream American culture helps or hinders individuals in their pursuit of happiness. Why or why not? Give some examples to your personal life. Explain whether or not you think the happiness the scientists are talking about is the same or different than the happiness that Franklin and Jefferson describe. Your post should be 6-10 sentences long and should agree or disagree with an earlier post from one of your peers.
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Mainstream America likes to promote happiness as a very commercialized idea; that the was to someone's heart and happiness is through food, or gifts, or other temporary objects. What the happiness the scientists are explaining has to do with physical activities that can improve mood scientifically speaking. Like exercising for at least 7 minutes a day can boost self esteem, even when one has seen no physical change in body shape. The ideas that both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson are presenting shows happiness in a very social and religious way- without science and commercialism where many people can't help falling for. The independence and simple ideas that these men both extend shows that the way to happiness is within freedom, and work ethic. You can be pleased with yourself if you have worked well. "For age and want, save while you may; no morning sun lasts the whole day." This quote helps show us that it is sometimes the simple, most prevalent things in life that we seem to ignore that can make us happy. It is the modern day America that has fooled the mind that a "beach body" and a face full of makeup is what makes us happy. In honesty, it is what makes us more self conscious. Science has proven some ways that can keep us happy, however, so have Franklin and Jefferson, showing us that it's not our conveniences that please us the most, but the sun that rises and fall each day and the rights we are granted that makes us true Americans are what truly makes us happy, and of course, the time we spend with throes we care most about.
ReplyDeleteMainstream america helps to average american in there pursuit of happiness in many ways. Lots of americans like to Smoke cigarettes that will kill you. So the owners of these big corporations give the people what they want with lots of advertisements about goods they consume. Also a large population of our country is over weight. So once again large corporations market this and take advantage of the people by selling that is addicting like junk food. So I agree with Liv's post above because all of her points are valid. Because even though you walk for 10 minutes a day does not mean you going to lose 50 pounds.
ReplyDeleteMain stream America helps individuals in their pursuit of happiness. This main stream helps everyone realize that they have an equal chance at life. Also most of these adds and things on TV or your computers are positive and show you that you can make a difference in your own life at anytime. Like Liv said exercising everyday for just seven minutes isn't going to change much in your life besides the way you mentally look at yourself. This idea comes from an article on your computer that is trying to help us as Americans have a healthier mind and be more happy. So in a way main stream America is good for the overall pursuit of happiness of the average individual.
ReplyDeleteThe pursuit of happiness is capitalized by the American Dream. In saying that, what I mean is that there are a lot of little things that can improve morale. One of those little things, is lack of sleep by many, sleeping more will help how your emotions display themselves as well as being able to block out the negative emotions. I believe that what Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson are trying is that happiness is earned by the hard workers, that everyone is born with equal rights but some just choose to do better things with those right than others. I've always noticed that the hardest workers are the most successful in life, the ones who stay up late working and grinding in the early morning hours. Working hard runs through one's genes, whether your parents were hard workers or not will show up in your daily work ethic. These are my thoughts because I see it everyday with students that are brought up with a poor background however there is a small population of people who do try and get out of the situation that they've been born with. Improving a work ethic is hard when there is nothing to base it off of. In relevance to what Jefferson and Franklin described as happiness is the fact that to achieve this happiness, there must be a certain amount of effort put forward.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Liv wholeheartedly. It is not right for people to feel disappointed in themselves just because they don't fit an image. "We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct." People can be told how to run their lives or given advice but it doesn't mean that they're going to follow it. Exercising everyday gives people self confidence and better self images of themselves. Every little thing counts. "Many a little makes a mickle." The happiness the scientists are talking about is very similar yet different to the kind of happiness Franklin and Jefferson are talking about. The scientists talk about mental happiness, while Franklin and Jefferson are describing more about happiness found by being recognized. Franklin describes this long monologue that one old man said. But the man used Franklin's work in his speech and this made Franklin happy because of the recognition.The scientists talk about happiness found by oneself and what a person can do to make themselves happier. There can be many different types of happiness, but in the end, they all add up to the same thing. Mainstream American culture doesn't always help in the pursuit of happiness. It has created this false image of skinny, popular girls in revealing clothing and painted faces being happy. Many young girls want a thigh gap. Why? Because its an "image" created by mainstream America. Being skinny and beautiful isn't going to make you happy. Being comfortable and true to yourself is. Spending time, and finding enjoyment, with others is true happiness. Allowing yourself to love and to be loved and finding the people you just connect to certainly makes me happy. Mainstream affects me in a lot of ways but I try to stay true to myself and not let it turn me into someone I'm not. I believe that I'm naturally just a happy person but I'm going to use what the article was saying to make my day even happier.
ReplyDeleteMainstream America does not help with the average Americans happiness. The media presses all of these adds telling people that depressants and things that kill you are a good thing. They also push an unreachable body image onto both men a women. Not only does the media push these commercials that tell us to do unhealthy addictive substances, but they are geared at teenagers. Both men and women have eating disorders related to the image that America pushes out. Women are also encouraged to objectify themselves, and be something they are not. American mainstream hurts the happiness of the Americans.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cros in the sense that mainstream American culture does not help with the average Americans happiness. It may help with others though. It puts pressure onto the people to look better and lose weight when people should be happy the way they are. I don't think that the happiness that the scientist talked about was the same happiness that Franklin and Jefferson is the same. Franklin talks more about staying good financially so that you may live a good life and you have to work hard and get things done so you don't fall behind. Jefferson talks more about having a good government in the Declaration of Independence and that will allow the governed to be happier. The scientists talk more of doing little things here and there to stay happy such and being active at least seven minutes a day or planning a vacation but not necessarily going on it. I feel that Franklins, Jeffersons, and the scientists views all combined would equal complete happiness.
ReplyDeleteThe pursuit of happiness is hindered by America's society today. People now tend to care more about appearances than how successful a person is. Women and girls in particular, have trouble with this issue. At a very young age girls are introduced to barbies and princesses that appear to be what America's society presumes as perfect. Most women focus on how they look or act to appeal to people, not on how successful they actually are. My friend from middle school once stopped playing lacrosse because she thought that she was beginning to look too muscular compared to other girls. I know that I don't look like a model or a barbie, but I do care about what I look like. I brush my hair everyday, put on mascara, and perfume, but I still play sports, do my HW, and be myself. I am not interested in acting dumb or slatternly so that I appeal to people. I am determined to be as successful as possible and pursue happiness in my successes. For some females this determination is lost because they feel lonely, or they don't feel like everyone else. America's society today has made success for people in general more difficult because differences are seen as a bad thing, and success is somewhat important, but not as important as what you like. The happiness that the scientists are talking about is more emotional rather than being happy with what you are doing. Being happier by sleeping longer may improve a human's success throughout the day but Benjamin Franklin was addressing proudness in oneself’s accomplishments in life. I agree with Cros, American Culture doesn’t improve the pursuit of happiness it hinders it because of the pressure to be perfect and critical judgment of differences.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, contemporary mainstream American culture helps individuals in their pursuit of happiness. Because all the method that can make people feel happy is really simple. Everybody can do exercise for 7 minutes and get enough sleep,no matter he is rich or poor, in the top class or in the middle class of society. I think that the main idea of this article is equality. And it's really similar as what Franklin and Jefferson said. Franklin said that if you get away from lazy and be more industrial, you will be a successful person and have enough money to pay your taxes. Jefferson said that all the people create equal. So the main idea of those article is the same and it tell us that the contemporary mainstream of America help individuals and it is nearly no different from the main idea of America.
ReplyDeleteMainstream American culture helps with the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness is simply one person getting to or trying to get to a point in their life that they are happy and satisfied. I believe we experience it every day when we go to school. School is so mainstream now a days. The pursuit of happiness bipeds on the individual but most people are happy when they lear and are educated which eventually will turn out as a job where you will make money. Who doesn't like a job when you make good money. But also depending on the person The article you had us read "10 things that will make your live happier, that is the pursuit of happiness for most people. We see it all the time in society where people are running on the side of the road and most of us will drive by and say, "wow I couldn't or would not want to do that but with some people that is what they want to do and what makes them happy. American culture helps with generally every humans pursuit of happiness.
ReplyDeleteIn mainstream America everybody many people want you to think that the more stuff you have whether you need it or not will make you happy. This way you keep buying things that you don't need and making them money. But In both the blog and Thomas Jeffersons reading they say that you don't need stuff to be happy. Jeffersons talk mainly about how you don't need to buy all these fancy luxuries to be happy. The article talked more about the scientific way to be happy like how if you exercise for even 7 minutes a day you will still feel happier. So I agree with what Liv said how modern America has trained you to believe that you need lots of stuff to be happy when really you don't.
ReplyDeleteMainstream America is full of material things advertised to "make you happy" or "make you better" but those items don't really work because they won"t actually make you feel good about yourself. What matters is your relationships with people. Taking care of your body, and socializing really help your happiness levels a lot. Jefferson is saying the same thing, in a way. You don't need luxuries as much as a good work ethic and freedom. He is thinking more abstractly than the article, which went into scientific detail. I agree with many of the points above when it comes to the idea that most of the American people now are deluded about how to be happy. That we are trained to think material goods and image are the way, when all you really need is to be healthy.
ReplyDeleteMost normal people do not complete these activities and reach happiness. After reading I feel that someone may think these are normal tasks but in reality its hard to fit all these activities in an everyday schedule. All of these tasks that the scientists claim that make you happy I believe very strongly in this. But overall i think the efficiency of america destroys happiness. So in order to receive happiness the person must break away from the process that most humans go about in a day. Although Thomas and Jefferson beliefs are not the same they have the same intentions.
ReplyDeleteModern time American culture helps and hurts individuals in their long journey of the pursuit of happiness. In America, you can choose many different paths. There are a million different ways to choose, so you can have many pursuits of happiness, but views of what the ideal pursuit of happiness hurts the individuals. An example of the modern time helping could be owning your own business like my parents. They aren't the richest people, but they make a living. Their proud and happy with their life and what they've accomplished. A hurtful example hurting the pursuit of happiness is magazines. Magazines demonstrate how the upper 1% live their lives. This influences how people lives how they should live their lives, it aces them think their dreams of happiness aren't as good as someone else's life.Immigrants come to the United States, for many different reasons. The many reason is because of the freedom and the protection of freedom and finding a pursuit of happiness that makes them happy. They create their own lifestyle and work hard and don't try to hard to change their life to fix the 'right' lifestyle. Americans should follow the example of the immigrants and not follow in someone else's path, but follow theirs. The happiness talked about by the scientists is extremely different from Jefferson and Franklin. Franklin and Jefferson’s ideas formed around creating lifestyles that you worked to life the life you want and the life you live is your own lifestyle, be happy with it. The scientific facts tell you that you should improvements in your lifestyle to be more modern-day society.
ReplyDeleteIn modern america, pop culture portrays happiness as something that can be obtained through obtaining material things like money or merchandise. This is because Americans have been swept up into a commercialized world where corporations rule and tell people how to be happy. happiness should be determined by the individual and however they feel happiest. But large business want you to buy their product and thus have sold the lie that if you help their business you will be happy.
ReplyDeleteI think that most of those activities could make some people happy but most teenage boys don't enjoy going for walks along with a fair amount of adult men. There are definately people inside playing video games who are having fun and don't even want to go to the bathroom. Also The walking says your brain will have more activity (the color waves) and meditating will make you have less, so if I do both is nothing really happening to me? Franklins idea on happiness is more realistic he believes that you should live how you want to live. I bet If he was around during this modern era he would have no problems with the people playing video games for a living as long as they are having fun while doing it.
ReplyDeleteMain stream America helps people follow their pursuit of happiness which is the American Dream. Main stream helps everyone realize that equality is among all of us as a whole society. What you do with your life is your choice and that is judged by you drive for success and determination to do or find what you love. The overall efficiency of America has however not helped this pursuit as working hard long hours in factories for extremely small pay is not justified by what main stream americas goal is. Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin both had different view points on happiness. The cold hard fact that improving you lifestyle in work and out will make you an overall happier person and pursue your happiness
ReplyDeleteI think that the attitude and lifestyle of mainstream America hinders people pursuit of happiness. Not following the status quo is considered different in America, and some people happiness comes from being different. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson both view happiness in a social and religious way. The scientific keys to happiness I think are different of how Franklin and Jefferson view happiness. Things such as happiness is maximized at 13.9 degrees celsius seem weird but are actually proven to increase daily happiness. These methods that the scientist say improve happiness I believe are simple ways to do so. In conclusion, the views in which the scientist have on happiness and Franklin and Jefferson have on happiness seem like different methodology but are actually very similar.
ReplyDeleteThe current culture is possibly the worst culture a person trying to reach the Persuit of Happiness could be engaged in. Happiness back then came much easier than it does today: do good and good will come to you. Today we literally have to have scientific back up that smiling is a sign of happiness in order to believe it. "He that by the plough would thrive, himself must either hold or drive." Today we aspire to achieve happiness by becoming one of the rest. But Jefferson and Franklin describe a world in which happiness wasn't about fitting in, but rather about achieving something for yourself. We would all like to say this is exactly how we intend on achieving happiness -- but our current state has made it simply impossible for that to be the reality.
ReplyDeleteContemporary Mainstream America talks a lot about happiness but hinders the actual pursuit of it. Though many Americans are happy people, the pursuit of happiness is thwarted by life. Work, children, love, money, and many other aspects of life, though bringing happiness to your life, also hinder the individual pursuit of it. Belle Beth Cooper writes a list of things one can do to become more happy, the problem is finding the time to do these things. Life itself is both full of happiness and stress. Most things that bring on happiness will also bring them unhappiness. For example, though a newborn baby is the most wonderful thing for a parent to have happen it is also time-consuming and will bring stress to ones life. So, life itself brings happiness to one but also takes away the time to “pursue happiness”.
ReplyDeleteNice discussion of the double-bind of happiness… Finding the time is difficult for sure.
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