On Happiness

Facebook is a forum where you will continually see people talking about happiness. These are usually the sweet cliches, the nostalgic pictures, and the like

The topic was mentioned in a Psychology class I attended as an undergrad. Or maybe it was a reading. I guess it tends to blur together after a while.

Here's the crux of happiness, in a non-romantic sense: Having more than the other guy.

Here's an experiment conducted to test this. You give a kid a choice: "Hey kid. I got two scenarios for you. Either I give you five peanuts, and I give your friend over there two peanuts. Or, I'll give you nine peanuts, and I'll give your friend thirteen peanuts."

Most kids chose the first.

Why? Because they wanted to have more than their friend, even if it ended up costing them more. He's willing to give up four peanuts just so he could feel superior to his friend, rather than have an extra four, and look over his friend's shoulder with envy.

I think if we stretch this metaphor, we can imagine people would be happier as a caveman who has two deer to eat while the guy in the next cave over only has one small rabbit for dinner, than we would be if we lived in a large beverly hills house, down the block from a guy with a mansion and a dozen luxury cars.

Now is this irrational? Is happiness found in seeing we're better off than whoever is around for us to compare to? Or is it doing well for ourselves, even if someone else is doing better?

I hope we can understand that the second is a more mature way of living. Otherwise, we get to a spot where we may torch the city, just so we can be more comfortable than the newly made homeless in our one-room bomb shelter.