Happiness? Is that really a priority? (Sumblog 6)

               Harriet Martineau is a really interesting social theorist, but one of her main theories that stands out to me is her idea of, “Law” of Social life with the emphasis on happiness and how we are all striving for it, no matter what. I would tend to agree with this. Because even if we’re doing something that could be viewed as completely altruistic, I think that we still take some pleasure-some semblance of happiness- away for ourselves from helping others.

               I think that happiness is a core to our existence, and that in order for us to be completely fulfilled humans, we have to have some semblance of happiness to survive. Even if it is only a moment at a time, and it doesn’t last very long, we crave that intimacy with ourselves. We have the urge to get the giggles so bad that our stomach muscles hurt. And honestly, is there really anything wrong with that? I think arguments can be made that it can hurt people, because what if one person’s goal for attaining happiness is to hurt another person? Come one Amanda, it’s not appropriate for people to cause harm to others to get to their happiness. I definitely wouldn’t disagree with either of those statements, however I think that identifying those people would be really important in our society, especially figuring out what social constructions created the person into having those desires. Understanding, what leads to people being able to do and not do things is important. I think that if we all strive to create happiness in ourselves and others, we will slowly be able to build a stronger community. There will be many roadblocks and missteps along the way, but isn’t that part of life? Understanding that not everything is glitters and gold, and actually trying to polish that sand to turn it into a pearl? I think that eventually, if we strive for improvement and betterment in the area of happiness, a lot of positives will be reached that were never imaginable before.