Artificial Happiness

Happiness is Fleeting

What made us happy yesterday might not do it today. One need only observe children and their ever constant desires to understand that happiness is a temporary state at best. The littlest thing will make a small child deliriously happy - for a while. As they grow the child's requirements to achieve a constant state of happiness outpaces a parent's ability to meet them. That's when the trouble begins.

What is happiness? Why is it so slippery? Like water through our hands we can feel it, bask in the glory of it and enjoy the moment, but rest assured the moment will be gone. Frankly, that's the way it's supposed to be. We cannot, should not expect to be happy all the time. We actually do ourselves and our children a disservice by trying to make happiness "the" goal. Happiness, I believe happens naturally without coaxing.

The American Declaration of Independence places happiness front and center... "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Note that Jefferson did not say Life, Liberty and the achievement of Happiness. The pursuit of happiness is all about the journey. Therein lies the key. Quite often it's the journey not the destination. We find happiness along the way, and sometimes in the most unusual places.

If we look at life, even the grind of daily life, as a series of small journeys and enjoy the fleeting moments of contentment and satisfaction we will go a long way toward being a well adjusted soul. Unfortunately, for many people (since the beginning of time) recognizing happiness for what it is becomes impossible.

Enter Artificial Happiness

Artificial happiness comes in many forms and sad as it is to say nearly all of them are ultimately destructive if they become the journey... We humans have an endless supply of vehicles to climb aboard: alcohol, drugs (legal and illegal), eating, sex, exercise, TV, shopping, self-improvement, gambling, electronic games and gadgets, selfishness - well, the list goes on forever. Now, any one of these can enhance a moment that lead to periods of contentment and satisfaction if they are treated as just one small part of the journey. For too many people once seduced by the instant gratification of making the journey without all those pesky up and downs happiness becomes about feeling no pain or frustration - ever. Seeking some kind of temporary happiness via any of these vehicles is so effective nothing else will do anymore.

Inevitably they all crash. If you are a compulsive shopper eventually the money runs out. Drug and alcohol use produces terrible hangovers and addiction. TV watching in excess leads to a sedentary life that introduces all kinds of health problems - physical and mental. It's just not a pretty picture.

Enter Modern Medicine

In his book "Artificial Happiness" Anesthesiologist and political philosopher Ronald Dworkin explores the role the medical community has played in the instant gratification field of the pursuit of happiness. He takes a lot of heat from those who claim he is far too dismissive of minor depression and the treatment of it. His primary angle, interestingly enough does not focus on psychiatrists. Instead he pins the blame on primary care doctors. The claim that far too many people are taking Prozac for unhappiness and not really for clinical depression is very compelling. Which comes first the chicken or the egg - unhappiness or depression? Dworkin is really careful about separating real (major) depression from unhappiness. Depression, not unhappiness, should be treated with drugs, and Prozac and Zoloft as well as many others are safe and effective when perscribed in an applicable situation. The problem is that doctors take cues from their patient's expression of unhappiness (during 10 minute encounters) and then prescribe anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

Unhappiness, stress and other temporary afflictions are perfectly natural and universal. The rich and famous are often the most unhappy. Oddly, in some parts of the world the poorest people are the happiest. This has been the focus of many studies over the years and while seemingly counterintuitive the real answer to this paradox is expressed in the simple phrase "money can't buy happiness". Neither can drugs or alcohol.

Me, I recommend balance. A little of this, a little of that and a whole lot of God. Talking with God via the Holy Spirit that resides in your heart is the very best counseling your can receive. In other words take God along with you on this journey we call life. He's a great listener and the perfect gut check.



CW

Change

They say that the only constant is change. After 45 years on this planet I have to say that this universal observation is indeed an immutable law. This is, of course, a contradictory statement...

immutable: im·mu·ta·ble
Pronunciation: (")i(m)-'myü-ta-b&l
Function: adjective
definition: not capable of or susceptible to change

It only emphasizes the fact that absolutely nothing is cut and dried, wait, there is beef jerky... Well, you know what I mean!

Monday, July 10th, I will turn 45.
My sixteen-thousand-seven-hundred-and-ninety-first day of breathing the free air will not be much different than the day before. This is good. Yes, it is true that change can be good, even essential, but, rapid change is jarring and disorientating. Being plunged into ice cold water from a deep sleep can never be good, right?

We might think that gradual change is better, more tolerable and infinitely more manageble. I'm not so sure. Some of the greatest things come in the flash of an eye. For instance: Love at first sight. It is not a cliche, it happens. It is the most exhilarating thing a human being can experience. It whacks you upside the head and you've been changed.

Unfortunately for love and all other forces of nature it has it's equal and opposite. If love at first sight is like throwing the switch on a 5000 watt search light then its opposite is the smolding embers of an unattended campfire.

Even God's universe is bound by this conundrum known as change. It began with a bang and it will end with an entropic whisper...

entropy
Pronunciation: 'en-tro-pE
Function: noun
1 : broadly : the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system
2 : a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder

What ravels will unravel.




CW

Answer Me This

After watching the movie "Firewall" the other day something they did got me thinking about the fate of the two American service men who were kidnapped and brutally tortured in Iraq. The movie itself was largely forgetable - a typical Harrison Ford flick, a humble everyday Joe thrust into traumatic circumstances - and confirmed my decision to wait for the DVD rather than pay full price at the theater.

Toward the end of the flick the hero was trying to find his kidnapped family and when he heard his dog barking in the background - I know, I know, what kind of kidnappers would take the damn dog too - he remembered that the dog had one of those identity chips implanted on it. Using the website provided by the maker of the chip he was able to track the dog via the miracle of GPS and it led him to his family.

So, I ask, why in Heaven's name isn't the military implanting chips like these in every single one of their combat and field personel? It certainly can't be because of privacy rights, these men and women are the property of the US government as much as my dog is my property.

These two soldiers could have been located and possibly rescued before they were so brutally murdered. It also begs a larger question, and I know there are a lot smarter people than I in the military, why have they not secrectly implanted these chips on prisoners and then set them free so they could be led to hidey holes the terrorists are using? Maybe they are doing this, how am I to know... It would be a cheap and easy way to do intelligence.

Of course, now the New York Times will be exposing this practice too, if indeed it is an effective tool for fighting the War on Terror. The hue and cry over the constitutional rights of soldier and terrorist alike will be debated on Chris Matthew's "Hardhead" on MSNBC. So, on second thought, nevermind that you read any of this...


CW

Soccer Sucks

Them's Fightin' Words...

I tried, I really did. I lasted exactly 12 minutes on one game and about 7 on another. Bottom line: soccer sucks bigtime! I know I am an ugly American who just can't understand the subtle nuances of the "World's Game", but I'm sorry, soccer sucks.

I about puked after receiving the latest issue of National Geographic and it's gushing series of articles over the celebration that is soccer, but, frankly, it still sucks.

Years ago when my son was small I had him join soccer and hoped I would learn to appreciate the game. No, it sucked. In fact, that's probably the absolute worst introduction to the game. Watching 16 kids chase a ball around like a brood of ducklings following it's mother was as brutal to watch as it sounds.

What is the deal with not being able to use your hands? God gave us 4 limbs, not two. In America's favorite sports we are allowed and encouraged to use all of our of our God-given limbs. I'm am sure it takes great skill to be a top soccer player, but how would I know great talent if I saw it? Watch grown men run, kick ball, bounce ball off head and after that - run, kick ball, bounce ball off head. Dazzling demonstration of skill, no?

And what is with that goal? Personally I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a soccer ball, but these "skilled" players often go 90 minutes and never get the ball in the goal which is as big as... THE BROAD SIDE OF A BARN!

Needless to say soccer sucks. Give me NFL, College Hockey and Major League Baseball in that order any single day over World Cup Soccer.

Oh, did I mention that soccer sucks?


CW

The Ultimate Insurance Policy

There is almost nothing I hate forking over my hard earned cash for than insurance premiums. It seems like such a racket, and it is. Insurance companies make piles and piles of cash. Even after devastating natural disasters when their outlays are messured in the billions of dollars they find a way of shoveling more money on those aforementioned piles. In fact, man-made disasters like the stock market crash of 2000-01 didn't slow them down a bit - they simply raised everyone's premiums to cover their poor investment decisions.

However, when there is an auto accident or hail destroys the roof of your house it is the insurance company that gets us over the hump. Rarely (ha, never) do I a couple thousand dollars laying around to cover the cost of a new quarter panel for the Lincoln Town Car I just rammed.

Insurance as a concept is brilliant, actually. By spreading out the costs over multitudes of payers the economic impact on any one individual claimant does not have to be personally or systemically devastating. But what about society as a whole? We live in an era in which we are so dependent on this societal machine to deliver our food, water and energy that any major disruption could be potentially disasterous.

The doomers in our midst (most hard core leftists) play the chicken little card so often that most of us just tune them out. We have good reason to dimiss them with a rolling of the eyes and a pat on their pathetic little heads while cooing a soft "there, there". They are almost always wrong. Why, just in the last few years we have seen massive disasters that have barely registered a blip on the day to day lives of those not directly involved. Sure the attacks of 9/11 have had wide ranging impacts on our country and the greater Middle East where the perpetrators originated from, but the daily routines of 99% of us has not been affected. Hurricane Katrina, the earthquakes in Iran, and Pakistan, the tsunami of '04, droughts and floods worldwide, the effects of the oil price shocks have not devastated the daily routines of most of the inhabitants of this planet. The doomers were wrong about the population bomb and mass starvation. They were wrong about Saddam Hussein's "nuclear winter" when he set fire to the Kuwaiti oil fields. They are proving to be wrong about George W. Bush as the anti-christ and they will be proven wrong on the disasterous effects of global warming.

What if, God forbid, a comet lands a direct hit on Earth, or a rouge state successfully detonates an EMP producing nuclear weapon (read Birdblog's essay on EMP) over North America or Europe? Unlike Katrina or 9/11 affecting the Gulf Coast or NewYork City these disasters would affect nearly everyone. Disruptions in food and water production and delivery would be felt almost immediately. If it happened to be winter in the northern hemisphere we would be unable to heat our homes. Needless to say our society would most likely crumble in the short term. In the case of a space born disaster like the comet strike the whole world would be plunged into chaos.

I am convinced that humanity would survive because unlike the dinosaurs and the millions of other species that have come and gone on this miraculous planet we have the ability to devise a concept as brilliant as insurance.

We have a written history and millions of librarys, museums and archives that would allow mankind to pick up the pieces and begin to rebuild the world. Thanks to some very forward thinking people there will be a resopsitory of seeds stashed in a very safe place so food production could resume.

I read with great interest an article in the Washington Post last week about the ultimate insurance policy: on the barren Norwegian outpost of Svalbard, the prime ministers of five nations and a small throng of other officials will lay the cornerstone for what will be, in effect, the Fort Knox of seeds.

While I have never heard of a Seed Bank before apparently some forward thinking people have. The concept is not new as I learned there are large national seed banks in many nations including the United States and China. This new facility will be for the benefit of all mankind. Currently 200 nations are on board, the US Senate has yet to ratify the treaty the Bush Adminstration signed, and the facility is slated to be running by 2007.

Perhaps the world should also consider building a facility up on the top of the world to house the equilvalent of the "world's Library of Congress" as well. Face it, what good are all those seeds if you don't know how to build a tractor and a plow???


CW

Ya Sure Sweden, da Greatest Society

Socialism's shining star has lost some of it's sheen...

Many high school students head out into the world, college bound or not, convinced by their social studies teachers that Sweden is greatest society on Earth. Sweden is the model all socialists point to as the ultimate example of societal bliss. After being fed a steady diet of how bad America is with its history of slavery and its decimation of the native peoples of this continent Sweden in comparison looks pretty darn good.

But all is not well in the land of the midnight sun. Sweden the Model is showing signs of its age and the wear and tear of global economy that is stuck in high gear. Sweden is suffering the same malaise as the rest of Europe. The cost of cradle to grave socialism is wearing heavily on a country that is not economically dynamic in the least. The fact that 50% of the nations GDP is spent by the government just might have something to do with it...

Johan Norberg is a Swedish writer and an author of several books, including In Defense of Global Capitalism (2003). He has written a piece for the the NationalInterest.org's website that delves into the reality of the world's greatest socialist success story and I'm here to tell you it's not pretty - anymore.

What I find so interesting is how Sweden's social success was predicated on the exact attributes that American conservatives claim to be the real strength of the American model. These attributes being self-reliance, self-discipline, high productivity and efficiency. Sweden also kept its taxing mits off the businesses and instead taxed the worker to whom the social benefits were distributed.

The homogenus, hard working population, low immigration and steady as she goes big industry made it possible for Sweden to maintain a generous welfare system. That is changing in this rapidly transforming globalized world. In contrast America has a huge immigration influx every year. A population more diverse than anywhere else on the planet. We have an economy that is not in steady state and, in fact, transforms itself every 20 to 30 years. Yet we still maintain a social benefit system that spends trillions of largely unproductive dollars.

So, I guess what I am saying is that comparing Sweden to America is comparing bluberries to watermelons.

Johan Norberg doesn't make too many comparisons in his article, he merely explains what went right and what is now going wrong with the once famed Swedish Model. Here are a few instructive quotes from the article:

"After the recession of the 90's... Sweden retained the world's highest taxes, generous social security systems and a heavily regulated labor market, which split the economy: Sweden is very good at producing goods, but not at producing jobs."

"Sweden's true unemployment rate is still 12 percent... Moreover, the unemployment rate says nothing about another hidden labor problem: rampant absenteeism. Swedes are healthier than almost any other people in the world, but they are also out sick more often than any other people"

"Since the early 1980s, Sweden has received a large number of refugees from the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, which has ended the country's homogeneity. Today, about one-seventh of the working-age population is foreign born, but no where near that proportion is actually employed."

"The Swedish model has survived for decades, but the truth is that its success was built on the legacy of an earlier model: the period of economic growth and development preceding the adoption of the socialist system."

"The real worry is that Sweden and other welfare states have reached a point where it is impossible to convince majorities to change the system, despite the dismal results. Obviously, if you are dependent on the government, you are hesitant to reduce its size and cost."

And finally:

"Radical reform seems far off. On the other hand, just like the step-by-step construction of the welfare state that slowly but steadily reduced the willingness to work and the sense self-reliance, incremental reforms to expand freedom of choice and reduce the incentives to live off fellow-citizens might rejuvenate these fundamental values and increase the appetite for reform."

If Sweden, the world's most successful socialist state is falling apart then why is there still such a yearning for it in the lefist heart in America. My guess is that the hatred (read jealously) of capitalism is far stronger than such an obviously failed ideology.


CW

Oh The Possibilities... Welcome Al Fin!

You may have noticed that unlike many bloggers I have a relatively small... ...blogroll (what were you thinking???). A blogroll is that section on the left side of this screen labled "Recommended Sites". Since having a limited capacity to absorb information and less RAM and processing power than the average fruit fly I have kept my blogroll small because I actually read them all on a regular basis.

I recently stumbled across a new site that really impressed me. Al Fin's blog is extensive, intricate and inspiring. Now there's three adjectives you don't see together very often. He delves into many aspects of science and technology and it's relation to the human condition in ways I have never considered. In fact, he maintains an impressive blogroll of his own that will find you bumming all over the Internet in search of ideas and concepts you weren't even aware existed ten minutes before.

To be honest after clicking around on his site and sampling some of the links he provides I remembered the excitement I felt back in 1996 when I first discovered the Internet. I haven't had that feeling in a long time. After ten years the Internet has lost some of it sheen. It is a much a tool as it is a toy nowadays. Sites like Al Fin's spark the imagination and usher in a sense of optimism that mankind has not seen its best days, not by a long shot.

I know it seems hard to accept but the world is not going to hell in a handbasket - and things are getting better all the time. It may not seem that way, but it's true.

Please take a stroll over to Al Fin and get inspired!


CW