3 minutes reading time
A very simple concept...yet the whole world seems to rely on religion, elders, nation or some belief system ...eventually trying to make sure that one is either happy or destined to be happy...later .... or when one dies.
Everything is a happiness industry...grocery brands, brands in general, cars, employment, insurance...society, celebrations, vacations etc.
Biology helps here - hormones right...dopamine...the hormone which makes 1 feel happy. sugar, nicotine, pot, alcohol....all trick brain into releasing dopamine...what mixture work better for you is dependent on your body / brain/ digestion characteristics and your unique signature of happiness - an affirmation of kinds that your trauma/history/emotions/memories are unique.
The same hormone is released when you receive a notification, like or a reward or a freebie, secx etx
Basically your cocktail of "happiness" need to keep on evolving or should get incrementally better - your dopamine producing sensors have a sense of memory - they do get bored...it has to be ...coz we are all inherently lazy, 1 string banjos.
Eventually, you need to find a new sense of "achievement" or higher rewards - every aspect of existence in capitalistic society manipulates us on this basic biological fact - the money need to get bigger, the house, the spouse ...etc
See, there is no end to this dopamine loop. The stakes are going to get bigger, you are going to get stressed(more dopamine means more anti dopamine) and hence consumed in searching for your society approved or non approved acts that get you your fix.
Unless you identify your dopamine triggers....and find the most optimal combination of what keeps you "balanced".
Here i would like to clarify the terms - balance is the state where your body maintains a state of equilibrium in terms of hormones.
Vs Happy, where dopamine is overflowing and thereby making you "happy" but making you unproductive. This is called as "living/YOLO in capitalism .....wtf right??"
So, someone who wants to be in a state of balance is not essentially seeking "happiness" as most use the word today. One seeks parity (self promo - codeparity) in terms of attaining parity with environment, which results in parity of hormones.
See...it is that simple - this is what religion and leaders preach as "know yourself
or
become yourself as brands tell you".
One can know itself only when 1 has time, and the hamster wheel of capitalism wont let you have time...so yay...another 20 minutes wasted.
I will give this line of analysis some logical structure as Nihilism itself fails on many logical levels.
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/happiness-lets-make-sense-nihilistic-take-ashish-tanwar