My favourite thinker, Alan Watts, was fond of pointing out how limited the Christian idea of eternal happiness is. In all its depictions, Watts pointed out, Christian imagery seems to show those pious enough to enter heaven spending an infinitude of days singing hymns and praising God along with hosts of attendant angels. Watts couldn’t think of anything more ghastly.
He also observed that depictions of hell were far more enlivening and interesting ( see Heironymous Bosch detail at the top of the thread ).
This is an observation that resonates right into the modern, secular age. Now paradise is only rarely if ever sold to us by Christian churches. In the 21st century, heaven is instead presented on advertising posters, on TV marketing campaigns, or emblazoned on packages of nuts or crisps. No clouds and angels here. But this vision of earthly bliss is similarly impoverished.
For what are we offered by the corporations in their attempts to buy their products? Sun-kissed beaches, swaying palm trees and beckoning surf. Family tableaux with mum, dad and attendant children smiling joyfully over some new breakfast cereal. Cleverly packaged bottles of alcohol coaxing ready smiles from young good-looking people gathered in a colourful bar or club. Orgasmic expressions of yet more beautiful people who have purchased a certain scent or face cream. The astonishingly refreshing hit of freshness from the latest flavour of toothpaste. And so on.
The pleasures may not be as imaginary as the hosts of trumpeting angels presiding over those who are virtuous enough to get into celestial heaven. Alcohol is quite nice sometimes and so is breakfast cereal, although neither is likely to send me into paroxysms of delight. Furthermore, entry into this modern heaven does not require rectitude or moral worthiness - only money. But the scenes of marketing heaven are, to me, almost equally artificial.
It is obvious to our conscious minds that buying a certain cosmetic or brand of rum will not result in an outcome of bliss, eternal or temporary. However, our conscious minds are not running the show. Our unconscious selves are doing most of the imagining and desiring. And one of the reasons modern capitalism is so very successful is because - in our human arrogance - we simply don’t believe this to be the case. Most people, if asked, will, I suspect, believe that they are immune to advertising. Which is exactly why it works so well.
However, I digress. The question is, why are images of suffering so much easier to conjure and depict than images of joy? The answer is simple, if not particularly edifying. Joy is more or less one thing - a feeling, an emotion, usually very temporary. Perhaps you could tease out excitement as being somewhat separate, or perhaps exhilaration, or satisfaction. But pleasure is all pretty much of a muchness ( although sex and romantic love enjoy a special status which is reflected in the amount of advertising budget nudging in its direction)
Suffering, on the other hand, comes in a multitude of flavours and is much more readily available. Furthermore, should you want a taste of suffering, you don’t have to go out and look for it. It will come to you sooner or later anyway. Furthermore, it easily reaches levels of intensity that only a grade-A orgasm can compete with on the positive side of the register.
And the variety! Physical suffering alone comes in so many different tones that it could inspire Bosch to paint such a rich depiction of devils torturing sinful mortals. Clearly devils enjoy this sort of thing, probably because they never get bored with the endless possibilities. That’s without Bosch even touching on the immense varieties of terrible illnesses, disabilities and accidents that can befall the human body at any point.
And even a painter with the remarkable imagination of the 15th-century Dutchman could do nothing to depict all the entirely invisible, internal suffering of poor humankind. Emotional pain in all its variety - grief, regret, a sense of loss, anxiety, paranoia, depression, numbness ( which is a kind of pain) - the list is endless. Then there is mental pain, caused by confusion, overwhelm and a sense of chaos. And that’s before we even get started on spiritual pain - the sense of meaninglessness and ennui that many experience today in our godless world.
I suppose you could say this vision of human life is essentially tragic, and maybe this is true, but that’s not the same as it being negative. Recognising that the absence of suffering alone is in itself a great good is one of the most reliable keys to happiness. Ask anyone who has recently suffered an unpleasant illness how much they value the everyday pleasures of simply walking in the park or meeting with friends.
The currently popular motto of ‘carpe diem’ - seize the day - is all very well, but it implies that there is something to go out and seize and that if you are not seizing it, you are falling short in some way. Which is a reliable recipe for dissatisfaction.
As all of the great spiritual traditions have recognised, real happiness lies not in seizing anything, but in acceptance. Acceptance of human frailty and limitation, acceptance of finitude, acceptance our essential smallness on this great earth, acceptance of fate and all that is out of our control. Such a philosophy probably won’t serve anyone of a younger generation, since they rely on the illusion of potency and even omnipotence to get them up in the morning, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
Everyday happiness is not a throng of angels and it is not a palm-fringed beach or even a romantic encounter. It is small thing, a fragile thing, blade of grass, a grain of sand, and in its inconsequentiality, immensely valuable. It cannot be bought and it cannot even be pursued because the more you pursue it the more it runs away. But it is always there for those who can take their heads out of the clouds - away from the various forms of imagined heaven - to see what lies, glittering, at their feet.
A thoughtful post as ever Tim.
For me I have never been particularly exercised about the differences between happiness and pain (and about the pursuit of one in the fear of the other); it is this tension that creates, animates and informs our human experience and they are necessary for each other. There is no joy without pain, no happiness without struggle. Kahlil Gilbran said "pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses our understanding". I think that's true. If life has any purpose it is to grow through and by our experience. For me a life well-lived is one full of adventures (not necessarily of the type peddled by the marketeers and the well-being clones) where we are challenged at some level and we respond. Although it is impossible to live in a perpetual state of uncomfortable excitement (my definition of adventure) we must do it regularly enough to experience life directly, viscerally, not just in proxy through the lens of advertisers, TV shows or other distracting entertainments.
Hi Tim
Still happy in this still early breaking New Year?
It's to me, at least as I read you, quite apparent that whatever the major joys and minor disappointments of our latest 'Winterval', you've benefited from calling a passing halt to Boot Camp posts.
This first of the year but at the same time but latest in a rich vein of Saturday Essay posts is quite a deep diving one. Indeed it is a most genial provocation to fresh fictive thinking.
Note RP-S's finding himself 'disagreeing strongly'. For the life of me can't see why this should be another Rob's POV.
What do others think?