Happiness

Today I was walking on the beach, handing out flyers when I was given something back. It was entitled ‘what do people get high on’ and it was full of pretty colours and pretty pictures. It was also a bit of Christian propaganda, supposing that everything that people get high from (drugs, fame, power, possessions, etc.) will lead to a crash; except, of course, for Jesus. Get high on Jesus, the pamphlet claimed, and you’ll never need for anything again.

I could go into another bible bashing bit here, but I won’t. I’ve done that quite often enough and I’m sure I’ve already offended more than enough religious people’s sensibilities. Instead, what I’d like to get into is the ‘high’ that they were talking about and how it is basically impossible for us to be completely happy. Why? Evolution, my dear Watson.

Okay, so why does evolution not allow for complete happiness? Quite simply because complete happiness is not evolutionarily viable. As long as we have aspirations we cannot be truly happy (as the nature of aspirations means that there is still something missing from our lives). The moment we no longer have any aspirations we are no longer looking to get ahead in the rat race. And those people that are not looking to get ahead in the rat race are less fit to survive and bring forth healthy, successful offspring.

Any person that is born truly happy is, in other words, not going to spread on their genes as much as somebody who isn’t completely happy and still aspiring to greater things. So any gene for raised happiness will be selected against. On the flip side, any gene for great unhappiness will also be selected against (as people stuck in depression and despair are also less likely to bring forth a lot of offspring).

We’re at a perfect equilibrium, a state where we are not so depressed we give up, but not happy enough to not want anything more. Any massive variation up or down will ultimately not exist for very long.

Some people find this a very depressing thought (which is quite ironic, really). I don’t. It makes me feel better when I’m unhappy, as it’s just my genes trying to kick me into reaching greater heights and nothing more. In a way the unhappiness isn’t really a part of my conscious mind, instead it is just my nature trying to control my actions. Once I’ve realised that I can then put away that unhappiness. Lock it in a little box, if you will, with the knowledge that it can be safely ignored. Often, soon after I’ve done that, I actually feel happier.

It’s just a matter of realising that we are put together near perfectly for our environment, not for ourselves. Evolution only asks that we survive and gives us the traits to do that. Beyond that, it really doesn’t give a damn (no, evolution doesn’t have any emotions, feelings or ideas, it’s just easier to personify things sometimes). If we want anything more then we have to consciously change our instinctual behavior; which includes realising that we can’t be truly happy and being happy with that.