The Ultimate Quest of Mankind
The general consensus of Philosophers is that the state known as persistent happiness is an unattainable utopia, but for some philosophers, it may be attainable by living in a loosely defined time called the present.
The general consensus of monotheisms is that persistent happiness is attainable only by living in what is known as the grace of the One God be it down here on earth or up there in the afterlife/Heaven/Paradise.
The general consensus of some of the eastern religions is that persistent happiness is attainable only by detachment from normal life, and by living with other detached people in monasteries.
The general consensus of humanity is that what we call happiness are but periods or moments in life sandwiched between other emotional states.
And of course we should not forget the current trend of “persistent happiness in ten easy steps” sort of teachings…
I think persistent happiness is not an impossible utopia, is not contingent on being detached from life, is not in vague terms like grace, a hypothetical Paradise, or in techniques of auto suggestion.
Living in the present won’t help either, because it would mean getting detached from the continuum of our time on earth hence from our life. Our memories will transport us in our past, and our projects and hopes will project us into the future. So living in the present would mean living without memories without projects and without hope. In my personal opinion, this tragic perspective of a life can never lead to persistent happiness.
If we adopt the premise that collectivism is a slower but wiser and incomparably more powerful version of individualism ensuring individual survival/prosperity in situations where greater means of action than that of individuals are required, then we have to question the generally accepted though pathetic outlooks of humanity to “happiness”:
Can a human being be persistently happy in an ocean of human beings (or even animals) in misery? Strange, that’s what he always thinks.
Can a human being consider himself happy simply because he is less miserable than other human beings? Strange, that’s what he always considers.
Can a human being look for the few positive aspects of his existence and consider it a source of happiness? Strange, that’s what he always does.
It is tragic to have such pathetic expectations for happiness.
Humanity suffers not only from the lack of persistent happiness, but is made to live without any perspective of persistent happiness.
In its quest for persistent happiness humanity is even sometimes led to minimize the importance of the first condition to persistent happiness: a state of inalterable material abundance/physical well-being, and to compensate either:
-by exaggerating the scale/importance of his furtive moments of physical/emotional well-being by considering them as its fair share of true bliss, or
-by creating an abundance of fatalistic “wisdom” and/or religious “spirituality” by repeating phrases like “This is the way it should be” and/or “this is God’s will” to dream itself in a state of persistent happiness by making itself imagine knowing an unknown/unknowable/hypothetical purpose for its unenviable state.
Humanity may even be made to go to such lengths as to make itself think that material abundance is detrimental to persistent happiness.
Material abundance can indeed become detrimental for happiness but only in the very precise context of a pathologic obsession for accumulation.
Only the fear of lacking (scarcity) and/or confusing his personal worth with that of his possessions can cause that kind of obsession in a human being.
It should be noted that the accumulation of the needed scarcities themselves rarely creates an obsession. The accumulation of the means to acquire these scarcities is the common creator of obsession/dependence hence unhappiness.
Persistent happiness is only possible under two simultaneous conditions:
When all needs are abundantly met, and the ego is satisfied to the full.
What is “an ego satisfied to the full”?
By probing itself and its environment, the human abstract mind became aware of the existence of the “understandable” (hence controllable/useable) laws controlling the entire universe.
It saw its own stupendous, unique power of understanding and eventually using all of the laws of the universe and tailored the human ego accordingly.
So until proof of the contrary, the human ego knows that man is the only creature aware of the cosmos, furthermore possessing the potential to understand and use its laws.
Under these conditions it is not unreasonable to consider that the human ego considers Man as the self-awareness of the cosmos.
And though scarcity has always taught man and with good reason that “more” is the only way for survival and well-being, it is my certainty that understanding and interacting with all the laws of the cosmos remains the unmitigated purpose of the human ego.
Understanding its environment has been man’s basic survival trait.
The true scale of the human ego is the scale of its need to understand.
The true scale of the human ego is the scale of its environment: the Cosmos.
Substitute trivial purposes created by scarcity like riches and power which only grant access to scarcities can never satisfy our ego definitively, only deceive it that maybe “more” will …
Abundance will be the end of all the scarcity-related trivial purposes.
If our ego, tailored by the most powerful tool in the universe (our abstract mind) is allowed to express its true nature and scale in an unprecedented, inspiring collective endeavor to understand, domesticate and use the laws governing nature and the cosmos to create whatever our collective sees fit thus satisfying our collective ego to the full,
Then be it by the endeavor itself, by the conquest of an extreme lifespan in health and youth, by the creation of free abundance or by the unshakeable peace a trans-generational alliance of all nations of man would create, the thought-to-be-impossible “persistent happiness” will be the persistently inspired “persistent euphoria” of humanity.
The universe containing us holds the double key lock to human euphoria.
Our all-capable abstract mind holds one key, the collective of our nations holds the other.
Both keys should be inserted and turned simultaneously.
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