Is the world happier than ever, or just more pleasure filled than ever? and how do we tell the difference?
Perhaps the most difficult question in defining happiness is how it relates to pleasure, for more people think of it as the same, but I think of pleasure as the short term fix, or escape, from a real long-term happiness. Pleasure is immediate gratification, and happiness is delayed gratification.
There is a worthwhile video on this from a brain perspective which says:
- Pleasure is dopamine,
- Happiness is serotonin
Pleasure is temporary and substitute for lasting happiness, or joy, but is often used as an artificial substitute, few people aware of the difference. Excitement is confused with, or simply replaces, satisfaction.
Drug Use & Happiness
First question is, if the world is in one of its happiest eras ever, then why is its drug use disorders almost the highest among countries?
Is it because drugs are most affordable in richer countries, or is it because rich countries are actually not as happy as some would believe? Perhaps the two go hand in hand.
Drugs are an extreme and obvious example of this “pleasure masquerading as happiness” effect. Drugs creates huge amounts of pleasure quickly, with no long term benefits. It is pseudo-happiness, in explosive volumes. As DrugPolicy states, users of heroin injections cause an “instant rush of euphoric pleasure” which is why they are so hard to quit. How can pleasure be so difficult to simply reject pleasure?
Is it because real life just seems so dull in comparison. Real-life ordinariness, or boredom as some call it, becomes a real enemy to us. What was once normal part of life is increasingly intolerable, especially as our tolerance to pleasure increases over time. In this way, it seems that in an increasingly comfortable world, the baseline of pleasure simply moves up, so drug addiction might be even more common in the future.
True, minimizing pain is also a reason for drug use, but in a world of decreasing real pain over the last 100+ years, it is odd that drug use is common, and possibly rising. How is this possible?
The Increase of Soft Addiction
If drugs are an extreme example of “pleasure seeking,” then are there “softer drugs” or pleasure-inducing behaviors that create a less volatile, and slower release? Think of the excitement or relaxing inducing behaviors many of us engage in, especially if they are available in frequent, low-cost, unlimited, and always stimulating amounts. TV, internet, video games, even music or books to some degree, with the former creating much more concentrated dosages than the latter. If anything, who can argue that a decrease in the long view, patience, and other happy-necessitating requirements are declining on average? It’s been my observation that everyone wants to succeed with less effort than ever. More short-term work/reward thinking.
The world thinks it is happier than ever, but it is really just more pleasure than ever. So when thce effect wears off (the wealth effect), then what? a global crash? A return to traditional happiness-centric values such as family, community, and church?
In other words, addiction is not just a symptom of mental illness, it is also the cause, or the most likely result of materialist progress.
Facts that Show Real Happiness is in Decline
Mental Illness & Addiction
I tend to think that, like economics, there is a real happiness, and nominal happiness, but perhaps we do not have good tools for distinguishing between them. I dont agree with much of the 2019 World Happiness Report, on how they measure or interpret data, because after looking at the data myself, I concluded they never measured happiness. Seems others agree now as well.
But here are some gems–at least they are, more usefully, looking at numbers over time::
“negative feelings are rising around the world—and the United States is particularly hard-hit with an “epidemic of addictions. Tellingly, the report also shows a widening happiness gap, with some people reporting much more well-being and others showing much less within each country. ”
This year’s report also analyzes how global happiness has changed over time, based on data stretching back to 2005. One trend is very clear: Negative feelings—worry, sadness, and anger—have been rising around the world, up by 27 percent from 2010 to 2018.
There are other studies that show that globally, “mental illness” is on the rise. Again, remember that as people are upset, drugs are more likely to become a cure, so mental illness and drug use are synonymous.
But the always unanswerable question in sociology is causality, since there are likely to be countless causes, even if you could begin to trace them:
- Is increased wealth and causing the pursuit of pleasure (addiction)? or
- Is an increasingly pursuit of wealth and pleasure the cause?
- Is a perceived, real, or both, difference in wealth and pleasure causing unhappiness?
How Wealth Could Be Causing Mental Illness/Addiction
I think both are simultaneously possible. Consider this: America became rich post WW2 as the result of several factors, and it become a sole hegemony, or global super-power, when Russia lost its dual footing with us in the 90’s. This ensured our unrivaled growth over the next few decades. We became very rich. We have not only one of the highest per capita incomes (and probably costs too), but we do have the largest overall economy in the world.
- Could our own over-success become our own demise? Systems in nature would seem to predict so.
- Could so much money create pessimism and loss of hope? Gallup study on Well-being, showed the two most optimistic metros in America, of a population over 100k, were also the poorest per capita: Provo, UT and Brownsville TX. Coincidence? Something that needs to be researched further.
Contrast that with “Less than half (48%) of students in Years 5 through 12 surveyed through Australia’s 2016 Gallup Student Poll could be classified as “hopeful,” meaning they have abundant ideas and energy for the future. This figure hasn’t budged since 2014.” 48%
So perhaps a clearer issue is that wealth corrodes hope. Where Are Young People Most Optimistic? In Poorer Nations. – The New York Times (nytimes.com) Perhaps that is due to the fact that the see opportunities to grow, while the rest of the world sees they are already at the top with “down” being the most likely direction; i don’t know.
Conclusion
We are arriving the ultimate age of pleasure, not happiness, and it is going to consume far more than it has already started to. I would predict that this trend is not limited to the US either, but most modern countries.