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What do you think human needs really are? I'm not just talking about physical survival, I was referring more to psychological well-being and happiness. In order to be happy, what is truly needed? Are certain things absolutely necessary? Or are they helpful, but happiness can be achieved without them? Or are there even any external necessities for happiness? Is the only thing that matters your mindset, the way you view your world, and your own mental condition controlled by yourself? And is there a difference between what we think we need (ie what society tells us we need) and what we really need?
There is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which starts with physical (food, thirst, sex), safety (ie feeling secure, knowing where next meal comes from), emotional (feeling a sense of love and belonging), esteem (position in society, career, feeling good about one's work), and then at the top there is self-actualization.
Esteem I don't think has to be important. Society tells us that we need to have a good job and be successful, and I think people in turn feel unfulfilled if they don't. But I don't see it as an intrinsic need with human nature to be happy. I think all that is necessary would be an acceptance to his or her place in society without having a problem with it. If the person is a janitor, he or she could feel fine about it if they learned to accept this position and be happy with it, and this comes from within, and isn't impossible.
As for the emotional part, society seems to tell us that in order to be happy, we need to have a family, have people close to us, feel loved, etc. But how much of this is true? Having close family and friends, logistically, is a detriment to happiness, especially family. A ridiculous amount of time and energy have to be spent on them, rather than achieving happiness for yourself. After all, if you spent more time on the latter than on others, you would be letting them down. And some of us might not be good with the family thing. So then, can one be very happy and not have a family? And how important is having a family? And why is this so? Is it just for the sense of love and belonging?
And the same would go for friends. Hell, is social contact even necessary? Being a hermit would be logistically easy. All your time could be devoted to self-improvement, etc. But if it is necessary, why?
Ideally, the perfect life would be experiencing the world, always finding new things to do, try, and enjoy, always meeting new people and ideas, and I think this is done best by travelling. The ideal life would be travelling around the world, seeing everything it has to offer, trying out new things, meeting new cultures and ideas and experiences, and making friends along the way. Couldn't this satisfy human needs? If not, what needs would need to be satisfied? One could argue that you couldn't get to know the friends along the way well enough to share anything deep and meaningful with them, but I think if in this type of life, I'd share deep, intimate things with them I would only share with close friends with these people. In fact sometimes it is easiest to open up to strangers. This life wouldn't necessarily have only the shallow material in its content. The only other argument you could make is that you wouldn't get to know the people well enough, but you could always spend enough time in each place to accomplish that, and, why is knowing people well necessary for happiness?
The family thing can be brought up again. One could argue that the only way to truly feel a sense of love and belonging is to have a family. Well first off, why can't this be achieved with friends? Amd second off, why is any of this necessary? Why does one need to feel loved and belonging? I think that people need love because of poor self-regard and a lack of mental and psychological healthiness/well being/spiritual well being/whatever you want to call it. Love seems to heal these wounds. However, if you felt great about yourself and were psychologically healthy, I don't see how you would need it. And if you do, why? I see well-being as something that comes from within, not from the outside. If you can accomplish this, you will find true happiness, and more importantly, you won't have to depend on others for it, which is bound to leave you not always feeling fulfilled and takes a drain on others.
And on top of that, I think spirituality plays a part in this too. Maybe a sense of spiritual well-being also eliminates the need for love.
Shouldn't we focus more on self-improvement and gaining our own psychological and spiritual well being than trying to gain happiness through other people (love) or external means? Ultimately, you can only fully and consistently depend on yourself. The outside world is uncontrollable and bound to fail you sometimes. But what you can control is yourself. So shouldn't happiness be found through this way? Maybe that is why so many people are unhappy, they try to gain happiness by doing well in a career (and they sometimes fail) or getting people to love them (who sometimes don't, and whose love people grow accustomed to and doesn't help them as much, and is not always consisten). When you set up an external condition for happiness, you are setting yourself up for unhappiness, because the external conditions won't always be perfect. Anyway, what if we all worked on ourselves and tried not to play the whole family/friends game too much?
And I forgot to mention, how do sex and romance play into happiness?
I don't know if I am making any sense here or if I am getting my point across. I don't even know what that point is, and on top of that it is 2:12 AM my time, so I don't even know if my mind is correctly functioning. Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, please contribute.
There is Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which starts with physical (food, thirst, sex), safety (ie feeling secure, knowing where next meal comes from), emotional (feeling a sense of love and belonging), esteem (position in society, career, feeling good about one's work), and then at the top there is self-actualization.
Esteem I don't think has to be important. Society tells us that we need to have a good job and be successful, and I think people in turn feel unfulfilled if they don't. But I don't see it as an intrinsic need with human nature to be happy. I think all that is necessary would be an acceptance to his or her place in society without having a problem with it. If the person is a janitor, he or she could feel fine about it if they learned to accept this position and be happy with it, and this comes from within, and isn't impossible.
As for the emotional part, society seems to tell us that in order to be happy, we need to have a family, have people close to us, feel loved, etc. But how much of this is true? Having close family and friends, logistically, is a detriment to happiness, especially family. A ridiculous amount of time and energy have to be spent on them, rather than achieving happiness for yourself. After all, if you spent more time on the latter than on others, you would be letting them down. And some of us might not be good with the family thing. So then, can one be very happy and not have a family? And how important is having a family? And why is this so? Is it just for the sense of love and belonging?
And the same would go for friends. Hell, is social contact even necessary? Being a hermit would be logistically easy. All your time could be devoted to self-improvement, etc. But if it is necessary, why?
Ideally, the perfect life would be experiencing the world, always finding new things to do, try, and enjoy, always meeting new people and ideas, and I think this is done best by travelling. The ideal life would be travelling around the world, seeing everything it has to offer, trying out new things, meeting new cultures and ideas and experiences, and making friends along the way. Couldn't this satisfy human needs? If not, what needs would need to be satisfied? One could argue that you couldn't get to know the friends along the way well enough to share anything deep and meaningful with them, but I think if in this type of life, I'd share deep, intimate things with them I would only share with close friends with these people. In fact sometimes it is easiest to open up to strangers. This life wouldn't necessarily have only the shallow material in its content. The only other argument you could make is that you wouldn't get to know the people well enough, but you could always spend enough time in each place to accomplish that, and, why is knowing people well necessary for happiness?
The family thing can be brought up again. One could argue that the only way to truly feel a sense of love and belonging is to have a family. Well first off, why can't this be achieved with friends? Amd second off, why is any of this necessary? Why does one need to feel loved and belonging? I think that people need love because of poor self-regard and a lack of mental and psychological healthiness/well being/spiritual well being/whatever you want to call it. Love seems to heal these wounds. However, if you felt great about yourself and were psychologically healthy, I don't see how you would need it. And if you do, why? I see well-being as something that comes from within, not from the outside. If you can accomplish this, you will find true happiness, and more importantly, you won't have to depend on others for it, which is bound to leave you not always feeling fulfilled and takes a drain on others.
And on top of that, I think spirituality plays a part in this too. Maybe a sense of spiritual well-being also eliminates the need for love.
Shouldn't we focus more on self-improvement and gaining our own psychological and spiritual well being than trying to gain happiness through other people (love) or external means? Ultimately, you can only fully and consistently depend on yourself. The outside world is uncontrollable and bound to fail you sometimes. But what you can control is yourself. So shouldn't happiness be found through this way? Maybe that is why so many people are unhappy, they try to gain happiness by doing well in a career (and they sometimes fail) or getting people to love them (who sometimes don't, and whose love people grow accustomed to and doesn't help them as much, and is not always consisten). When you set up an external condition for happiness, you are setting yourself up for unhappiness, because the external conditions won't always be perfect. Anyway, what if we all worked on ourselves and tried not to play the whole family/friends game too much?
And I forgot to mention, how do sex and romance play into happiness?
I don't know if I am making any sense here or if I am getting my point across. I don't even know what that point is, and on top of that it is 2:12 AM my time, so I don't even know if my mind is correctly functioning. Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, please contribute.
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