At 10:52 PM 7/22/01, Kat Feete wrote:
>Kevin Tarr wrote:
>
> >K.Feete (wrote a bunch of stuff)
> >
> >I was trying to write a reply but there was so much I didn't agree with I
> >couldn't tie it together. First, religion is as high as it's ever been in
> >America:
> >
> >http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/0397/ijse/gallup.htm#bf2
>
>I was going to say that proved my point, but I'm having trouble
>remembering what my point is in this particular thread. (Post overload!
>Post overload!) Let me just say, instead, that I'm not particularly
>surprised. I've run into a number of people in my generation who were
>converting back to Christianity, or to Wiccanism, or becoming New Agers,
>or whatever- because they felt unsatisfied with who they were, and where
>they were, and wanted more.
>
>However, I don't think religious *feeling* is at all strong in America
>these days. Going to church doth not a Christian make; these people, at
>least in my experience, have not found something to believe in but
>something else to hide behind.
>
> >
> >You said the of the people who believe the American Dream it fails for 90%.
> >I know that's not a real number but how can you even think it's more then
> >40%? (I think it's more like 10%, under her assumptions). Now I think if you
> >ask people if they are happy with this or that you probably get a 50 - 60%
> >responce of unhappiness but when you SERIOUSLY ask people you would get
> >better results. Like after asking a person if they have an unhappy marriage
> >you ask why they don't leave, none of the reasons have to do with their
> >happiness.
>
>Hum. That's odd. My admittedly "out-of-the-air" figure of 90% was based
>on almost the opposite set of observations- namely, that most people,
>when asked, will say that they're perfectly happy, but when they're
>*seriously* asked they'll admit that, well, no, they're not. I'm not
>really talking about happy with politicians, happy with environmental
>policy, ect- I'm talking about a general sense of happiness. A great many
>of the people I know are not happy. People in my grandparents' generation
>(including my grandparents) are unhappy because they feel unloved,
>unwanted, useless, and absolutely hopelessly out of date; their kids
>don't have time to visit; they're retired and have no jobs; they
>themselves can't find anything or any way in which they can contribute to
>the world. People of my parent's generation and slightly older seem
>unhappy as well- they aren't getting what was "coming to them." Their
>kids are messed up and they don't know why; they can't talk to them;
>they're on their second or third marriage and things still aren't going
>right; or maybe still their first marriage, and they can't remember why
>they married in the first place. (How many kids my age have honestly told
>me they didn't believe their parents had had sex since they were
>concieved? Sex isn't a measure of happiness, but still, there's something
>wrong there.) They have the house, they have the car, they have the
>lifestyle, but still something's wrong. People of my generation aren't
>happy. They feel like their entire life has been planned out for them and
>they've only got one direction to go. Worrying about the government is
>pointless: there's nothing they can do to change it. Worrying about the
>environment is pointless: it's all going to shit anyway, no way to stop
>it. All you can possibly do is worry about your self, and therefore I'm
>going to college, even though I don't want to, because then I'll get a
>good job. I'll be happy. Tomorrow.
>
>In general, people- the people I've been around, at least- don't seem to
>be very happy. They're not *content*: they always want more than they've
>got. They're not self-assured: they feel inadaquate, uncertain. They're
>not enjoying what they do: they're just sort of... living through it. All
>of these things are necessary and even good, in small doses, but deadly
>as a steady diet.
>
>People feel *trapped*. Trapped is not happy.
Hmmm. I seem to notice a common thread running through all the reasons you
list for people reporting they are unhappy, something like "I'm unhappy
because I'm not getting enough of what I want." Maybe there's something to
the old idea that the way to truly be happy is to keep yourself busy making
other people happy . . .
--Ronn! :)
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I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon.
I never dreamed that I would see the last.
--Dr. Jerry Pournelle
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