Thursday, June 26, 2014

Bertrand Russell and Happiness

Everyone knows the importance of happiness, and quests for it. Bertrand Russell, though, goes a step further. He says, "The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good." Considering the absolute importance of happiness, why then is it so difficult to achieve it?

One of the main problems within a person that gets in the way is, probably, the fact that we concentrate so hard on what we have and do not have. Russell says, "It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly." And happily as well, one might add. If only we realized that, "To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness." Counter-intuitive though it appears, it is one of the truths of life. The process of striving for and getting something that you want, and do not have, is far more enjoyable than possessing what you thought you wanted. If we realized that, we would know that not having something should actually be a source of happiness and not misery. (One, of course, excludes the necessities of life. A starving man is unlikely to be jumping with joy at the prospect of striving for a morsel of food).

The bigger problem, though, is the fact that we are never in control of our own happiness since we leave it at the mercy of public opinion. Russell has this to say about it - "One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny, and is likely to interfere with happiness in all kinds of ways". Not really the way we have been tuned to live, since we rely upon public opinion to even decide what we ought to take pleasure in. "It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations", says Russell and it is in this essential that most of humanity fails since what we do, where we live and how we conduct our lives is all at the mercy of neighbors.

But, then, is it not true that "One of the most powerful of all our passions is the desire to be admired and respected"? When such is the case, is it not in the nature of man to compare himself with others even if it makes him miserable with jealousy and "Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed." Or to quest for power, even if "Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power." If, though, it is an unalterable nature of man to be thus, then it must also be considered that it is the unalterable nature of man to be unhappy. Unless, of course, you are the sort of person who can be happy with the idea of causing unhappiness to others, which may make you happy but renders you unfit to be called a man.

So pervasive is the impact of public opinion on some that they would even allow it to invade and dictate their conduct in their leisure moments. If they were the sort who prefer reading, they would choose the second of the following options - "There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it." But, then, they could well belong to the ilk of "Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact."

The thing to remember, though, when bowing to public opinion, is that "No one gossips about other people's secret virtues." Which, in effect, means that you strive for a good opinion in vain since all that will be talked about are your faults. There is hardly a point, though, in berating those who do that since "It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go."

We also tend to muck up our personal relations. Love, and failure in it, are the cause of a lot of unhappiness. Russell gives out this warning - "It's easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you." In marital life, one of the easiest ways to lose love is to remind the other person of all the 'sacrifices' you made for him/her. This makes them feel as though you stayed by them and did what you did out of a sense of duty and "A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation."

The biggest stumbling block in the way of changing your life around to a happier mode is that we always externalize the reasons for our unhappiness. Russell says, "We do not like to be robbed of an enemy; we want someone to hate when we suffer. It is so depressing to think that we suffer because we are fools; yet, taking mankind in the mass, that is the truth." Once we realize that it is our own folly that is keeping us unhappy, we are ready to redress the problem.

A cautionary message is needed, though, when you undertake the process. "Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn"

30 comments:

  1. Truly well-written Suresh sir. I relate a lot to these lines - "It's easy to fall in love. The hard part is finding someone to catch you." In marital life, one of the easiest ways to lose love is to remind the other person of all the 'sacrifices' you made for him/her. This makes them feel as though you stayed by them and did what you did out of a sense of duty and "A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not be endured with patient resignation."

    And the last line is the killer or perhaps icing on the cake or malai on top of the glass of dry-fruit lassi - "Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn" - Thanks :)

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  2. This piece was very good. realized how much we contradict our own behaviours with what we say! This inference (pasted below) that you wrote made sense quite a bit... because offlate I have come across a lot of people who fall in the latter category...i add another angle to it, they read to get paid to boast about it. wonder what Betrand would have to say about that? :P
    *"There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it." But, then, they could well belong to the ilk of "Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact."
    *

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    1. Bertrand Russell lived in simpler times. :) We may hark back to Keynes and recollect what he said about accumulating money :)

      Btw, anything within quotes owes itself to Russell. Only the words that are outside the quotes - and the order of quoting - are mine )

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    2. Oh yes, I realized they were your views, was wondering what BR would have to say about the extent to which Man has gone, that's all :P

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    3. I don't think he would have been too surprised :) After all, this was the guy who said,"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this" and, thus, he would not be surprised by any extent of irrationality :)

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  3. Satguru Suresh maharaj ki jai!!

    The pleasure in preventing others from enjoying themselves, is something that the likes of Ekta kapoor and her ilk have fully utilised to make the mega serials work! poor heroine is never happy and is always beeseched with some trouble! makes for happy viewing! :) :)

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    1. Russell had something to say for why it 'makes for happy viewing' as well - and I quoted him in an earlier piece. "If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have paradise in a few years." We SO love other people being unhappy :)

      Btw, Satguru Bertrand Russell Maharaj ki jai, bolo :)

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  4. Beautiful series of posts sir. Thanks

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  5. It is time now for the old, waiting in the queue books by Bertrand Russell in my home library to be finally picked up and read... I always thought he was too difficult to read but this post makes him slightly friendlier.

    Arvind Passey
    www.passey.info

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    1. I have normally found him very friendly reading - for a philosopher. AND those nuggets of humor that unexpectedly pop out at you are the icing on the cake.

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  6. What a lovely read, Suresh!

    I think our biggest problem is we seldom follow the advice we freely dispense to others. Don't we all know that happiness from material pursuits is transient? Yet we spend the majority of our lives in pursuit of the futile.

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    1. Quite true! And I can again quote Russell, as I have elsewhere in another post, on this - “We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one which we preach, but do not practice, and another which we practice, but seldom preach.” :) In this instance, by not practicing what we preach, we end up injuring only ourselves.

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  7. Now this sounds philosophical... a nice read and I'm discovering Russell through this series... I've read only one of his works... In Praise Of Idleness And Other Essays.. :-(

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    1. He is well worth reading, Maniparna, and, for a philosopher, he is amazingly clear in what he says :)

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  8. This was a beautiful read Suresh. Simply beautiful. BR's absolute commons sense mixed deliciously with your tongue-in-cheek... can anything else be more delightful?

    You surpass yourself, truly you do!

    Kudos on this gem! Loved it!

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    1. Whatever is good in this post - and humorous - owes itself to BR, Dagny! I contributed very little.

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  9. A serious post this time.I am familiar with BR's writings on philosophy but these quotes reveal a different side of him.How very relevant is the following line today--

    voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny,

    We are suffering self imposed distress today.

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    1. I let BR have all the humor spots in these posts :)

      Yes, Indu! Anyone who is not suffering from a lack of the necessities of life OR by physical or emotional distress to close ones AND yet is distressed is someone who has imposed distress on himself/herself.

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  10. Seems like your blog chewed up and spat out my comments from yesterday. So trying to comment again. Yet another set of gems from Russel. The concept of happiness is something I have been thinking a lot about.

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    1. Ha! My villain is my own blog :) Has happened with others too.

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  11. A lot of wisdom in this post- Thank you for introducing Bertrand Russel to us.Earlier just knew him as a philosopher of the west. It is through your post the wisdom was made available to me.

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  12. I feel happy just reading this happy post :) There is a lot packed in the few BR quotes you have shared here. But my favourite ones are the last two. So simply said, yet so profound if we ponder upon these words.

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    1. Love the idea that I make people happy, Beloo :) The only useful thing anyone can do

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  13. Bertrand Russell is my favorite person too! I read all four posts... loved his quotes and your commentary as well :-)

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