Is happiness possible in modern society?
This is a question I often find myself asking while looking at people walking through the mall.
Then, I have to be objective and ask if there is something wrong with me that I am asking this question.
There is probably something wrong with me. In fact, there are probably a lot of things wrong with me.
But I believe there is a good reason to stop and think about happiness in modern society.
And recently, while reading Erich Fromm’s "The Sane Society," I was somewhat relieved to find out that someone smarter and wiser than me has been thinking about the same thing.
More than simply answering the question of whether happiness is still possible, I'd like to discuss why this is even a valid and important question.
To do this, we will have to take a look at what happiness is and also at what its opposite is.
If we want to define happiness, it’s useful to start by contrasting it with its opposite.
According to Erich Fromm, the opposite of happiness is not sadness but depression.
And what is depression?
"What is depression? It is the inability to feel, it is the sense of being dead, while our body is alive. It is the inability to experience joy, as well as the inability to experience sadness. A depressed person would be greatly relieved if he could feel sad. A state of depression is so unbearable because one is incapable of feeling anything, either joy or sadness."
If we try to define happiness in contrast with depression, we come to define it as a feeling of, as Fromm says, "intensified vitality." Also, happiness must come as a result of productive living. Productive, not in the sense of being industrious and meeting your daily quota. Productive, in the sense of acting and engaging with the world around you.
"Happiness is a state of intense inner activity and the experience of the increasing vital energy which occurs in productive relatedness to the world and to ourselves."
So, then, why is the question of happiness more valid in modern society than it ever was?
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