When it comes to that, we’ll talk. But that sort of string of unfortunate events never comes to pass for most people. And even if it did, you could still choose to either live the rest of your life in doom and gloom, or make the best of it.
We often don’t have much of a choice over the really bad things that happen to us, but we have a choice in our basic outlook on life.
Yeah, but what if you had really bad shit happen to you? Like unemployment, alcoholism, and a dead daughter? Wouldn’t you be suicidal too?
Who was that guy who killed himself at a young age instead of making a second try at life?
Buckminster somethingorother.
Hmm, part of me agrees with this but the other part isn’t so sure. For example I’m thinking about depression and people who have gone through traumatic events, when I had something bad happen to me I thought “eh, it ws nothing, one experience doesn’t make a person” but afterwards, it actually did started effecting me and there was no control over how I felt or how I reacted to certain things, like having dreams or flashbacks. It felt automatic regardless of my philosophy towards life.
I think it’s to do with how your brain is wired also.
Oh but reading your sentence again you said *basic * outlook on life so I suppose what I wrote is irrelevant. Also not appropiate for pit thread no?
That’s not really what the OP’s going through. He’s decided that he doesn’t believe in God/god/gods, but he won’t be happy until one comes down and smites all the “bad” people.
He’s choosing to be miserable.
Replace ‘god’ with any other plot voucher, like FSM or magical unicorn or magic wand or genie.
Basically, regardless of the plot voucher used, I could’nt be truly happy unless the good were rewarded with eternal lfie in paradise and the bad punished.
Ok so you’ll never be happy then, what is your next move?
I’m sure you could, but you have to give it the old college try. You’re hobbling yourself right from the start here.
Surely there is something – anything – in your life right now that gives you pleasure or joy. Cute puppies? A favorite TV show? Music? Perhaps you should focus on cute puppies rather than the whole punishing the wicked thing for now.
I can’t be happy until all the goddamned trolls quit using the internet. So if you want to spread a little happiness my way, be my guest.
Heh. Reminds me of something C. S. Lewis said:
Of course, when something truly awful happens, there’s going to be some bad mojo about it. It’s an unfortunate part of the human condition. But with time and/or therapy, you learn to live with it and move on.
Are you a cow?
Once again, we see a compelling argument for forbidding guests to start threads in any forum except General Questions or Comment on Cecil’s Columns.
Won’t work. He already has at least 2 threads in GQ that are nothing but tin hat territory.
Yup. And not a touch of angst in either thread.
No wit, either.
Over time? Happiness is a choice over time? What is time but a series of moments? Tell that to someone being tortured in a POW camp. How about the ones who are tortured to death? Did things for them get better over time?
Perhaps. That still does not support the premise “happiness is a choice.” Unless you amend it “happiness is a choice for some people sometimes.” I’ll agree with that.
I wasn’t responding to the OP. And just because it is possible to choose to be miserable, that says nothing about whether happiness is a choice.
Give me some milk or else go home.
Good Lord! One person makes it trough horrible circumstances and “happiness is a choice” becomes universal law? “Happiness is a choice” is a premise. **One **counterexample disproves it. **No amount **of examples prove it.
I’m thinking “damage control”. You know, kind of like setting a back-fire or declaring a quarantine.
Contrapuntal, I believe you’re over thinking this way too much, and yet you’re severely under thinking it at the same time. No one here claimed that every single person in the world, at all times, will endure the worst suffering imaginable and think of nothing but puppies and rainbows. Except maybe in Strawman World.
And I will grant you that a man who witnesses his family get raped and murdered and then himself gets killed has little chance of finding happiness in the future.
But the vast majority of us will never experience that kind of pain. Normal people live their lives, work at a job, date, and get drunk on Saturday nights. They will have great times and miserable times. And some miserable times will be unavoidable. And no one can fault you for shedding a few tears at, say, your mom’s funeral.
But for normal people, they can navigate through most of life either seeking out the joy in it, or being miserable and full of contempt. And that can be a fully concious choice.
Agreed wholeheartedly. Maybe “choosing to be happy” is not a cure for truly horrifying events, but it sure as hell is a cure for walking around thinking “I’ve been ostracized by the cool kids. Life is nothing but suffering!”, which is what the OP seems to like to do.
Maybe he’s just addicted to the smug satisfaction that all these happy people are wrong. What he doesn’t realize is that there is a certain smug satisfaction to be gained from realizing that people who choose to be miserable are wrong. And you don’t even have to suffer to get it. 
I never claimed they did, speaking of Strawman world.
Then happiness is a choice for some people, sometimes, as I said.
Us? Who is us? **Millions **of people suffer horribly every day. Nice to know that they are not “us.”
God, what small minded arrogance. I am sure it will come as great comfort to the millions of people killed, disenfranchised, tortured and abused each year that they are not “normal.”
And to be clear. No one said that seeking happiness is a choice; rather, that happiness is a choice. Surely you see the distinction.
I disagree with you. I believe you have it backwards. One example proves that choosing to be happy in the face of overwhelming grief and tragedy is a possibility. tdn supplied another example, Buckminster Fuller, who faced the death of his daughter and transformed his suicidal impulses into service to humankind.
Is it always possible? No. The fourteen year old girl in Iraq who heard her sister, mother, and grandfather murdered and was then gang-raped and shot in the head had no chance. Trauma can completely short-circuit the brain’s coping mechanism, and depression, acute anxiety disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder are nothing to dismiss cavalierly.
Some people have the resources to recover. Of those who do and even those who can’t, there is a point where they face a decision. Will they let whatever that event destroy them or will they fight to recover? Some try and succeed. Some try and fail.
That’s not what xkcdis maundering on about. xkcd has abdicated any control over his future by declaring that his happiness is completely dependent on not only something out of his control, but something he declares does not exist. No one has taken anything away from him. He has thrown it away.
To my mind, that’s not a decision made in the midst of soul-crushing grief and pain by a person at the end of their strength. It’s the declaration of a coward, a weakling, and a lazy cynic.
His only possible excuse, to me, is if he’s suffering from a bout of severe depression. I’ve been there. I’ve felt many of the same feelings he has expressed here. And I recognized that what I was experiencing was not true, and that I had not just the power to do something about it, but the obligation. Too many people love me for me to give up. I sought help and received it. I chose to try to get better. I chose to take the chance at happiness, knowing that I might fail.
I have seen too many of my loved ones suffer horrible losses. I have seen them pick themselves up and get on with the business of living. xkcd’s little whinge has no bearing on reality, and to compare his cynical nihilism with the struggles I and others have endured is insulting.