The Enlightenment was an era (around the 17th/18th century) that changed people’s trust from authority to science and reasoning. That was revolutionary for the time. But while we do rely much more on reasoning than the dictates of a King or ruler to tell us what is right or wrong, in general we lack self awareness that keeps us from being a truly enlightened people.
Mistaking Pleasure and Happiness
Fundamental to our human condition is that we routinely mistake pleasure for happiness and this leads us to all sorts of problems. Nothing wrong with pleasure but often times when we mistake it for happiness, it may actually detract from happiness. Think about eating ice cream (the example from my book). That’s pleasurable. But beyond a certain point, you might feel guilty and thus unhappy even while you can’t stop yourself because of the pleasure. Maybe you’re not one to feel guilty about eating ice cream. And yet, over time, you might develop chronic diseases (on account of eating too much processed foods) which limit your health and then you really do feel unhappy. The point is that pleasure and happiness are not the same and in mistaking pleasure for happiness, we may and often do make ourselves less happy.
What Defines Mindless Consumerism
To mindlessly consume then means to spend money purchasing goods and services (usually in pursuit of pleasures) that undermines our health, our well-being and ultimately our happiness. Thus we have, in comparison to our Hunter-gatherer ancestors, isolated ourselves, engineered out exercise, live in artificial environments, and consume increasingly processed highly pleasurable “foods”. All of which makes us less healthy and thus less happy. That is not to say that we have not made real progress but we could have taken all of the good without the bad.
Wise Humans
We call ourselves Homo sapiens or wise humans. But what wisdom is there in undermining our own health and wellbeing in order to increase productivity/GDP or for a financial benefit? What is the financial benefit for if not to make us happy?
Neither Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo neanderthalis or for that matter any other wild animal undermined their own wellbeing like we sapiens have. But we are designated the wise ones? Lonelier, sicker, and more fragile that’s where our “wisdom” has led us over the years.
But I do believe the potential is there. I do believe that one day we can live up to our self appointed species name and truly become wise.
Enlightenment Part II
How then can we be truly enlightened? All that we need is to understand human nature better. Though we are prone to mistake pleasure for happiness, we can learn not to make that mistake by understanding what actually does and does not make us happier. Understanding the science of happiness is fairly simple and very teachable.
The change we need is about on the order of the Enlightenment era of the 17-18th centuries. It requires societal level change. It would take millions of people to understand the predicament we are facing – to recognize that we are on the wrong track and that we must change course. It is daunting to think and yet we know it is possible. History is full of large scale changes.
BOTTOM LINE: THERE IS A BETTER WAY!
- As John Maynard Keynes said a century ago, people of our time ought to be largely independent of our employers for our income – unfortunately, due to “mindless consumerism”, we are not.
- Mindless consumerism is the underlying reason leading to the rise of chronic disease for 3 major reasons:
- It ties us to dependence on our employers and modern day employment is a health hazard for most (in part due to the sedentary nature of most jobs).
- It has led to environmental changes toxic to our wellbeing:
- (a). We evolved in and are best suited to natural environments and instead we live in increasingly artificial environments.
- (b). Overconsumption has lead us to engineer out the need for meaningful use of our legs for ambulation.
- Finally, it transforms workers to work with blinders on – instead of working for the product or service and receiving money as a side effect, workers focus on making money and the product or service is instead the side effect. The results (with respect to health) is that “food” is no longer food but changed to maximize pleasure and extract profit in spite of the toxicity to our health.
- Based on the science of wellbeing one can derive the philosophy that once basic needs are met, “The best things in life are free” therefore —>
- Most people can live far below their means without sacrificing happiness AND by investing the rest, they can become financially independent of their employers enabling them to be —>
- Happier. Healthier. Wealthier. More engaged. Simply better.
