Western society and happiness (serious stuff)

[Silverthorn]

Hope you don't mind me moving this from General Discussion to Philosophy.

Well, I read your post a day or so ago and got some time to invest my two cents in it.

Everything is planned out for us as a child and when we think or act differently, this behavior is discouraged. This doesn't change much in adulthood.

This is actually an evolutionary thing. If kids were not get taught the ways of doing things, the whole species would've died out. You can see this behavior in pretty much any animal that does more than follow its instincts.

Now, this covers the children but I agree that there are also the formalities adults have to succumb to. I guess that has to do with the "how to deal with others in a way that they won't kill you"-thing that also traces back to pre-stone age.

We might THINK we make our own choices, but the truth is this: we are forced into a certain way of thinking from the very beginning of our childhood. Structure can be a really good thing, but western society doesn't allow thinking outside of the box and mostly ignores what people want, even though people usually don't realize this.

Totally agree to this! I see this often enough with school and college students trying to squeeze a problem into a method they have learned instead of using their brain properly and adapt the method to the problem. Needless to say this becomes frustrating.

At the age of 5, our creative potential is about 80%.
At the age of 8, this creative potential has alreay been reduced to about 20%.
At the age of 40, it is very hard to think outside of the box at all, because we have nearly no creativity left in us.

Where do you get these numbers from? I agree that toddlers/kids have a creative potential that adults can only dream of but quantifying this seems pulled out of thin air...

No wonder we often think adults are boring, right? 90% or more just do exactly as they are told, don't dare to think different.

Again, I am fairly certain this stems from times where a certain codex of coexistance was crucial for survival. Like other regulations, these also evolved into what we know as "moral codex" nowadays.




Interestingly enough, these regulations evolved in parallel in different societies, yielding a behavioral set that differs from culture to culture (then again, what is a "culture" apart from the microbiological things in yogurt? In my opinion, they're also a set of rules/traditions that a group of people follows). Often times, two cultures are incompatible or at least very hard to find a common denominator in.



Saying that you'll have found the "one and only" in a relationship seems absolutely exaggerating, considering that your sample is miniscule compared to the entirety of world's population. For example, why do the people of Iceland still find partners, even though, by statistics, their ideal partner is most likely to be found oversees. What if you don't fall in love with somebody based on their true personality (then again, what is the true personality? Considering that chances of survival are minimal for growing up completely on your own, I don't think we can actually define this) but rather their indoctrinated behavior? I've known several people that have had multicultural relationships, up to marriage. None of those have lasted.

- People need creative thinking to be themselves, and because of that they need creative thinking to be happy at all in life

Yes and no. Constantly thinking about new ways to tackle problems would probably overload your brain. I mean, yes, you could become creative and design a novel method of walking that is 5% more efficient than the old one. Would that help? Depends, people can be real arses to those behaving abnormal. I think forcing creativity is the wrong way, it should come natural and on regulated tracks. If you wish to rethink everything, starting from the wheel, you might become happy in your problem-solving skills but, considering that humans are some sort of social creatures, you would probably be shunned as a "weirdo" which could be detrimental to your goal of becoming happy.

- Everybody should be paying attention to moments of just BEING, where they take the time to really feel what is going on in their heads and body. Mindfulness can be a big help to get your mind at peace. This is because we are usually just focussed on doing things, and we ignore our feelings and body. Allow your thoughts and feelings, as they are not wrong, even if society says so.

Again, society abides by arbitrary rules and those that do not are often shunned. Because this is still somewhat current, take the refugee-"crisis" in Europe, with hundreds of thousands of people from the Middle East settling down in Sweden, Germany, etc. Their cultural background is vastly different, and, unsurprisingly, they get in contact with law enforcement a bit more frequently than the rest of the population. Now, is this due to creativity? Probably not, it's just because their thinking differs from the rest. But this also applies to thinking "outside the box", which is essentially the same as "doing things differently from the rest". This is why one should rather focus on imagination instead of completely changing the behavior, as it might lead to trouble (emphasis on "might").

- Try to stay realistic, as seeing the world as it is increases your happiness. Nobody really understands the world around us, but if you can understand what I am trying to share with you here, this might increase your happiness.

The dreaded "might". Overthinking can also lead to exactly the diametrical opposite. Coming to think of how many so-called "creative minds" decided to end their lives before their biological time was up is slightly scaring, to say the least.

I also don't see how this is linked to creativity

Essentially, once people have found a solution to a problem, they will continue to solve it that way, even though there are possible several other, more efficient ways. Using creativity in terms of problem solving is quite neat but rarely seen nowadays.



Essentially, a lack of knowledge (and a lack of someone telling you how it's done) can spark creative thinking. The more you know, the more you are forced to consider several other sides. Where small kids see a square, the adult sees the cube.