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Sara Price
Humanities
27 April 2015
Happily Ever After
Happiness, many say that happiness can be perfectly defined and interpreted as a
human action. Others say that happiness is nearly impossible to define and conquer. We as
humans can interpret happiness in many shapes and forms. For some, it can be as simple as
getting a smile while walking down the street, and for others we need constant attention to stay
happy. In the book Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley, it introduced the simple idea of a
powerful drug by the name of soma. Soma, in a sense, erases all bad memories, sad times and
painful encounters. In the ideal world in the book, it induces the state of perfect happiness.
Written in the book is the caste system, a system made to fit the mission statement or motto of
the perfect world, Community, Identity, Stability. Within the caste system is five castes, the
smartest or most intelligent are at the top, and all the others are considered downgraded. In our
world some of us see each other as perfectly happy and that happiness for some is thought as a
simple feeling you can master at any given moment, others have proven that cant have
happiness with meaning, you have to have desire and motivation to work towards achieving
happiness and we have areas to grow and mature to pursue that perfect sense of happiness for
our nation.
Meaning without happiness isnt very happy, you cant have meaning without happiness
and vice versa. In the words of Aristotle: Happiness depends on ourselves. Happiness and
meaning are almost like a fairy tale, they can be known and thought about, but never 100%
achieved. The correct definition of meaning: What is intended to be, or actually is, expressed or
indicated. There has to be intention, you have to want to be happy and you have to remember
that you need to be present when you're happy. In the article: Theres more to life than being
happy, it states: "It is the very pursuit happiness, that thwarts happiness." Happiness doesnt
just come out of nowhere, you have to want to be happy and you have to work to be happy, you
also have to acknowledge that you are happy. It seems like in our world there's always a reason
not to be happy, there's always something that's wrong, whether its I dont have something, I
want something I dont have, I need something I cant have. Happiness without meaning is
blind or empty happiness, sometimes even induced by drugs or alcohol. It's artificial happiness.
True happiness comes with or from meaning.
Its a combination of gratefulness, and a desire to be happy in your life. Sometimes we
expect that happiness comes freely, but I believe that we have to work to achieve our happiness
in our life. Patience, perseverance, desire, motivation, being present, positive emotions, and

peace of mind are the key components I believe encourage and inspire us to work to achieving
to our perfect sense of happiness In the words of my older brother Devin: Do things that make
you happy. Everyone has something that makes them happy and doing those things actively
and consistently I believe could boost your happiness. In the movie I Am, it gives us the fact
that traumas make you open your eyes and realize the world differently, but I know it shouldn't
need to come to the point where someone gets hurt to realize that they need to act differently, or
they need to take a different path.
I believe what we need as a nation is to downgrade the use of technology, modern
medicine and increase the use of preventative care rather than sick care. We supply so much
modern medicine and so much technology that it's taking over our world that we see 9-year-olds
with better technology than 40-year-olds. Most of us believe that the future will be one that has
no happy children playing in the grass, we believe in a future of technology, hover boards,
hands-free computers. They believe it will make the world a happier and better off place for the
people. As we watched the movie Happy I found that theirs people living in the most remote
places with barely anything, and yet they are still happy, in some cases, happier than people
who live in New York City with a nice penthouse and a high paying job. Money doesnt buy
happiness and the movie Happy opened eyes to see that. In class, along with Happy, we
watched a movie by the name of I Am, in the movie, it talks about the fact that society is running
humans like machines. We are running our society as if we are pieces of machinery. Said
Thom Hartmann as he was being interviewed for the movie. Humans aren't machines and they
won't and cant run like machines.
As a human being, we deserve to be happy in our lives, whether that is helping someone
else, achieving goals or getting good grades. Its what we were meant to do, humans need
happiness in our lives. It's a critical point to living as a successful race on earth. Until happiness
was studied, humans viewed it as an involuntary emotion you can't trigger, but that has to be
achieved. We were put on this earth as humans to thrive and live amongst each other, and
happiness is big playing factor to achieving that perfect state of happiness.