What is the most prevalent state of humanity - happy or unhappy?

[el_bryanto]

The follow up question would be whether or not this is Humanities natural state, or if it's an artificial state imposed by societal structures.

Bryant

1 vote, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Very happy
	0 (0%)
	Happy
	0 (0%)
	Somewhat happy
	0 (0%)
	Neither happy nor unhappy
	0 (0%)
	Somewhat unhappy
	0 (0%)
	Unhappy
	1 (100%)
	Very Unhappy
	0 (0%)
	this poll is a waste of time
	0 (0%)
	I like to vote!
	0 (0%)
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[CrispyQ]

1. I said very unhappy.

I think as a collective we know we're on really bad path and we're waiting for some bold leader or brilliant scientist or someone, anyone, to tell us what to do, but in the meantime, we're partying like it's 1999. Sometimes I think what we need is an alien invasion. Then maybe humanity would unite as one. Of course, as soon as it was safe again, we'd go back to our warring ways.

Can you tell I'm a misanthrope?

[GliderGuider]

2. On the follow-up question

It's a socio-cultural thing. Most people who live outside the ever-tightening vice of industrial civilization seem pretty happy, by and large. Of course, getting from here to that state would require us to do without the "benefits" of industrial civilization, and that would make most of us even unhappier. So most of us are in a no-win situation.

[el_bryanto]

3. You also might not have a real view of how people outside of industrial civilization are doing

I think smiling for the cameras is one of the first things anybody who encounters industrial civilization learns. And burying your children because they died of treatable diseases probably isn't that much fun.

Bryant

[GliderGuider]

6. I was thinking more of how people lived for the last couple of hundred thousand years.

Being happy isn't the same thing as not having tragedies in your life.

IMO the view that we in the developed world are the pinnacle of fulfillment and happiness is a product of our acculturation. People tend to become unhappy when we compare ourselves to others, which I think is the source of your observation.

[Nye Bevan]

4. Depends upon the person.

Most people (like myself) have a default state of "happy". That is, I will be happy unless there is a very good reason not to be. However, I have known people for which the opposite is true.

[The2ndWheel]

5. Confused indulgence

Usually somewhere between whatever happy or unhappy is, with moments where it's one or the other, which is of course different for different people.

We don't know what we're doing, we make it up as we go along, and we think we can measure our way to a perfect state of existence. A little more of this, a little more of that, a little more here, a little less there, but we end up in the same absurd place.