The Editorially Independent Voice of The University of Akron

The Buchtelite

The Editorially Independent Voice of The University of Akron

The Buchtelite

The Editorially Independent Voice of The University of Akron

The Buchtelite

Happiness is found in perception

“Things today are the best they have ever been. Some people may be reluctant to agree with this considering the economy and the current state of the world. Corruption plagues the government, disaster and disease are killing thousands and people are struggling to stay employed, insured and basically alive.”

Things today are the best they have ever been. Some people may be reluctant to agree with this considering the economy and the current state of the world.

Corruption plagues the government, disaster and disease are killing thousands and people are struggling to stay employed, insured and basically alive.

Comparing this to previous times though, we experience things everyday that the people of the past never could have imagined.

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Though the deaths of thousands during the tragic events of 9/11 were horrible, Great Britain suffered similar events daily during WWII. Diseases such as HIV are running rampant due to diffusion and the major population’s ability to travel, but the advancements of medical science have brought the ability to regulate symptoms as well as eliminated a multitude of other diseases.

Even the population’s ability to travel is, within itself, a luxury all too often taken for granted.

A trip that would have taken months just a 100 years ago takes only a few hours with the availability of commercial flights.

This in itself has lead to a massive cultural diffusion that allows us to enjoy things such as sushi, paella and baklava, any day of the week.

The other major contributor to the quality of life today is communication, a wonderful tool that gives us the power to access any piece of information at anytime.

The problem occurs when this quality of life is wasted on a generation that knows no different. Most of us have never lived through anything as brutal and devastating as WWII, or the bubonic plague.

Nobody has watched an entire civilization become taken over and placed into slavery. No one has traveled via wooden vessel across the Atlantic witnessing the death of many of their crew members.

Instead companies are now manipulating consumers trying to make them feel that they need something more than they have.

This leads to depressed and demoralized individuals that are then taken advantage of by the big businesses today such as the pharmaceutical companies via communication.

…You may feel hopeless, anxious, what ever you do you feel lonely…

A quote from a Zoloft commercial. Zoloft is an antidepressant designed on the theory that a possible imbalance of the neurotransmitter serotonin (believed to be related to happiness) could lead to clinical depression.

Depression may be a real disease, but perception is definitely a great cure for such problems.

Place yourself in the shoes of those who suffered greatly in the past: the enslaved, tortured and persecuted, those who have died from horrible disease without pain medication, or those who have lost their children due to primitive sterilization techniques.

The problem with today is that everything’s amazing, and nobody’s happy.

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