Happiness is caused is it not by a chemical reaction in the brain that creates a feeling of well being? The challenge may be. We need to find less harmful ways of creating this sensation of happiness, that both fulfils more people and does less damage to each other and our environment.
In our new society we will need to learn to do without things. In a world obsessed by possessions this will be no easy task. We will need to start finding pleasure in thought and in a good nights sleep, after a days work, knowing what we are building is for our benefit and we trust and believe in what we are doing. This is no airy fairy utopian notion either, it is an imperative if we look at what is happening around us. We will need to sacrifice the junk that keeps us focused on wage slavery, criminalising those who can’t afford it and worshipping those who are in control of who gets it.
This does not mean we lose everything, we can also gain much more. This can be cathartic and an opening up to the wider world and possibilities that are unbridled by possessions, where the mental and physical energy we spend in acquiring them could be used for more beneficial things.
“Why does this magnificent applied science, which saves work and makes life easier, bring us little happiness? The simple answer runs: because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it.”
Albert Einstein