The Road to Happiness - Russell
Chapter 2: Byronic Unhappiness
Byronic unhappiness stems from world-weariness and pessimism.
Byronic unhappiness stems from world-weariness, and even if the wise men among them have seen through all the fanaticisms of the past and realized that there is nothing in the world worth upholding, those who hold this world-weary view will not be happy.
They have always believed that the end of the universe is painful, and they attribute their misfortune to their own cosmology, in fact they themselves are not yet aware of some reasons for not being happy, but these unhappiness mislead them into focusing on the unsatisfactory in the world. Smart people, on the other hand, will be happy to the extent that circumstances allow, and no matter what the basis, reason will not hinder happiness.
The three world-weary people mentioned in the book: Krutche, Byron, and the author of Ecclesiastes, all give gray comments after they have tasted all the joys of life. Think that everything is false, everything is trouble.
How to get rid of these false and unhappy emotions? Usually it is only necessary to pay for imperative actions and not to use any philosophy to get rid of these emotions?
The sense of delusion comes from living too easily, like other animals, people also need to do some struggle for life, when the happiness in life without effort loses one of its basic elements, a person can easily meet any small wish of his own, he will think that the essence of life is painful, even if you get what you want, people are still unhappy. Maintaining a desire for something is an essential part of happiness.
How sentimental ---- pessimistic
The text takes the example of what is described in the book of Ecclesiastes: the river flows into the sea, but the sea is dissatisfied, there is nothing new under the sun, no one will remember the past, and I hate all my labor under the sun, because he will be enjoyed by posterity.
If you look at it in a different way: everything will take on a different picture.
It's a bad habit to focus only on the future and think that the whole point of the present is only what it will bring to tomorrow. Only if some parts are valuable, the whole is valuable. Only when it is limited can life last forever. If emotions are determined by specific reasons, there are as many reasons to be happy as there are reasons to despair
Victorian love
The Victorian era placed love very seriously, for them love was like God, for whom everything needed to be sacrificed; love was like God, it would reward believers, it gave all the phenomena in life an inanalybly unanalytical meaning. Such love is too extreme and unhappy.
Love should be bold, sober, able to tell people what is good, and not forget evil, nor pretend to be "sacred" or "pure."
There are various philosophies of celibacy at different times in the world, and they believe that a person can achieve the perfection of life by his own will alone, at least without the help of others, and all celibacy philosophies believe that the perfection can be achieved through individuals, rather than only in large and small groups, which is wrong.
Man's survival depends on cooperation, and nature gives man an instinctive organ that is really imperfect, and the friendship required for cooperation originates from this instinct. The highest form of love is capable of manifesting values that other things cannot, and it is itself a value that is not influenced by skepticism.
True love is an unquenchable flame
Burn forever in the heart
Never weaken, never die, never cool
Never stray from the direction