Photo by: Harry FodorI was reading about Robert Nozick's Experience Machine. A thought experiment asking if you could basically 'plug' yourself into unlimited happiness, would you?
Now this is a deep question. Just the other day, I was saying that happiness is the most important factor in one's life experience. Not just good feelings, but deep contentment and satisfaction. Most people, about 95% (apparently), would choose not to be plugged in.
If asked this question, of course you would probably say, "No! I would never plug myself into a machine to fake happiness!" No one wants to believe that they are superficially happy. You would probably feel good about yourself thinking that you chosen the correct answer.
But this is what I'm asking you: How often do you believe a complete lie to be the truth, just because it makes you happy?
I'll quit smoking soon. We really will work it out. Cancer won't happen to me. One soda a day isn't bad. And the list goes on...
I'll admit it. I make things that aren't true, in order to protect my happiness. Like the belief that I have security. You never really have real security. Anything could happen at any moment that's out of your control. Or thinking that they way you were brought up makes you better than someone else. Maybe because you had people in your family that are good people. People that love you and take care of you. Why would it happen to you and not someone else?
That's just the luck of the draw. It has nothing to do with what you think you're entitled to in this life. Everyone's consciousness is fundamentally the same, but we believe ourselves to be separate because it makes us feel better. More special and unique. Why we're we the lucky ones?
Then, you realize that at any moment something could happen and you might not feel so lucky anymore. Which is my point. It can't be a truth if it's fleeting.
So, what are the lies we tell ourselves? The ones that are so deeply ingrained in our ego that we don't even know they're there? To never even question why we do what we do would be a shame. As the great Socrates put it so perfectly: "The unexamined life is not worth living."
