It’s fairly easy to be unhappy in today’s world. I mean, I agree with your take and I’ve spouted it often to my wife and kids. But even though I myself can find personal satisfaction and happiness wherever I am, concern for my family, my community and my nation and the world can make me very unhappy indeed.
Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. There’s a lot to feel sorry for, even in America where rich men in big houses drown their pain in alcohol and pills, divorced and unloved while bums living in a culvert gathered round a campfire, laugh and embrace and keep each other warm.
Great article. I love that you connect real life experiences that we can seek out to the spiritual lessons we may try to learn, as in this case with combatting the hedonic treadmill.
It's also great to see just how 'good' we have it here. When I was in Cambodia, seeing the level of poverty and yet how they were happy and balanced was something so many people who rail about their perspective of poverty in the US need to understand.
"When the monoculture and internet access blanket every inch of the earth, I suspect people will create small bubbles of the past to escape into for short periods, erecting creative masts to stay grounded and focused."
Thank you, Andrew, for this beautifully written, hugely insightful and poignant article – and allowing me to respond.
While there are many claims about what is the most important philosophical/religious concept/truth that we have received from the Ancients, e.g., impermanence/all passes away/constant flux, I think you capture it clearly in this piece: perspective determines experience. (I believe the Stoics referred to it as “impressions.”)
Adopt the perspective of gratitude or glass-half-full, and experience changes from feelings of desire and lack to contentment and fulfillment. Shifting perspective transforms suffering (dissatisfaction) into happiness (satisfaction) in an instant.
But that raises the question I’ve been grappling with – what is perspective (aka point of view, vantage, sage on the shoulder, frame/reframe, role playing, impartial observer, interpretation)?
Is perspective actually different from experience (aka consciousness, awareness, being) itself?
And, can perspective be volitionally controlled?
I won’t burden you with my (tentative) answers to these questions, but will just say that perspective-taking and perspective-shifting remain mysterious to me.
Nonetheless, I continue to think that perspective-taking/shifting is fundamental to Stoic virtue ethics/eudaimonia and Buddhist awakening as well as our subjective experience.
I don't have a complete answer for you. And I think to get anywhere with this we'd have to drill down on how perspective differs from judgment and impressions.
But think about what people mean when they say, "don't judge me!"
It always struck me as such a bizarre request. Is it even possible to not judge others, at least on some superficial level?
It's clearly possible to say, "I don't know what it's like to walk in their shoes," and "I will remain skeptical about this tentative judgement I'm forming because my underlying assumptions could be completely wrong."
Marcus was clear: "You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”
But I think that option, for Marcus, always came downstream of one judgement: Does this have to do with virtue?
To me, this is the perspective, the filter, through which reality passes. It is, in a sense, transformed by it.
I'm not sure if I answered your question. I'd be curious to know if you have a different "perspective" on this that you've found useful.
Socio historical proceses aren't comprehensible as darwinian strugles. And it is a gross over simplification to state that post colonial relationships involve the mere "importing" of cultural traits.
That sort of framing just reduces any non-western population to an athavic, unevolved other, traped in the past; while showcasing the colonial west as an inevitable beacon of progress, pushing humanity forward. Of course, neither is remotely true.
We are 25 years into the XXIst century, we have better methodological and analythical tools to explain current cultural swifts than the "end of history" thesis. I understand that those aren't the main issues this post adresses, but reifying dangerous colonial ideas in an atempt of self improvement ain't the way. Is just more privileged first world extracting tourism.
It’s fairly easy to be unhappy in today’s world. I mean, I agree with your take and I’ve spouted it often to my wife and kids. But even though I myself can find personal satisfaction and happiness wherever I am, concern for my family, my community and my nation and the world can make me very unhappy indeed.
Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. There’s a lot to feel sorry for, even in America where rich men in big houses drown their pain in alcohol and pills, divorced and unloved while bums living in a culvert gathered round a campfire, laugh and embrace and keep each other warm.
Not only are you expanding my mind but now you’re expanding my bookshelf with the recommendations at the end.
Most of me appreciates you aside from my frugal side…
I know that feeling!
Great article. I love that you connect real life experiences that we can seek out to the spiritual lessons we may try to learn, as in this case with combatting the hedonic treadmill.
Thanks!
It's also great to see just how 'good' we have it here. When I was in Cambodia, seeing the level of poverty and yet how they were happy and balanced was something so many people who rail about their perspective of poverty in the US need to understand.
Yep. Delusion is rampant.
"When the monoculture and internet access blanket every inch of the earth, I suspect people will create small bubbles of the past to escape into for short periods, erecting creative masts to stay grounded and focused."
Funny you mention that. I was just reading about something similar yesterday: https://www.barrons.com/news/digital-detox-young-adults-flock-to-london-offline-nights-195a3751
Now I want to travel El Salvador
Thank you, Andrew, for this beautifully written, hugely insightful and poignant article – and allowing me to respond.
While there are many claims about what is the most important philosophical/religious concept/truth that we have received from the Ancients, e.g., impermanence/all passes away/constant flux, I think you capture it clearly in this piece: perspective determines experience. (I believe the Stoics referred to it as “impressions.”)
Adopt the perspective of gratitude or glass-half-full, and experience changes from feelings of desire and lack to contentment and fulfillment. Shifting perspective transforms suffering (dissatisfaction) into happiness (satisfaction) in an instant.
But that raises the question I’ve been grappling with – what is perspective (aka point of view, vantage, sage on the shoulder, frame/reframe, role playing, impartial observer, interpretation)?
Is perspective actually different from experience (aka consciousness, awareness, being) itself?
And, can perspective be volitionally controlled?
I won’t burden you with my (tentative) answers to these questions, but will just say that perspective-taking and perspective-shifting remain mysterious to me.
Nonetheless, I continue to think that perspective-taking/shifting is fundamental to Stoic virtue ethics/eudaimonia and Buddhist awakening as well as our subjective experience.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
I would appreciate your thoughts.
I don't have a complete answer for you. And I think to get anywhere with this we'd have to drill down on how perspective differs from judgment and impressions.
But think about what people mean when they say, "don't judge me!"
It always struck me as such a bizarre request. Is it even possible to not judge others, at least on some superficial level?
It's clearly possible to say, "I don't know what it's like to walk in their shoes," and "I will remain skeptical about this tentative judgement I'm forming because my underlying assumptions could be completely wrong."
It's also clearly possible to say, "I don't have enough knowledge/information to form useful conclusions on this subject, which I wrote about here: https://open.substack.com/pub/andrewperlot/p/how-to-have-worthwhile-opinions-in?r=1xulhu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Marcus was clear: "You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.”
But I think that option, for Marcus, always came downstream of one judgement: Does this have to do with virtue?
To me, this is the perspective, the filter, through which reality passes. It is, in a sense, transformed by it.
I'm not sure if I answered your question. I'd be curious to know if you have a different "perspective" on this that you've found useful.
Socio historical proceses aren't comprehensible as darwinian strugles. And it is a gross over simplification to state that post colonial relationships involve the mere "importing" of cultural traits.
That sort of framing just reduces any non-western population to an athavic, unevolved other, traped in the past; while showcasing the colonial west as an inevitable beacon of progress, pushing humanity forward. Of course, neither is remotely true.
We are 25 years into the XXIst century, we have better methodological and analythical tools to explain current cultural swifts than the "end of history" thesis. I understand that those aren't the main issues this post adresses, but reifying dangerous colonial ideas in an atempt of self improvement ain't the way. Is just more privileged first world extracting tourism.