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Originally Posted by smooth
I think the most telling facts about the people you listed is that none of them were poor, they had the freedom to enter a life of austerity.
I wouldn't classify all, or even any, of them as "happy," maybe more accurately as tormented by what they perceived to be injustice in the world.
All of them were anti-capitalists, as well.
But the myth that these people lived and died poor, yet still lived happy lives, makes a powerful story indeed.
Parsing between purchasing a pleasant or comfortable environment and whether that actually "buys" happiness isn't clear and quite frankly seems to be a useless distinction.
People can't buy happiness, but they can buy things or an environment conducive to happiness?
OK, you "win" the argument. Are you happy now?
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I didn't realize that you had a horse in this race.
In any event,
-Ghandi, Mother Teresa and Jesus did not start out rich.
-The myth as you call it appears to be very real, or do you have anything to back up your assertion that it's a "myth"
-At a minimum, Jesus was not "anti-capitalist" as you put it. Jesus WAS of the assertion that the love of money was a serious impediment to the search for God (which I do NOT argue against). (I will not answer for the others, because I do not know. But I would like to see for each of them some proof for your assertion that they are/were "anti-captilist".
-I did no such "parsing", I did however make a clear distinction between providing an environment that was more
condusive to
pursuing happiness and actually
buying happiness (i.e., if I had enough money to buy that car/house/boat/trophy wife/etc, THEN I WILL BE HAPPY, or even, if I can just pay off my credit card, THEN I WILL BE HAPPY!)
Having such an environment is significantly different from having happiness, which is in direct contradiction to what Stompy and Manx seem to believe (that if I won a million bucks then I wouldn't have to work and then I would be happy!)
The failure to see the distinction is IMO, the major stumbling block for many in western culture and also a key part to this entire thread.
-No, debating on the net has relatively little to do with my "happiness". It does however pass the time while scripts run as well as provide some amusement. Occasionally, I like to flatter myself and think that some of the things I post help others understand things in a new way.