The conflation of these two terms is, I believe, the source of much of our modern misery.
We live in a world where every conceivable luxury and convenience is available to the vast majority of the population.
Luxuries once reserved for the elite are now freely and readily available to nearly all of us.
Food that is delivered to your doorstep with the press of a button…
Homes with climate control and running water…
Cars that can take us from one end of the country to another…
Phones with more processing power than the computers that put a man on the moon…
These are but a few of the many things we take for granted in our modern time.
And yet, despite the relative opulence of our modern lifestyle and the unrestrained convenience with which we can live, our nation is more depressed, anxious, and isolated than ever before.
The reason is simple…
We’ve confused happiness for pleasure, and unwittingly sold our souls to the gods of hedonism and instant gratification.
Pleasure is too readily available and too easily accessible.
Alcohol, sugar, technology, porn, drugs, even money…
The quick hits we receive from these substances and activities act as a shallow and fleeting substitute for the things that drive true happiness…things that money cannot buy.
Close friends whom you trust and admire deeply…
An intimate relationship with a lover who shares your vision…
The pursuit of a worthwhile mission that supersedes your fragile human ego and inconsolable sense of inadequacy…
The joy one achieves through struggle and suffering, through the conquest of worthy goals and the triumph over moral and social injustices…
The development of skills, the attainment of wisdom, the willingness to embrace stillness and simply “be”…
These are the things that make one truly happy.
Money and success are nice. So too are luxuries and conveniences and creature comforts.
But happiness is not something you can “earn” or a goal you can achieve or a thing you can buy… no matter how many clever marketers tell you otherwise.
Only pleasure can be bought. And the problem with pleasure is that it’s fleeting and fickle mistress to whom so many of us recklessly give our lives (think: drug addicts, workaholics, and social media fanatics).
It does not and cannot last.
But happiness does.
-Andrew Ferebee
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