Dao 1

Brandon Dao

Mr. J. Rauh

AC/AP English Language and Composition

21 May 2010

Contentment of the Masses

“Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic.”

- Cesare Pavese

Society, a breathing, living entity on its own, continually evolves over

time. It changes. It reeks of waste as the old society decays and the new one

emerges. We witness this metamorphosis in our history books: the British

colonizes America, and then America breaks free from Britain’s leadership,

similar to the way a butterfly breaks free from its constricting pupa. People

find new ways to interact with each other, new ways to perform mundane

tasks, new ways to view the world. Society is ever-changing.

However, one thing continues to remain constant – that is, the

ambition of man to achieve happiness in his lifetime. This desire for

happiness and a good life compels people to live, to live with the hopes of

one day achieving this happiness. But what is this happiness that one seeks?

Happiness is but a series of pleasures, a series of enjoyments. Enjoyment, as

defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is “the action or state of deriving

gratification from an object,” or “something which gives pleasure (265).”

Man hopes that by filling his life with these enjoyments, he can live a full and
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rich life. That is what everyone wants: a full and rich life, a life that is

satisfactory and rewarding. Thus, societal life necessitates enjoyment.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley provides a disturbing image of

what society can turn into and shows that although the society goes through

drastic changes in morality, the people continue to live life in order to

become happy, even if the happiness is merely artificial. The utopian society,

led by The World State, has clearly different beliefs and methods of living

compared to the society of today. Huxley’s fictional world consists of people

who are manufactured and bred to become ideal citizens with set jobs to

perform and a set future planned out for them before they are even born.

Even so, these people, these mechanical, conditioned robots, seek happiness

and enjoyment in a few notable ways. The first is through soma. Soma, a

hallucinogen, allows the user to go on “holidays” and is a means of short-

term happiness (Huxley 54). Another is through sex. Sex in Brave New World

detracts from the actual, nature-intended function of sex and has boiled

down to a recreational activity. It is apparent throughout the book that

Huxley’s make-believe society requires soma and sex frequently in order to

live on. The society relies on this source of happiness to thrive and prolong

existence. It can almost be said that happiness plus society yields continuity.

Even if the happiness in their society seems artificial compared to modern

society’s take on happiness, the people of The World State still pursue

happiness. Without enjoyment, without periods of happiness, life means

nothing.
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Happiness is the ultimate goal in life. Aristotle, in discussing happiness,

states: “we always desire happiness for its own sake and never as a means

to something else, whereas we desire honour, pleasure, intellect, and every

virtue, partly for their own sakes but partly also as being means to

happiness” (13). Happiness is self-sufficient in that it makes life desirable. It

is the underlying reason for every action of man, for the way in which we live

our lives. We wake up in the morning and seek fame, not just because we

want it but also because we believe it will give us happiness. We wake up in

the morning and seek wealth because we believe it will give us happiness.

We choose the things we choose to do in life not just because we want to but

because we hope that by doing so we will achieve happiness. When men say

that what they want is happiness, they want happiness and nothing more.

When asked why they want happiness, it is hard to give any reason other

than “because I want to be happy.” The concept of happiness drives society;

it gives society a reason to live. Without enjoyment, life lacks purpose.

Enjoyment is an indispensable component to a good life. In order to

have a decent life, one must enjoy his daily experiences as he lives his life.

According to Yutang in his book, The Importance of Living, if we can organize

our lives properly, we can “live peacefully, endure nobly, and live happily”

(96). Is that not the goal of mankind? It should be every man’s goal to be

able to reflect on his life and say that he has not wasted it. To say that a life

not lived with happiness is a wasted life might be too bleak, but it is true.

Happiness sustains life and gives people motive to live. It provides to people
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a purpose to live by. It lets them know that although times might be tough

and although things may not be working out, their positive outlook on life –

their happiness – will guide them through the hardships that life throws at

them. Life is indeed a pain and enjoyment is indeed its anesthetic. Mankind

constantly faces adversity, and enjoyment soothes mankind. This makes

enjoyment a necessity, a necessity for life to progress. One does not want to

have a shortage of anesthetic and wake up during the middle of an

operation. One does not want to have a shortage of enjoyment and wake up

to the pains of life, the hardships of life.

Phenomenology is the study that attempts to look at subjective topics

objectively. Happiness, in a sense, is a subjective topic; one’s happiness

depends almost exclusively to that one individual. Happiness does not

belong to the person, but rather exists in the mind. Phenomenology

however, tries to look at everything, including happiness, objectively. How,

then, can happiness be viewed objectively? Happiness is widely considered

to be a universal goal of men, but the ultimate source of happiness varies

from person to person, from culture to culture. In phenomenology, there is a

term known as intentionality, which states that consciousness is always

consciousness of something. In this case, if happiness is the object of

consciousness, the mind is conscious of happiness as an object, not a subject

belonging to the thinker. Even if happiness is not the object of

consciousness, it may very well be that happiness is the underlying cause of

much intentionality. For example, as a man is conscious of the sport that he

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is playing, or perhaps the very sound of the bouncing ball, the act of

consciousness brings about happiness. It can then be said that happiness is

the root of human action. Happiness, although many seek to gain it, truly

exists only in the present and not in the past or future. Happiness is

subjective; looking at it as an objective term merely makes us believe that

happiness does not belong to the person. But it does. Our state of mind, how

we individually experience our life, is where happiness truly lies. True

happiness is found within ourselves. Consequently, we should not seek to

obtain it, but rather find it within by overcoming life’s challenges. Only when

a person can live a day and say “I have no regrets” can that person be truly

happy.

Even though happiness is considered subjective, it can be applied, to

some extent, to all people. Happiness applies universally to people, although

enjoyment is unique. To defend this, a more exact definition of happiness

must be present, and to do so, as Aristotle states, one must “ascertain the

function of Man” (15). At first, he gives two possibilities and rejects them

straightaway: the function of Man cannot be life, since life is something that

Man shares with all other animals and the function of Man needs to be

exclusive to Man; life of sensation or happiness is also a possibility, but

animals also function for this. He then concludes that the function of Man is

the “activity of soul in accordance with reason” (Aristotle 16). The function of

humans is being able to reason with the soul. This very ability to consciously

reason, to choose right from wrong, separates us from all other species.
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Aristotle then says that happiness, or rather the happy man, is “one whose

activity accords with perfect virtue and who is adequately furnished with

external goods, not for a casual period of time but for a complete or perfect

lifetime” (27). He stated previously that only those who are furnished with

external goods are able to make noble decisions. Making these noble

decisions allows for perfect virtue, and perfect virtue and happiness go hand

in hand. In order to be a happy man, one must be happy not for a casual

period of time, but for his complete life. The man may then be labeled happy

if his miseries are short-term and his happiness is everlasting.

Yutang revealed that we people lose purpose and lose their true self in

the pursuit of living. He identifies three humbugs in life: fame, wealth, and

power. In essence, these three humbugs can all be translated into success.

People seek those three things in an attempt to succeed in life, and in doing

so they fear the inevitable; they fear that they will not succeed. Yutang

states that these humbugs are just “euphemistic names for the fears of

failure, poverty, and obscurity” (103). This fear dominates their lives and

distracts them from simply enjoying life. These humbugs, these false senses

of happiness, plague the pursuit of living. All of them are related as they all

provide a variable amount of success in society. Fame gives widespread

recognition; fame allows an individual to be known to all of society and thus

gives that individual a better name. Wealth provides an abundance of

external goods, and while this seems like it would aid in the pursuit of

happiness, wealth desired to avoid poverty does not bring happiness. Yutang
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comments on these first two humbugs, mentioning that it is easy for people

to “escape the lure of wealth, but only the very greatest could escape the

lure of fame” (102). This can be evidenced in shows such as American Idol,

where even people in poverty try out for the show not only for money but

mainly for the fame that comes with becoming a music artist. Brave New

World also supports the fact that these humbugs detract from being able to

obtain happiness. In Huxley’s fabricated society, there is a complete

elimination of desire for wealth, power, and fame. The humans are sorted

into social classes as they are born; they are bred to do specific jobs and

perform specific duties in society, and by doing so desire for fame and power

are eliminated. Members of the same caste are given the same food,

housing, and soma rationing to eliminate desire for wealth (Huxley 5-10).

Even with these humbugs removed, the people of The World State are able

to obtain their moments of enjoyment through sex or soma. These desires

for success in society actually fog a person’s vision of true happiness, and

only when one is able to ignore these desires for social success can he

experience true happiness.

Enjoying nature itself allows one to enjoy the simplicity of life. In Emily

Dickinson’s “I taste a liquor never brewed,” Dickinson describes how

intoxicating and exciting nature is. She mentions that she tastes a “liquor

never brewed” and is “inebriate of air” (1-5). This indicates that she is not

actually drunk, but metaphorically; one cannot become literally drunk off of a

nonexistent alcohol or air. Dickinson claims that this alcohol is stronger than
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any real alcohol, and that she will continue to drink forever. She is

intoxicated by the “endless summer days,” (7) and the poem ends with her

leaning against the sun. The poem has a very happy and positive

connotation, with Dickinson expressing her drunken feeling, her enjoyment,

of nature to the reader. One can say that she is drunk on life as well, the

simplicity, the nature of life. This enjoyment of the simplicity of nature is

mirrored in Percy Shelley’s “To a Skylark.” In this poem, the narrator notices

a skylark in the sky and comments on its beauty. The bird can “float and run,

/ Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun” (14-15). Its song outshines

“all that ever was, / Joyous and clear and fresh” (59-60), its music “sweet as

love.” The speaker simply muses at the skylark; the speaker adores the bird,

enjoys the singing, and respects nature. It is apparent that Shelley is writing

about the purity of nature, the purity of existence. This pure existence forms

the basis of another definition of happiness by Mill: “an existence exempt as

far as possible from pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments”

(Syntopicon, 483). Happiness is pure existence; obtaining happiness signifies

an end to all further desires. The sense of purity implies virtue.

Righteousness dictates whether something, whether it is life or some other

abstract concept, can be pure or not.

Loneliness is a driving factor in how we live our life and what we do

during our lifetime. Think of this: if society did not exist and humans lived

independently of each other, what would life be like? Undoubtedly, society

and communities exist in order to allow for communication and other

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interactions between each other. This sense of society is indispensable to a

good life; people must be able to interact with others in order to enjoy life.

Without social interactions, people become lonely and their lives become just

as dreadful as those who seek to become famous and wealthy. This is

another concept that Brave New World reflects on. In The World State, being

alone is highly frowned upon. Society believes that by being alone, one is

just wasting valuable time and money. Feelings of emptiness and feelings of

solitude, a loss of identity almost, are considered to be crimes whereas

feeling happiness while using soma or having sex is considered to be the

right thing to do. Loneliness is a fear that people steer away from by seeking

happiness.

Several more definitions are used to identify happiness. Plato identifies

happiness as “a harmony in the soul, an inner peace which results from the

proper order of all the soul’s parts.” Most definitions associate a happy man

with serenity and peace within the soul. Happiness requires humans, who are

deemed to be the only animals that have souls, to become unified not with

others but within themselves. We humans must find a peace of mind in order

to discover happiness, to discover true, pure existence. Furthermore, many

agree on Aristotle’s definition of happiness and state that the “most obvious

mark on the happy man is that he wants for nothing.” Happiness is the last

desire; one who is happy no longer desires anything else. Mill concurs with

Aristotle’s thoughts, saying that although many things can be desired for
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their own sake, when the possession of any of these things leaves more

desire, then it is desired as a means of happiness (Syntopicon, 480).

It should be noted that all this time, happiness has been discussed in

terms of man. But what about children? What about animals? Aristotle comes

to the depressing conclusion that animals and children are not capable of

happiness because happiness demands a complete virtue and a complete

life (22). Happiness, a necessity in man’s life, cannot be acquired by animals

for the simple fact that they are incapable of participating in the activity of

soul in accordance with reason. Children are a different matter. A human

child will indeed be given the opportunity to experience happiness if the

child is able to develop into an adult, but the age of a child makes it

impossible for him to become happy at that stage in life. Aristotle states that

if a child is ever said to be happy, “the ground of the felicitation is his

promise, rather than his actual performance” (22). At this point in time, a

child does not have a complete soul. When life experiences and wisdom of

virtue expand, the child will then be able to be called happy. But Aristotle

then raises another issue. He states that it is possible that even the most

prosperous men, the happiest of men, will succumb to miseries that will end

his life. If this happens, and the man has died a miserable death, no one calls

him happy (23). Thus, a man’s life can only collectively be labeled “happy” if

he has live his life free of miseries.

The necessity of enjoyment in life and the definition of happiness have

been explained. But just who, exactly, can enjoy life? To be able to enjoy life,
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Yutang says, the “man must be wise and unafraid to live a happy life” (95).

The person best suited to enjoy life is one who is a warm, carefree, and

unafraid soul. Such a soul would also have three certain traits: passion,

wisdom, and courage (98). Passion is a requirement because it “holds up the

bottom of the world, while genius paints its roof” (Yutang 99). Without this

passion, mankind would not be able to progress. Passion is “the soul of life,

the light in the stairs… and the life in scholarship.” Passion ultimately allows

us to view life with optimism. Wisdom and courage both allow people to

avoid false desires for happiness. With wisdom and courage, one can evade

the allure of fame, wealth, and power. Doing so will permit one to be able to

enjoy life.

“Happiness depends upon ourselves” (Aristotle 32). Not only is life

dependent on enjoyment, but also enjoyment on life. We ultimately choose

whether or not we want to become happy throughout our lives, and our

happiness is what we choose it to be with our activity in accordance to

virtue. As much as this paper talked about happiness, life is exponentially

complex. The true concept of human feeling is incomprehensible. Our bodies

have the ability to express so many different feelings that it may be

impossible to ever perfectly describe the nature of the human mind.

Nevertheless, happiness is easy. It is the one thing that we should desire in

life, the one thing that matters most when the end comes. After all, life is

only as good as how we live it.