This might seem strange coming from someone who claims to be a scientist, but I’m fairly convinced that there is no such thing as objective reality. After numerous conversations with people around, I’m beginning to realise that everyone’s perception of reality is just that—it’s simply their own. No amount of arguing or attempts at homogenising their outlooks can change that; everybody just lives in the world they concoct for themselves.
Normalcy, morality, sanity, … are just figments of our imaginations. They’re illusions concocted by a dominant few who arrive at a vaguely consistent view of the world, and attempt to impose their perspectives on the masses.
I’ve been analysing some of my more-bitter tirades over these past weeks, and I now see what I’d been wrestling with: I don’t enjoy being told how I ought to perceive my life. I just want to be allowed to perceive my life.
What about Happiness? Isn’t the same case there..?
I’ve been thinking about this, and while the concept of happiness is a bit more nuanced, the scenario is essentially the same.
Unlike ‘normalcy,’ which is just an arbitrary standard for how you ought to perceive and respond to the world around you, ‘happiness’ has additional ingredients. Independent of your perception and society’s, you can still point out some basic requirements without which you will feel despondent—like food. Upon satisfaction of your essential needs however, I’m fairly certain that being happy is entirely a state of mind.
Oh. My. GAWD! Someone else gets it! I’ve been saying it for a long time now (one example here) – There’s no such thing as “normal,” that it’s just a politically correct way of saying “socially acceptable.”
Happiness, however, is real. Some people get there and some never will, and what gets me there won’t get you there, etc. It’s different for everyone, but yes, it’s real.
(Oh no, an entire category (59) for just has one post!)
As real as the emotion happiness is, I believe it is still just a state of mind. It has little to with what you have around you or what you don’t; things still falls back on how you perceive your existence to be. Which is partly what I was trying to say.