Manifest

Greetings! I hope you're feeling well.

This blog is basically about existential angst.
I'm alive. I'm me. I supposedly have choice and the ability to direct my life. But I am not really all here. I am vaguely here, but more like the stereotypical concept of a monkey than of a free-choice human. I am tapping away at a laptop, blogging my thoughts because it is hip and trendy. I am a product of my culture and society. My thoughts, options, and self-direction are distilled from society around me. What free choice do I have? I don't really know, but I think about it through the lens and filters of ideas that have made their way into my head.

The point is not self-determination. The point is enjoying life. At least this should be the point, I think, but I am not really sure. Somebody said it or I read it somewhere. When it comes down to it, though, what I really care about is not being grouchy, not feeling depressed, feeling positive, being happy, feeling good about myself, enjoying the people I am around, laughing, having a good time, and all the other trees that make up the forest. To this end, I've gathered a couple of ideas on the philosophy and science of happiness.

To begin with, I am moderately interested in psychology, like a few billion other people. One idea from evolutionary psychology that deeply orients my thinking is that most of the characteristics we consider distinctly human - language, art, morality, strategic intelligence - are runaway sexual selection characteristics. That is, like peacock feathers, antlers, bizarre colorations and behaviors in monkeys, birds, and a hundred other species, there is no other purpose for these characteristics other than for mating. The runaway process takes a minor variation and blows it up into something major.
Cavewomen found artistry sexy and, boom, humans are bizarrely artistic. Like bauer birds.
I could go on, or you could read The Mating Mind by Geoffry Miller. These are all his ideas, and, I guess, a few dozen other evolutionary psychology theorists.

The second point, related to the first, is that a slew of physical and mental health problems are related to social hierarchy. (Big Ideas - Sick minds or sick society?) People, rats, monkeys, dogs, and just about every halfway intelligent animal that lives in a group is affected by social hierarchy. Those at the bottom of the hierarchy are more stressed and less healthy than those near the top.
I just heard about a study showing that mortality rates adjusted for the effect of income were more significant than adjusting for all cancers. That is, low income kills more people than cancer. In the US at least.
Everyone equally poor makes for a happier and healthier society than having a large gap between the rich and the poor.

So, as it relates to me, or to anyone wanting to be happy... Be intelligent, artistic, moral, have a rich and versatile language, and be high up on the social hierarchy. That's it! There you have it, the real, scientific secrets to happiness. Be better than everyone else and be well liked and you will probably be happy.