From Judith Lloyd on life and the Just World Hypothesis. I am going to post this weekly, because its that important: Oh yeah, Louise Hay wasnt going *anywhere* the last time I checked. She had some very, er, interesting? ideas on why I kept getting bladder infections that one year. Id like to skip any of her insight into cancer, thanks. So I think it might go back to the Just World Hypothesis, this notion that happiness is a life entitlement; that it is supposed to be our default state and all this life stuff that gets in the way must be ignored or dismissed so we can be happy, that state people assume they deserve. So emotions that arent happiness are stigmatized, pushed away, made taboo. People dealing with problems must have done something to deserve them, after all, just world. In the long run, theres a decrease in viable resources to deal with failure, challenges, darkness, sadness... and fewer people willing/able to even look at such matters when they arent being forced to. The Just World Hypothesis is a big part of why people dealing with major crises lose friends: because invariably people dealing with tragedy, loss, and illness are going to say or do SOMETHING the happiness enthusiasts feel is too negative, that calls their world view into question, so they push away. Let me just make this clear: spirituality is an incredibly important part of my life. For me, the goal of spirituality has never been happiness--nor is it wealth or perfection. I assume that happiness is a part of the human experience; one of the many shades of the human experience that will pass through me as I strive toward compassion, love, and greater understanding. These are not generally things you obtain in avoiding failure, challenges, darkness, and sadness for the sake of being happy, by the way. Plus if you dont fail, if you dont cry, if you dont break: if you dont get lost and stripped down and run out of options a few times? If you insist that our sole purpose here is to be happy?! The stuff youre submitting to the writing workshop, do not even make me look at that shit.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 05:04:09 +0000