The Ant & The Grasshopper
Why Republicans Are Losing the Deficit Debate They Should be Winning:
A Story of More vs Enough: More or Less
As is:
• Medicare & Medicaid are unsustainable
• In 10 years or less the deficit will be 100% of the GNP – New Worth of the Country
• Social Security will see major cutbacks
And all the while, unemployment is 9.2% and despite Obamacare, health insurance costs are dramatically up – and yet the Republicans are losing the debate on deficit reduction and the debt ceiling.
Why?
The Democrats sell more NOW and the Republicans are selling less rather than sufficiency/sustainability – enough later .
No one wants less – now – even with the prospect of ‘more’ in the future. To get less means one isn’t right, isn’t better, is worse. To get more – one is right, better, and good – worthy.
And America is a culturally a country of ‘more, better, now’ not wanting to face the prospect of less, worse, later even if more is unsustainable.
And the R’s haven’t been able to demonstrate there will be less – much less going forward.
And that is why the Republicans are enduring MORE-tal wounds in this debate.
Until, the prospect of LESS – benefits not being there – are not just words – but created as visceral images, fuzzy spin words ‘like framework’ and non specificity will win for the Democrats.
Herein is the challenge: how EMOTIONALLY to demonstrate both how less will become more better yet enough (the ant) yet the consequence of continued live for today spending (the grasshopper) will create less tomorrow. This message must be viscerally felt at the gut level – like a gun at the head to get this message through (which is exactly what the Grasshopper Democrats do anyway.)
The Republicans have to force the Democrats to demonstrate ‘where’s the beef’ of their non proposal proposals while showing the alternative in the future: Little Caesar’s Cat Food.
PS: The Democrats are Ant Eaters.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
“Revenue Enhancements, Shared Sacrifice, Gov’t Spending To Invest’ aka LESS II
“Revenue Enhancements, Shared Sacrifice, Gov’t Spending To Invest’
aka LESS II
The Democrats employ euphemisms. Instead of increasing taxes, it is revenue enhancements and closing loopholes. Instead, of increased spending, investment is the word used. Columnists like Fred Brown of the Denver Post to avoid admitting property tax increases, state the tax rate remains the same, though the property value has declined and the amount of tax remains the same. (This is, to ironically use Brown’s own term, definitional drift. And, Brown, one can suffocate & die in high drifts).
These are words of mass distortion by 14kt phonies who are gutless linguistically dishonest weenies who never meet a parsing they didn’t love.
And both the Republicans and Democrats employ the phrase – shared sacrifice.
What do the words and phrases revenue enhancement, shared sacrifice, and government investment have in common?
The avoidance of the reality of LESS.
more sells, LESS doesn’t.
We don’t want LESS.
To have ‘LESS’ means we are ‘LESS’ – LESS worthy.
How so?
In our society/culture, if:
• one is right (more so than others), he gets more (if not) he gets LESS
• if he gets ‘more’ he is better, if not he is ‘worse’
• if he is better, he is good, if not he isn’t good or bad
And good, is one ‘o’ away from God.
Further’more’, if one gets ‘more’ – his net (assets less liabilities) is greater resulting in a higher ‘net worth.’ Thus, he is more ‘worthy’ – more worthwhile. The LESS one has in comparison, the LESS worthy – worthwhile one is.
Per this heuristic, more validates; LESS invalidates worthiness.
We get what we deserve. And as a result, we get the Fred Browns, and spin of increased taxes into revenue enhancement, increased spending into investment, and other words of mass distortion to avoid the reality of LESS .
Worthiness or lack thereof tied to more or LESS – and that’s the LESSon of lies, damn lies, and the linguistic dishonesty of our politicians (and many too many columnists).
The real factor to consider is ‘what is ENOUGH?’ – but that’s another futile discussion.
Post Scripture: There will be LESS – the difference today is instead of the politicos promising a chicken in every pot, they will promise ‘pot’ with every chicken – as they play chicken.
aka LESS II
The Democrats employ euphemisms. Instead of increasing taxes, it is revenue enhancements and closing loopholes. Instead, of increased spending, investment is the word used. Columnists like Fred Brown of the Denver Post to avoid admitting property tax increases, state the tax rate remains the same, though the property value has declined and the amount of tax remains the same. (This is, to ironically use Brown’s own term, definitional drift. And, Brown, one can suffocate & die in high drifts).
These are words of mass distortion by 14kt phonies who are gutless linguistically dishonest weenies who never meet a parsing they didn’t love.
And both the Republicans and Democrats employ the phrase – shared sacrifice.
What do the words and phrases revenue enhancement, shared sacrifice, and government investment have in common?
The avoidance of the reality of LESS.
more sells, LESS doesn’t.
We don’t want LESS.
To have ‘LESS’ means we are ‘LESS’ – LESS worthy.
How so?
In our society/culture, if:
• one is right (more so than others), he gets more (if not) he gets LESS
• if he gets ‘more’ he is better, if not he is ‘worse’
• if he is better, he is good, if not he isn’t good or bad
And good, is one ‘o’ away from God.
Further’more’, if one gets ‘more’ – his net (assets less liabilities) is greater resulting in a higher ‘net worth.’ Thus, he is more ‘worthy’ – more worthwhile. The LESS one has in comparison, the LESS worthy – worthwhile one is.
Per this heuristic, more validates; LESS invalidates worthiness.
We get what we deserve. And as a result, we get the Fred Browns, and spin of increased taxes into revenue enhancement, increased spending into investment, and other words of mass distortion to avoid the reality of LESS .
Worthiness or lack thereof tied to more or LESS – and that’s the LESSon of lies, damn lies, and the linguistic dishonesty of our politicians (and many too many columnists).
The real factor to consider is ‘what is ENOUGH?’ – but that’s another futile discussion.
Post Scripture: There will be LESS – the difference today is instead of the politicos promising a chicken in every pot, they will promise ‘pot’ with every chicken – as they play chicken.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Fear, Less & Fear/LESS
Fear, Less & Fear/LESS
MORE is all about the fear & avoidance of LESS be it:
• compared to others,
• the prospect of diminished of the quality of life
• the extinction of sense of self which is identified as body.
It’s all about LESS (masked as MORE) also because:
• too ‘much of MORE’ was promised or implied
• and if one gets LESS they are ‘less’ worthy
And that’s the LESS-ON
(ENOUGH Already!)
MORE is all about the fear & avoidance of LESS be it:
• compared to others,
• the prospect of diminished of the quality of life
• the extinction of sense of self which is identified as body.
It’s all about LESS (masked as MORE) also because:
• too ‘much of MORE’ was promised or implied
• and if one gets LESS they are ‘less’ worthy
And that’s the LESS-ON
(ENOUGH Already!)
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Why MORE Prevails Over ENOUGH (4)
(Back by Unpopular Demand)
Why MORE Prevails Over ENOUGH (4)
The hope (1) of prevailing over death (2) through acquisition(3)
(But you can’t purchase immortality)
Thus MORE & MOREONS prevail
(1) Hope – ‘deferred disappointment’ (Ambrose Bierce)
(2) The extinction of the physical body which ‘moreso’ than not is identified as oneself.
(3) Cain, in Hebrew, also mean ‘acquisition’
(4) And Shaddai, in Hebrew, also means God, God Almighty, God All Sufficient, Enough.
Why MORE Prevails Over ENOUGH (4)
The hope (1) of prevailing over death (2) through acquisition(3)
(But you can’t purchase immortality)
Thus MORE & MOREONS prevail
(1) Hope – ‘deferred disappointment’ (Ambrose Bierce)
(2) The extinction of the physical body which ‘moreso’ than not is identified as oneself.
(3) Cain, in Hebrew, also mean ‘acquisition’
(4) And Shaddai, in Hebrew, also means God, God Almighty, God All Sufficient, Enough.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Personal Financial Planner Synonym for MORE-tician
Personal Financial Planner Synonym for MORE-tician
MORE, MOREs, MORE-ality, & IM-MORE-tality
If per Krishnamurti, ‘hope is the absence of happiness,’ more (for more sake) is the absence of meaning).
More is the palliating band aid that diverts examination and the search for meaning IN one’s life.
More, a derivative of acquisition, which is veil redirecting, distracting, filling time while crowding out questions of meaning and significance IN one’s life, bleeds into our MOREes (which are appropriately named in pun terms).
And it is consistent that personal financial planning is about more (regardless how much lipstick is put on that pig) practiced by MORE-ons (including fee only planners compensated by a percentage of assets under management).
MORE-tician should become a synonym for personal financial planner.
MORE, MOREs, MORE-ality, & IM-MORE-tality
If per Krishnamurti, ‘hope is the absence of happiness,’ more (for more sake) is the absence of meaning).
More is the palliating band aid that diverts examination and the search for meaning IN one’s life.
More, a derivative of acquisition, which is veil redirecting, distracting, filling time while crowding out questions of meaning and significance IN one’s life, bleeds into our MOREes (which are appropriately named in pun terms).
And it is consistent that personal financial planning is about more (regardless how much lipstick is put on that pig) practiced by MORE-ons (including fee only planners compensated by a percentage of assets under management).
MORE-tician should become a synonym for personal financial planner.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Pass(ing) Over Enough: The Futility of ‘Enough’
Pass(ing) Over Enough: The Futility of ‘Enough’
A man’s treatment of money is the most decisive test of his character – how he makes it and how he spends it
James Moffatt, Scottish Biblical Scholar
A nurse for a renown high earning (as well as trust baby) brain surgeon called again to tell me how the brain surgeon made $100,000 in a silver stock and was rubbing it again by the nurse practitioner (no trust baby with economic challenges) should have bought the stock with him. Forget their situations were very different – and for the brain surgeon to lose $10,000, $20,000 on a speculation was a drop in the ocean but $10,000 would be a lake for the nurse. These ‘I told you so’s’ have been often and repetitive. Forget that he reiterated that I (the nurse’s friend) ‘didn’t know what I was talking about’ (I’ve cleaned up the language). Forget that it is easier to make a great CPA, lawyer, even terrific brain surgeon than to make a good person as Dennis Prager would say. The real point is that of confusing not only speculation with investment, not even different circumstances of these individuals, but the cultural backdrop reinforcing ‘more’ at the expense of ‘enough’ in our collective mind set.
I am reminded of a story by a fee only planner many years again who had a physician client who, despite the planner’s admonitions and even the planner getting a signed statement from the doc that he was investing in this 10:1 multiple write off deal against his recommendation, did the deal. As predicted the multiple write off tax shelter several years later blew up resulting not only in past taxes due but with interest and penalties! The doc stormed into the planner’s office giving the what for to the planner. The planner calmly took out the piece of paper with the doc’s signature showing the planner had advised against this tax shelter deal. The doc stated, ‘that’s my signature, but I would never sign anything like this.’ (The doc was probably related to the brain surgeon above).
Exaggerated examples – on the tail end of the distribution curve? Unfortunately, that is not the case.
More, baked into the culture, seared into the fabric of everyday life, repeated ad nauseum in the 50,000+ advertisements we view, is ‘the’ indicator of our worthiness. A man of means is preferred to a man of meaning (besides that can be bought).
More – more money – means more things, experiences, being more than another – and greater happiness that ironically it rarely yields. Well off doesn’t mean well being or being well for the have (from birth, or and work), have not or have a little wants some more – former or present. As Bertrand Russell once, ‘when success comes, a man is already a nervous wreck, so accustomed to anxiety that he cannot shake off the habit of it when the need is past.’ (The Conquest of Happiness)
If this doc’s comment was unusual (and believe me I have been called worse – in particular on occasions too numerous assh**e such that I had a the following pat answers – ‘And…no, I was conceived that way – and you?)) that would be one thing. But his comment is the exaggeration of the vein of comments like:
• (if there was a loser) ‘we should not have bought it’
• (if there was a winner) ‘we should have bought more
• (and worse – client amnesia ©) I don’t remember my being ok with this (even when though it was a non discretionary account meaning they made the trade)
And these types of responses I still get after I’ve been out of practice 15 years and from friends who were not clients but have read my books.
By the way, I’ve never heard docs or otherwise brag about their losers which again reinforces more equals worthiness, less means dumb schmuck.
Only in 1987 and 2007 when things went to crap, is ‘enough’ valued – temporarily until there is reversion to the MEAN of more rather than the meaning of enough.
The real questions are and should be (least I partaking in ‘shoulding’), ‘am I on the road to enough and or do I still have enough?’ managing the goal not managing the asset.
The Hebrew word for money damin is also the word for ‘blood.’ (And Hebrew thought also believes that the blood carries the soul and that is, why, in part, blood is drained in Kosher slaughtering – not to be confused with Postville coverup slaughtering.) Blood is the soul – blood sustains. Money sustains but can be a blood sucker. Money (the current currency) is but a store of value representing an exchange mechanism for things and experiences. If money is devalued - paper or denominated in metals (which one can’t eat) where is the sustenance? Where then does ‘more’ money – silver, gold, paper – get one?
Thus, the real currency, and here I stipulate to my own belief, is first in God (Shaddai – ‘enough’) and secondly in the adaptability and resourcefulness each of us has exhibited (think of the difficulties you have overcome and yet devalue). With faith, adaptability and resourcefulness even those using Underwood typewriters in an IPAD world survive. But to thrive, to paraphrase Frankel in Man’s Search for Meaning, man can endure the how only as long as he has a why.’
That choice: a man of means or a man of meaning – meaning IN one’s life?
More is the former; enough enables and challenges the latter.
Guirjeff said that one should thank everyone (especially those who cause us difficulties) for the opportunity to work on oneself. However, I believe in the statute of limitations. On April 1, 2011, I applied for my Social Security so thank you and I’m retiring from Enough, p*ssing in the wind, and contemplating changing my middle name to Ecclesiastes.
Post Scripture: Speaking of ‘all is wind,’ pull my finger.
A man’s treatment of money is the most decisive test of his character – how he makes it and how he spends it
James Moffatt, Scottish Biblical Scholar
A nurse for a renown high earning (as well as trust baby) brain surgeon called again to tell me how the brain surgeon made $100,000 in a silver stock and was rubbing it again by the nurse practitioner (no trust baby with economic challenges) should have bought the stock with him. Forget their situations were very different – and for the brain surgeon to lose $10,000, $20,000 on a speculation was a drop in the ocean but $10,000 would be a lake for the nurse. These ‘I told you so’s’ have been often and repetitive. Forget that he reiterated that I (the nurse’s friend) ‘didn’t know what I was talking about’ (I’ve cleaned up the language). Forget that it is easier to make a great CPA, lawyer, even terrific brain surgeon than to make a good person as Dennis Prager would say. The real point is that of confusing not only speculation with investment, not even different circumstances of these individuals, but the cultural backdrop reinforcing ‘more’ at the expense of ‘enough’ in our collective mind set.
I am reminded of a story by a fee only planner many years again who had a physician client who, despite the planner’s admonitions and even the planner getting a signed statement from the doc that he was investing in this 10:1 multiple write off deal against his recommendation, did the deal. As predicted the multiple write off tax shelter several years later blew up resulting not only in past taxes due but with interest and penalties! The doc stormed into the planner’s office giving the what for to the planner. The planner calmly took out the piece of paper with the doc’s signature showing the planner had advised against this tax shelter deal. The doc stated, ‘that’s my signature, but I would never sign anything like this.’ (The doc was probably related to the brain surgeon above).
Exaggerated examples – on the tail end of the distribution curve? Unfortunately, that is not the case.
More, baked into the culture, seared into the fabric of everyday life, repeated ad nauseum in the 50,000+ advertisements we view, is ‘the’ indicator of our worthiness. A man of means is preferred to a man of meaning (besides that can be bought).
More – more money – means more things, experiences, being more than another – and greater happiness that ironically it rarely yields. Well off doesn’t mean well being or being well for the have (from birth, or and work), have not or have a little wants some more – former or present. As Bertrand Russell once, ‘when success comes, a man is already a nervous wreck, so accustomed to anxiety that he cannot shake off the habit of it when the need is past.’ (The Conquest of Happiness)
If this doc’s comment was unusual (and believe me I have been called worse – in particular on occasions too numerous assh**e such that I had a the following pat answers – ‘And…no, I was conceived that way – and you?)) that would be one thing. But his comment is the exaggeration of the vein of comments like:
• (if there was a loser) ‘we should not have bought it’
• (if there was a winner) ‘we should have bought more
• (and worse – client amnesia ©) I don’t remember my being ok with this (even when though it was a non discretionary account meaning they made the trade)
And these types of responses I still get after I’ve been out of practice 15 years and from friends who were not clients but have read my books.
By the way, I’ve never heard docs or otherwise brag about their losers which again reinforces more equals worthiness, less means dumb schmuck.
Only in 1987 and 2007 when things went to crap, is ‘enough’ valued – temporarily until there is reversion to the MEAN of more rather than the meaning of enough.
The real questions are and should be (least I partaking in ‘shoulding’), ‘am I on the road to enough and or do I still have enough?’ managing the goal not managing the asset.
The Hebrew word for money damin is also the word for ‘blood.’ (And Hebrew thought also believes that the blood carries the soul and that is, why, in part, blood is drained in Kosher slaughtering – not to be confused with Postville coverup slaughtering.) Blood is the soul – blood sustains. Money sustains but can be a blood sucker. Money (the current currency) is but a store of value representing an exchange mechanism for things and experiences. If money is devalued - paper or denominated in metals (which one can’t eat) where is the sustenance? Where then does ‘more’ money – silver, gold, paper – get one?
Thus, the real currency, and here I stipulate to my own belief, is first in God (Shaddai – ‘enough’) and secondly in the adaptability and resourcefulness each of us has exhibited (think of the difficulties you have overcome and yet devalue). With faith, adaptability and resourcefulness even those using Underwood typewriters in an IPAD world survive. But to thrive, to paraphrase Frankel in Man’s Search for Meaning, man can endure the how only as long as he has a why.’
That choice: a man of means or a man of meaning – meaning IN one’s life?
More is the former; enough enables and challenges the latter.
Guirjeff said that one should thank everyone (especially those who cause us difficulties) for the opportunity to work on oneself. However, I believe in the statute of limitations. On April 1, 2011, I applied for my Social Security so thank you and I’m retiring from Enough, p*ssing in the wind, and contemplating changing my middle name to Ecclesiastes.
Post Scripture: Speaking of ‘all is wind,’ pull my finger.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Happiness, Enough & Equanimity
Life After Enough: ‘Happiness, Enough & Equanimity’
Happiness
Happiness corresponds to an economy, to calculations, to weighings. It needs varieties as much as contrasts (external comparisons- jds). Satisfaction (enough –jds) is as fatal to it as impediments.
Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner, p37
This life and its purpose, prior to the French & American Revolutions and the ensuing imprimatur of ‘the pursuit of happiness,’ was never about ‘happiness.’.
The purpose of this life was salvation, character building, well being, and or earning one’s return – not happiness.
Now happiness and the pursuit thereof – is this culture’s mission. If anything we have a ‘duty to happiness’ even though we can’t define it and fall back on the analogy of pornography (I know it when I see it.)
Furthermore, rather than religion, the duty – the pursuit of happiness has become the opiate of not only the masses but the upper crust celebrity sniffing hyper class elitist asses.
This pursuit, in great part, according to Bruckner in Perpetual Euphoria, is a result of ‘progress.’
When we were hunter and gatherers – we acknowledged the food on the ground from a higher source (Hebrew National?). When we became farmers and ‘produced’ – the product became our doing – we acknowledged ourselves increasingly though we covered our bets and prayed for rain. With medicine’s advances we don’t have to rely on God’s will and grace but a Pfizer, Lilly or Merck and Obama Death Panel reprieves.
And deferred gratification – critical to character building, faith, and salvation - has been eradicated by credit and Viagra in the name of ‘happiness’ NOW.
Even religion has caste asunder ‘Gehenna (1) and Brimstone’ knowing happiness sells with the pitch of greater happiness in Heaven, the World to Come with just the purpose of ‘afterlife insurance’ premiums (church, synagogue dues etc.)
Hope is deferred disappointment
Ambrose Bierce
The sun will come out tomorrow
Tomorrow lyric from Annie
And if we presently in a state of ennui or unhappy – there the hope that happiness will be here ‘tomorrow.’
But as Krishnamurti wrote, ‘hope is (but) the absence of happiness.’ And please remember, Hope was a town in Arkansas that gave us Bill Clinton.
The pursuit of happiness and its pr flack hope are motivated by dissatisfaction resulting in the pursuit of more.
More & Happiness
Happiness is ‘getting what you want’ until what you wanted wasn’t ‘enough’ (again)
Schwartz’s Law
“More!”
The Answer given by the white collar villain (in the sequel to Wall Street) when he was asked for his response to: ‘everybody has a number, what is your number?’
The hope for and the delusional pursuit of happiness typically leads to the seeking more. More is an insatiable desire that paradoxically puts sustainable pleasure out of reach leading to perpetual dissatisfaction (2). More has become the means and the ends – a sign of ‘election.’ Yet, the pursuit of more, better, now for happiness usually becomes less, worse, later Worse, the resulting disappoint eventually may yield sequentially disillusion cascading to self recrimination (I am a failure).
There is no happiness only relative positioning (my spouse makes more than your spouse – or the Gaines Gravy train commercial ‘my dog’s bigger than your dog’) and momentary sensation.
More is never enough
Getting more of what you want becomes in time ‘not enough’ as more is a comparative outside in game dependent on externals unlike enough which is an internalized inside out process.
Equanimity & Enough
They’ll be plenty of peace and tranquility in the world to come
Paraphrasing Judaic Thought (not Spielberg Follywood Judaic thought)
Mussar is a thousand-year-old Jewish system for personal growth, specifically in the realm of character improvement. In Mussar, equanimity – rising above the good AND the bad – given life’s ups and downs is a more preferable ideal to pursue than happiness in our character building to earn our return (Teshuvah).
Consistent with Mussar thought, my take on the purpose of this life is to find meaning IN one’s life, continuing to complete one’s incompletions (soul curriculum) through faithful character building spiritualizng the material, materializing the spiritual inside out to earn one’s return with the equanimity of rising above the inevitable good and bad.
Easier said than done.
And that ain’t happiness.
Enough (aligning personal resources to achieve life and after life goals while healing financial anxiety putting money in its place to assist one’s transcending to their significance) is just a means to the inside out work of finding meaning In one’s life and or character building, salvation, etc. There may be a certain contentment yielded by enough from the storms and cultural onslaughts of 50,000 commercials of dissatisfaction, more, not enoughness. But Enough isn’t happiness. If anything enough forces a confrontation with ‘what next, meaning, making a difference, and or self definition’ in the midst of one’s spouse or insignificant other famished (3) saying, ‘for better or worse but not for lunch!’
Enough with equanimity doesn’t stop the storms, make for smooth sailing – but allows easier navigation towards one’s significance.
"When it's over, what will my life have been about" - Rabbi Harold Kushner
Enough - healing financial anxiety, puttin money in its place, to transcend to significance with equanimity....
(1) Gehenna - in the traditional Jewish view of the afterlife, Geihinnom is the place of punishment and purification (unlike hell there is a statute of limitations on the time spent in Gehenna)
(2) the Latin for 'enough' is satis. Thus dissatisfaction is 'not enough'
(3) think a state of being perplexed such that the heel of one's hand concurrently smacks one's forward as it leans backwards.
Happiness
Happiness corresponds to an economy, to calculations, to weighings. It needs varieties as much as contrasts (external comparisons- jds). Satisfaction (enough –jds) is as fatal to it as impediments.
Perpetual Euphoria, Pascal Bruckner, p37
This life and its purpose, prior to the French & American Revolutions and the ensuing imprimatur of ‘the pursuit of happiness,’ was never about ‘happiness.’.
The purpose of this life was salvation, character building, well being, and or earning one’s return – not happiness.
Now happiness and the pursuit thereof – is this culture’s mission. If anything we have a ‘duty to happiness’ even though we can’t define it and fall back on the analogy of pornography (I know it when I see it.)
Furthermore, rather than religion, the duty – the pursuit of happiness has become the opiate of not only the masses but the upper crust celebrity sniffing hyper class elitist asses.
This pursuit, in great part, according to Bruckner in Perpetual Euphoria, is a result of ‘progress.’
When we were hunter and gatherers – we acknowledged the food on the ground from a higher source (Hebrew National?). When we became farmers and ‘produced’ – the product became our doing – we acknowledged ourselves increasingly though we covered our bets and prayed for rain. With medicine’s advances we don’t have to rely on God’s will and grace but a Pfizer, Lilly or Merck and Obama Death Panel reprieves.
And deferred gratification – critical to character building, faith, and salvation - has been eradicated by credit and Viagra in the name of ‘happiness’ NOW.
Even religion has caste asunder ‘Gehenna (1) and Brimstone’ knowing happiness sells with the pitch of greater happiness in Heaven, the World to Come with just the purpose of ‘afterlife insurance’ premiums (church, synagogue dues etc.)
Hope is deferred disappointment
Ambrose Bierce
The sun will come out tomorrow
Tomorrow lyric from Annie
And if we presently in a state of ennui or unhappy – there the hope that happiness will be here ‘tomorrow.’
But as Krishnamurti wrote, ‘hope is (but) the absence of happiness.’ And please remember, Hope was a town in Arkansas that gave us Bill Clinton.
The pursuit of happiness and its pr flack hope are motivated by dissatisfaction resulting in the pursuit of more.
More & Happiness
Happiness is ‘getting what you want’ until what you wanted wasn’t ‘enough’ (again)
Schwartz’s Law
“More!”
The Answer given by the white collar villain (in the sequel to Wall Street) when he was asked for his response to: ‘everybody has a number, what is your number?’
The hope for and the delusional pursuit of happiness typically leads to the seeking more. More is an insatiable desire that paradoxically puts sustainable pleasure out of reach leading to perpetual dissatisfaction (2). More has become the means and the ends – a sign of ‘election.’ Yet, the pursuit of more, better, now for happiness usually becomes less, worse, later Worse, the resulting disappoint eventually may yield sequentially disillusion cascading to self recrimination (I am a failure).
There is no happiness only relative positioning (my spouse makes more than your spouse – or the Gaines Gravy train commercial ‘my dog’s bigger than your dog’) and momentary sensation.
More is never enough
Getting more of what you want becomes in time ‘not enough’ as more is a comparative outside in game dependent on externals unlike enough which is an internalized inside out process.
Equanimity & Enough
They’ll be plenty of peace and tranquility in the world to come
Paraphrasing Judaic Thought (not Spielberg Follywood Judaic thought)
Mussar is a thousand-year-old Jewish system for personal growth, specifically in the realm of character improvement. In Mussar, equanimity – rising above the good AND the bad – given life’s ups and downs is a more preferable ideal to pursue than happiness in our character building to earn our return (Teshuvah).
Consistent with Mussar thought, my take on the purpose of this life is to find meaning IN one’s life, continuing to complete one’s incompletions (soul curriculum) through faithful character building spiritualizng the material, materializing the spiritual inside out to earn one’s return with the equanimity of rising above the inevitable good and bad.
Easier said than done.
And that ain’t happiness.
Enough (aligning personal resources to achieve life and after life goals while healing financial anxiety putting money in its place to assist one’s transcending to their significance) is just a means to the inside out work of finding meaning In one’s life and or character building, salvation, etc. There may be a certain contentment yielded by enough from the storms and cultural onslaughts of 50,000 commercials of dissatisfaction, more, not enoughness. But Enough isn’t happiness. If anything enough forces a confrontation with ‘what next, meaning, making a difference, and or self definition’ in the midst of one’s spouse or insignificant other famished (3) saying, ‘for better or worse but not for lunch!’
Enough with equanimity doesn’t stop the storms, make for smooth sailing – but allows easier navigation towards one’s significance.
"When it's over, what will my life have been about" - Rabbi Harold Kushner
Enough - healing financial anxiety, puttin money in its place, to transcend to significance with equanimity....
(1) Gehenna - in the traditional Jewish view of the afterlife, Geihinnom is the place of punishment and purification (unlike hell there is a statute of limitations on the time spent in Gehenna)
(2) the Latin for 'enough' is satis. Thus dissatisfaction is 'not enough'
(3) think a state of being perplexed such that the heel of one's hand concurrently smacks one's forward as it leans backwards.
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