Happiness?

           After reading Sigmund Freud’s “Civilization and its Discontents” I realized it is hard for us as humans to really have and keep, happiness. Happiness is truly hard to achieve. It is said that people “strive for happiness” (Freud 42) and that everyone wants to “…become happy and remain so.” (42) But how do we as people get to that point, how do we know that we have reached the point in our life where we have “achieved total happiness” I don’t think we ever can do that. I believe that humans work so hard in trying to get something that never will truly be theirs. Happiness cannot be something you can just pick up. These are all questions that went running through my head; however after reading the book, I realized...I had a whole new set of questions whirling around. Freud announces that we as a society do not really feel great happiness. We only do things that make us temporarily happy in which we believe that is our true happiness. He states that we hold back on our true goals, that we do things that our pleasurable for ourselves but only temporarily? So when we do feel happy and are in a good mood, are we truly happy? Or is the sense of our happiness playing a trick on us? Freud is trying to explain to us as a society that we buy frivolous things to make ourselves happy; however we are not TRULY happy, only happy in the moment. Now I feel like I should be questioning my own happiness, when I buy a pair of shoes am I REALLY happy? (I love my shoes) so why shouldn’t I be happy? Is my happiness playing a trick on me? Although reading the text made me think of a million and one questions, one thing I can take away from reading Freud’s work is separating wants and needs. People just need to think more clearly on what is important in life and what isn’t. We all live in a society that solely bases instincts on “wants” instead of “needs” even though many of us don’t mean it to be that way. I still believe that I can be happy with my life, however Freud did make me think about many things and the way our society thinks, is portrayed and ultimately controlled. I don’t fully understand and agree with Freud however I know that the next time I go to the mall, I should just skip the shoe stores for a while.

The Trial of Socrates

                Socrates trial is not a debatable problem in today’s society, however considering the time of the book, Socrates intentions of spreading his knowledge is seen as an unjust act. Meletus is prosecuting Socrates on account of two charges. He believes that Socrates should not be “…inventing new gods" (Plato. 2) and by "not believing in the old ones.”(2) angers Meletus. This displays that he is seen as a traditional man who believes and worships the gods as they are now, and does not accept any changes. The fact that Socrates introduced new gods, and started to challenge people with questions, brought Meletus to a second reason on why he wanted to prosecute Socrates. He believed that Socrates was “corrupting the young men growing up” (2) by putting these unjust thoughts into their heads. Meletus wanted these young men to grow up as simple men, wanting them to act “just as a good farmer...” (2) Furthermore Socrates only intention is to teach; to challenge people’s minds so they too can critically think just as he is. By asking question after question the mind of the individual that is being challenged encourages them to further think through each statement made, and eventually may even change their original thoughts and opinions. Today this is known as the “Socratic Method” where we too may challenge our peers by asking rigorous questions and allowing them to further explore their opinions. Moreover Meletus is seeing Socrates in all the wrong ways. During the time of the book Socrates was portrayed as ruining society by having all these ideas, which Meletus did not like. However he failed to realize gods came up with new ideas too, the same gods he accepts and stays faithful too. Painters have displayed in the temples “war among the gods, and bitter hatreds, and battles.” (6) Illustrating that they too changed their views and thoughts just as Socrates was trying to allow other people to do also. Meletus did not take this into consideration for the reasoning that he did not want too, he only wanted to hear and see the harshness of Socrates works. This now can be seen as an unjust take on the situation, Although Meletus is charging Socrates on an account for corruption and the introduction of strange gods, it his Meletus himself who his unjust for he does not listen to the good Socrates is trying to teach throughout the Apology. Consequently, our world as it is today can accept new thoughts, ideas and religion in many ways, we change our minds, hear others opinions and likes to be challenged. During the time of Plato this was seen as being unjust, the trial and death of Socrates may have been seen as the right thing to do at the time, however it is clear that it was not and can be seen as an act of impiety against Meletus himself.