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Do you agree with Thoreau?
Front-Ranger:
Thoreau said: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." What do you think? (Choose up to three)
I've spent an entire week on this message board, and the only thing I haven't done is to create a poll. So, here's my poll on a question I've been pondering for years. Thank you for your vote and thoughts. Front-Ranger
moremojo:
I think most people have lots of ups and downs in the course of their lives, little moments of happiness and sorrow jutting out from a level field of day-to-day equilibrium. Lots of people do lead lives of quiet desperation, but I don't think they're representative of the majority of humanity.
Scott
delalluvia:
IMO in order to lead lives of quiet desperation, the mass of people need to aspire to something else. The majority of the world's population live in circumstances that do not lead them to aspire to do anything but survive. Once that is accomplished on a regular basis, unless outside forces intrude, most don't aspire to do anything much but what they know.
Only civilizations/societies wealthy enough to have their population granted leisure time enable them to think of situations and lifestyles other than simply getting by.
Front-Ranger:
No optimists among us???
isabelle:
Let me just quote Pink Floyd in "The Dark Side of the Moon":
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
I lived in England for a year, and can see where that came from, but that was the end of the 80's and 10 years into Thatcherism, so that was not surprising!
Yeah, I'd go for "ups and downs". We are happier than we could ever hope to be, at SOME moments. Unless you are a Buddhist or other meditative person, in which case you have worked on feeling happy in any situation. But there're few of those around.
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