Lars Pind

internet software, coaching, and entrepreneurship

Lars Pind - internet software, coaching, and entrepreneurship
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qotd

February 18, 2005 · See comments

From Lakoff’s Don’t think of an elephant!:

Second, if you empathize with your child, you want your child to be fulfilled in life, to be a happy person. And if you are an unhappy, unfulfilled person yourself, you are not going to want other people to be happier than you are. The Dalai Lama teaches us that. Therefore it is your moral responsibility to be a happy, fulfilled person. Your moral responsibility.

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Comments ↓

  • 1 Mark Aufflick // Feb 20, 2005 at 03:29 PM

    I think that takes a fairly negative view of people. This quote presents as fact that "you are not going to want other people to be happier than you are". A cynic doesn't, but if I always want to bring people down to my level - who am I going to look up to? It often takes a choice to be happy, but sometimes it's ok to be sad. Then your friends can help you. But how do you become a person who is happy most of the time? King Solomon in the Bible proverbs says "A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit." - perhaps what we really need to do is make sure that our heart is nourished and set on good things. Then happiness will flow. Happiness is a feeling - making feelings a moral responsibility seems a little opressive to me. But then this is a short out of context quote, maybe I should read the book ;)

  • 2 Lars Pind // Feb 21, 2005 at 09:30 PM

    I see it as the opposite ... I guess because I've been ingrained with the belief that I should be apologetic about being happy. This says I shouldn't, in fact it's my moral responsibility to my coming child and to the world :)

  • 3 Mark Aufflick // Feb 22, 2005 at 02:39 PM

    Yes I see - presenting the middle ground is not going to reverse a mindset. It takes a radical view at the other end to start the thought journey... Interesting :)

  • 4 Mark Aufflick // Feb 23, 2005 at 05:39 AM

    I stumbled across a quote from another great man of our times C.S. Lewis (possibly less known outside of native English speaking countries) that sounds the opposite of what many people expect: "It is a Christian duty, as you know, for everyone to be as happy as he can." * I have not noticed Lewis to get things wrong very often, and he agrees 100% with the original premise! It came in contrast to the German philosopher Immanuel Kant who stated that the value of a good deed is diminished if the do-er recieves benefit. Crazy Europeans ;)

  • 5 Lars Pind // Feb 23, 2005 at 05:47 AM

    There you go! Just what I'm saying :)