What Is Happiness?
How do you define happiness?
I define happiness as basically the fulfilment of needs. So for instance, once you accomplish a need or once a need is fulfilled you're happy because you don't have that need weighing over you anymore, so it's the relief of that, it's the absence of that. I mean it's the reason that contentment and satisfaction are all grouped in the same family as happiness.
Who are the happiest people?
I think the happiest people are the people with the least amount of stress in their lives. Because stress is caused by the feeling of the need to accomplish. The people who are the happiest are the people who have satisfied most of their desires. If you have enough money, if have enough of the opposite sex in your life, whether it be a relationship or whether it be just purely sexual gratification, whatever it is that you desire. If you have enough of it, you're happy. If you don't have it, you're not happy. Because you desire it, you require it. The happiest people, I always find, are the people who have everything that they want.
What part does money play in happiness?
I think money plays a part in happiness in the sense it is something that you need. Money is a need. You cannot live without money. You can, but then you'll go up to Alaska and die in a van in the wilderness, for example. I think that money, if you're in society, money plays such a huge part in society that to not have money will breed unhappiness. That's not to say that money is the be all and end all, but it helps. And the old adage is money can't buy you love. No, but having money is certainly going to make you a lot happier than not having money.
What part does family play in happiness?
In a traditional sense a family is a relationship that you can't break. You can't break up with your family. You can, legally. People have done it. You can disavow your father. You can say "I have no brother any more," you know, all of that -- but traditionally speaking you can't ever erase the fact that genetically you come from this family. And that's who you are. And so they're always going to be closer to you than anybody else, always. In a general sense. They're obviously going to have the most effect on you in terms of your emotions. When they do something that's going to cause an emotional state, they're going to have easier access than anybody else.
What part does spirituality play in happiness?
Spirituality in religion is a difficult thing for me to comment on, largely because I myself am not really either. I think of myself as being fairly open-minded. I don't disparage anyone's beliefs. But at the same time, I really have no use for it and I find myself to be perfectly happy not needing it. But there is a certain amount of comfort that one does get from belief in a spirituality or religion. Not to demean the perception of reality of any of these things that people have. I like the fact that I'm told I can't eat uncured meat. Whatever the particular religion or situation is, it's lending a set of guidelines, of rules, to that believer's life. The comfort leads to happiness in my opinion because you're being given a system. You're being given order.
What part does work play in happiness?
I think that work is the middleman of happiness. I think that, to achieve money - which makes life possible - you can buy food, clothing, shelter, etc. - I think that you have to work in order to get that. So, people feel the need to work in order to make themselves happy in the long run. But, certainly a lot of people aren't happy at work; people don't like to work, people don't enjoy work; although there are people that love what they do and those are the lucky ones. I find that the happiest people that I've ever met are the people who don't feel that they're working, they're going to have fun and they're paid to have fun in something that they like to do, whether it be working on cars, bartending, acting, working construction, working at a bank - whatever it is. I know people who love pushing around numbers, they've been accountants for 20 years, and they love it. They wake up every day loving to go to work. That makes them happy so, work can cause happiness; it can be a happy thing. But, I think ninety percent of the time, people don't like to work.
What role does sex play in happiness?
I'll try to think of a novel way to say how I think sex plays a part in happiness, because sex is obviously something we have a biological urge to do. It's fun. It feels good. Usually things that feel good make you happy, whether it's eating ice cream, chocolate, or having sex. Ultimately I think it's inarguable, sex is a good thing.
