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Feb 20, 2021, 10:08 AM
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Member Since: Jun 2007
Location: Washington DC metro area
Posts: 15,865
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How Evolution Made Us Unhappy | Psychology Today
Quote:
Gustave Flaubert was of the opinion that the three necessary conditions for happiness were stupidity, selfishness, and good health. Of the three, stupidity was the most important, he thought.
Instead, evolution seems to have bequeathed us with intelligence, altruism, and fragile health. It certainly prioritised the development of a big frontal lobe in our brain (which gives us excellent executive and analytical skills) over a natural ability to be happy. This tells us a lot about Nature’s priorities.
Nature doesn’t select the happiest individuals, but the fittest, in an evolutionary process that highlights fear and discourages contentment. Our chronically unhappy species is the product of such a process.
Not that evolution and natural selection have any particular plans. Evolution doesn’t want to go anywhere. It certainly doesn’t want to go anywhere better.
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__________________
Now if thou would'st
When all have given him o'er
From death to life
Thou might'st him yet recover
-- Michael Drayton 1562 - 1631
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