We begin with talking about final project, and Hunter is going to take us to a Martial Art Workshop.
We talk about the first Chapter, the Happy Object, which is about how our perception of happiness creates a fantasy towards certain objects. We compare Ahmed’s views on happiness with Solomon’s. Solomon basically says happiness is to step back and be spiritual and grateful about things in life; and it is a judgement about yourself and your life. But Ahmed is more pessimistic than Solomon is. She argues that happiness creates anticipation – a fantasy attached towards an object: we believe that object will bring us happiness. And this makes happiness a gap-filler – happiness provides fantasy that fills the gap between the reality and what we desire. It gives us a sense of hope and lures us towards that direction and go on to a certain path. Furthermore, she thinks this fantasy can be circulated and non logical. When we are within a group of a culture, we are likely to accept their fantasy of happiness. As a result, we also accept a certain world view without questioning or reasoning, and we may be limited to that view.
Then, we discuss how happiness can cause anxiety. This is how Ahmed’s view is pessimistic. She thinks anxiety is the result that comes from happiness and the fantasy of happiness. After acquiring the object, we no longer have anticipation and desire on it, so we then continue to desire another object. In other words, we are trapped in the cycle of continuing anticipating happiness. But I want to say, yes anxiety comes with happiness and fantasy. But I doubt all of us will forever be trapped in the cycle of always wanting more happiness. Some people may spend their entire life anticipating objects, acquiring objects, and continuing anticipating, but I am optimistic that some of us can break the attachment and stop the cycle.
Finally, we discussed how we are afraid of being unhappy: we believe there must be something wrong and we have to change if we are unhappy. But as Prof. Gallegos said earlier, this book is going to challenge the notion that we have to be happy or we have to change if we are unhappy. And to me, this sounds like another difference from Solomon’s suggestion which suggests unhappy things can be happy, while Ahmed suggests it is ok to be unhappy.
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