Nevar 2:23 AM 2/22/2020 Everyone in today's society is so caught up in the superficial norms and cultural traditions. They follow trends that are popular with their peers, everyone is so caught up in gaining clout and fame. All they do is facilitate these unhealthy social tendencies. It is not just the people following the wave that are contributing to our global problem of selfishness and greed, its also they people blaming and fighting against these topics that make the world so consumed with dread. When are people truly happy? Has anyone ever been truly happy? Can you even be happy if you seek truth in existence? How I see it is there is no happiness. But there are perceived states of happiness, like following these trends. When people do this they feel like they are a part of something, and they feel temporarily happy. Us humans are social creatures, we get depressed when we're stuck with just our thoughts for too long. But we also get depressed when spending time with our peers and when we are on social media. When we think about it, spending time with friends or family doesn't give us a purpose, it just distracts us. But then we get the question of what does it distract us from? Our jobs/school work? Then if that's the case why do we even exist with our intelligence if we are just going to follow the cycles of working and working. Working for what? To make money so that we can own a big house or a nice car? Doesn't it make sense that we have this brain for a reason? But what reason? To discover the whole universe would be a large goal, but what happens when that's done? do we all just live with no purpose? So is happiness just for the dumb? I can't manage to be happy when I'm thinking, I just ask myself; why do anything if it means nothing? Is being a smart a curse that destines one to be depressed. The only times I'm happy are when I'm not thinking, I'm just living. So if the only way to be happy is to just live, then why have this amazing brain that can think up incredible things and give humans their curious nature? Does that mean animals are happy because they don't think about material things and only live in the present? If we lived only in the present would we have the ability to be sad? I say not because what makes us sad? Only thinking about the future and the past, happiness lives in the present and sadness lives in imagined times. So if we can have this magical ability to think about moments that don't exist it must be for something. There must be some meaning to find, something that exists to be discovered and satisfy our curiosity. But what if there isn't, there is no way of knowing. If there is no certain hope to satisfy this craving why even think about this? Why can't I just follow what everyone else is doing; try and become famous on social media, invest myself in the world of politics, become a person that rejects the system and thinks the world is against them, or be a mindless consumer just sucking off the tit of others hard work. Each one of these makes me wanna throw up just typing them out. Nothing even makes sense besides philosophy, though it is just theoretical it makes much more sense to me. Math and science make sense in technical ways, but it doesn't offer anything to satisfy my taste for knowledge. Philosophy fascinates me not because of the facts but because it explores what is not yet thought possible. It tries to bring meaning to our cursed lives. So in closing my thoughts for today, I would like to let anyone who might read this to think about thinking beyond the boundaries of anything. Think about what makes you happy, and if you think about the past or future when doing it, or think about your purpose at all. Think about what makes you sad, are you thinking of a memory? Or fear for the future? Are you thinking about why anything matters and why we are even here? Take note of where your happiness resides. If we were to destroy the part of our brain that lets us think about other times would we be ultimately happier then we are now? There would be people who would want these abilities, but would they just be sad if they got this ability back?