This is a continuation of my previous posts, starting on Day 416 - please read at least this post for context and details of the book I am quoting from.
While most of us recognize that our past has been mixed in terms of highs and lows, we tend to forecast a rosy or golden future - one in which we will be quite happy and in which few negative events happen to us. In fact, research by Newby-Clark and Ross (2003) indicates that this tendency is so strong that it occurs even when people have just recalled negative episodes from their own pasts... ...When we think about the future, in contrast, we tend to concentrate on desirable goals, personal happiness, and doing things we have always wanted to do - such as engaging in travel to exotic places. The result? Because our thinking is dominated by these positive thoughts, we make highly optimistic predictions about the future and tend to perceive it as indeed golden, at least in its promise or potential for us.
This entire book on social psychology I am reading is just a testament to the stupidity and ignorance of the human race. We are all living in our magical fantasies where everything turns out OK and we are finally happy. I suppose that this post is going to continue, at least in part, from yesterday's post on optimism.
People wonder how the world and the human condition deteriorated to its current state of completely screwed up. Really? It amazes me: psychologists have found a part of the answer, but instead of actually using it and working out a solution that will improve our lives, they sit around philosophizing and theorizing and doing F knows what else - what I do know is that they are most certainly not doing anything to improve our lives on a large scale - not everyone can afford therapy.
So let me break it down: We are living in fantasies in our heads more than we are living in the real world. We care more about our imaginary lives and ideals than we do about the actual world and people around us. We would rather imagine having sex than actually having sex because we like it more. We are content to dream about how amazing a holiday would be and how we would be the life of the party, instead of actually changing our lives and the world so that everyone can go on holiday. We are content to imagine ourselves being super-amazing in whatever situations, because doing it for real may not turn out quite as well as it does in our heads. We create all sorts of weird and not-so-wonderful connections, ideals and definitions relating to our relationships with other people so that the relationships we imagine having differ vastly from how they actually are.
Is it any wonder that the world is falling apart when we spend so little time actually being in it? Let's face it: the way things turn out in real life are seldom as lovely as how they turn out in our minds - the problem is that we actively choose to live in our heads and not in the real world - we are so focused on our magnificent futures that we don't consider the lives of others around us, all we want is our happiness, even if we never actually get it and only imagine it.
This entire book on social psychology I am reading is just a testament to the stupidity and ignorance of the human race. We are all living in our magical fantasies where everything turns out OK and we are finally happy. I suppose that this post is going to continue, at least in part, from yesterday's post on optimism.
People wonder how the world and the human condition deteriorated to its current state of completely screwed up. Really? It amazes me: psychologists have found a part of the answer, but instead of actually using it and working out a solution that will improve our lives, they sit around philosophizing and theorizing and doing F knows what else - what I do know is that they are most certainly not doing anything to improve our lives on a large scale - not everyone can afford therapy.
So let me break it down: We are living in fantasies in our heads more than we are living in the real world. We care more about our imaginary lives and ideals than we do about the actual world and people around us. We would rather imagine having sex than actually having sex because we like it more. We are content to dream about how amazing a holiday would be and how we would be the life of the party, instead of actually changing our lives and the world so that everyone can go on holiday. We are content to imagine ourselves being super-amazing in whatever situations, because doing it for real may not turn out quite as well as it does in our heads. We create all sorts of weird and not-so-wonderful connections, ideals and definitions relating to our relationships with other people so that the relationships we imagine having differ vastly from how they actually are.
Is it any wonder that the world is falling apart when we spend so little time actually being in it? Let's face it: the way things turn out in real life are seldom as lovely as how they turn out in our minds - the problem is that we actively choose to live in our heads and not in the real world - we are so focused on our magnificent futures that we don't consider the lives of others around us, all we want is our happiness, even if we never actually get it and only imagine it.
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