"It was evident to him that the world was composed and recomposed in an endless process of dissatisfaction."
True or false? Here is what I wrote in class today when DeAne told us to just "write!":
"True...? If human wants are unlimited, according to economic principles, then it has to be true. Wanting focuses on what you don't have. Satisfaction notices what you do have and allows that to be enough. In America, it seems as though people don't stop to realize what they do have. They look at what someone else has, realize they don't have it, and go after it. There is always something that someone is going to want; there's always going to be dissatisfaction."
To continue on this subject...
Katie mentioned (over skype) that there is this idea of individual satisfaction versus satisfaction with the world. And that we are not stuck in dissatisfaction. Is life, then, what we make of it? Can we decide that this composing and recomposing of dissatisfaction is just present, and continue on our lives? Or are we supposed to make it end?
I agree with Katie that the individual can be satisfied even though the world is not satisfied. Ever since we got out of class today, I find myself looking around at others...and wondering if they are satisfied. With themselves, with the world...even just here at Olaf. Is it possible that our campus composes and recomposes itself in an endless process of dissatisfaction? Is it inescapable? (Wow these seem like depressing thoughts...). So many questions...and I believe there's not really "one" right answer.
True or false? Here is what I wrote in class today when DeAne told us to just "write!":
"True...? If human wants are unlimited, according to economic principles, then it has to be true. Wanting focuses on what you don't have. Satisfaction notices what you do have and allows that to be enough. In America, it seems as though people don't stop to realize what they do have. They look at what someone else has, realize they don't have it, and go after it. There is always something that someone is going to want; there's always going to be dissatisfaction."
To continue on this subject...
Katie mentioned (over skype) that there is this idea of individual satisfaction versus satisfaction with the world. And that we are not stuck in dissatisfaction. Is life, then, what we make of it? Can we decide that this composing and recomposing of dissatisfaction is just present, and continue on our lives? Or are we supposed to make it end?
I agree with Katie that the individual can be satisfied even though the world is not satisfied. Ever since we got out of class today, I find myself looking around at others...and wondering if they are satisfied. With themselves, with the world...even just here at Olaf. Is it possible that our campus composes and recomposes itself in an endless process of dissatisfaction? Is it inescapable? (Wow these seem like depressing thoughts...). So many questions...and I believe there's not really "one" right answer.
In class you also emphasized the "American" quality of this general observation. I think that is important. The dissatisfaction need not be selfish, but can be.
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