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Zigmunt Bauman, what is the secret of happiness?

Zigmunt Bauman, what is the secret of happiness?

Zigmunt Bauman's reflections are still more important today than ever before. Everyone who has lived, has been obsessed with a specific goal: to be happy. And the paths each of us chooses to follow are endless.

But according to our plans, they all go in the same direction. The problem is that after you travel, you notice that many of the trails you have followed have turned out to be wrong. This issue has often troubled Sigmunt Baumann as well, and here are the advice of the great Polish sociologist.

Most intellectuals have regarded issues such as happiness as too easy to deal with. On the contrary, Bauman was not afraid to speak of what is the aspiration that unites all mankind. Explaining what happiness is in the documentary "Swedish Theory of Love" aired on Rai 3, the fluid society theorist said that "it is not true that happiness means having a life without problems".

According to him, a happy life is a product of overcoming problems, of solving difficulties. "You have to face the challenges, do your best. "Happiness is achieved when a person realizes that he is able to control the challenges posed by fate, because when comfort is increased he feels haunted."

The more we are able to fight, to strive, to make meaningful choices, the more the distance that separates us from happiness will be shortened. Yet this is a war that must not be fought alone.

In fact over the past few decades, people have learned more and more to be independent, not to depend on others, doing everything to feel good alone, to feel good about themselves. But according to Bauman, this is the wrong direction.

People who know how to be independent are slowly losing the ability to live with others, as they have lost the ability to socialize. "The more independent you are," Bauman says in the documentary The Swedish Theory of Love, "the less you are able to control your independence, and replace it with a pleasant interdependence."

On the other hand, it is understandable: being connected to people is something very complicated, and to do that you need to be able to accept quite a few compromises, to meet the needs of others, to have patience.

Of course this is tricky, but happiness comes from relationships, not independence. According to Bauman, "in the end, independence leads to an empty, meaningless life, and plunges you into great boredom." / Libreriamo

* This article was posted by Bota.al and redistributed by Tiranapost.al