Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Christina Fonseca 1st blog...Can soldiers still be happy while they are in war?

Could a solider still be happy even if there in war? From sitting down with veterans and asking them such questions they seem to all come up with the same responses. Some said that even though death was all around the thoughts of going home to their family made them happy regardless of the circumstances that are going on. Another thing one of the soldiers said that made them happy was the fact of there fighting for the innocent people that have died for their country and also for the people that can’t and for that, it seems that all they need to keep happy in the war. So yes I do think soldiers still can be happy even if they are in war. It’s not just about killing and seeing death for a soldier it more that they have a purpose out there to fight. There life is worth millions of life. Now when interviewing one solider his response was different. He thought Even though there are things you can think of that make you happy and gave you a purpose to keep fighting and to not get killed there is nothing happy that comes out in war. The fact that you have to see people that are your friends get killed right in front of you. Kids screaming for help because there shooting all around and having to watch your every movement while out on the battlefield give you no happiness and for that I guess even though I still think you can be happy in war, there always going to be different perspectives and the only way to know if we went out in the war our self.

https://www.quora.com/How-do-Military-Veterans-feel-when-they-return-home-from-a-combat-deployment

2 comments:

Caroline DuncanNovember 26, 2015 at 11:13 AM
I think soldiers experience a happiness in which civilians can't because they have never been put into the same situations. I come from a big military background and the sense of fulfillment from the veterans and active members in my family is something I can only see from the outside..

One thing that I question; My brother, an ex-marine infantry at 18 years old till he was about 22 says that he was more happy when he was serving at war (missions) then where he is now... (out of the military, working construction). I have also met other veterans who have said the same thing. So again. there must be a sense of fulfillment of hapiness to these men and women in which I can not grasp, unless maybe I serve.
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PhilDecember 3, 2015 at 2:32 PM
We're still looking, aren't we, for what William James called "the moral equivalent of war," for a pacific way of eliciting the martial feelings and sense of life-mission? We need to keep looking, and keep imagining "war no more." But until then, I'm glad happiness is not denied soldiers in arms.
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Also recommended:

Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
The Art of Happiness, by Epicurus
How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well
Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction
The Conquest of Happiness, by Bertrand Russell
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Natural happiness

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“No one could work harder to be happy," Tocqueville observes of Americans, marveling at the ceaseless, restless energy they expand in search of a better life. Rushing from one thing tho the next, an American will travel hundreds of miles in a day. He will build a house in which to pass his old age and then sell it before the roof is on. He will continually change paths "for fear of missing the shortest cut leading to happiness.”

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Midway between the two there stands what may be called the doctrine of meliorism, tho it has hitherto figured less as a doctrine than as an attitude in human affairs. Optimism has always been the regnant DOCTRINE in european philosophy. Pessimism was only recently introduced by Schopenhauer and counts few systematic defenders as yet. Meliorism treats salvation as neither inevitable nor impossible. It treats it as a possibility, which becomes more and more of a probability the more numerous the actual conditions of salvation become.It is clear that pragmatism must incline towards meliorism...(continues)

whanging & skimming

Remember when old December's darkness is everywhere about

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Jefferson the Stoic-Epicurean

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Dumas Malone, Jefferson the Virginian

The Philosophy of Happiness

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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Christina Fonseca 1st blog...Can soldiers still be happy while they are in war?

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The eternal question: how to be happier? Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, passed us some tips buff.ly/2txxMnv