What if happiness was a lie we made up – a composite of lust, peace, bliss, or whatever other non-unpleasant emotions people felt.
Fundamentally I reckon man’s default position is discontent – which is why we need to come up with omnipotent men in the skies, capitalist fantasies, and whatever else to pretend that one day we’ll reach a point where the suffering stops – the happiness point.
But I think we’re wrong here – and the Buddhists were on to something. Life might basically be a steady stream of suffering (or at the very least a boring stream of consciousness) with a few oscillations resulting from unusually positive or negative experiences.
Something to chew on maybe.