Kid President says "See, I'm not in a party, I AM a party, everywhere I go is a party". Jeremy Bentham would agree that this was a great way of living. Bentham's ideas were that we should live in a way that would produce the maximum amount of happiness. This is called Utilitarianism. But what IS happiness? I touched on this in my last post about how certain philosophers viewed the idea of happiness, and for Bentham, happiness is simple: its how you feel. It is "pleasure in the absence of pain" (p123). Pleasure is the only thing that can be good without adding to it. Anything else we do in life is just an attempt to have pleasure and avoid the pain. Kid President knows that bringing a party to any environment is going to bring more pleasure to the world. You laugh, sing, dance and just have fun. Kid President wants us to be a party everyday! This little dude knows how to live life in a way Bentham would agree with.
Can happiness be formulated mathematically? According to Bentham, yes. He calls this method the Felicific Calculus. Imagine something that makes you happy. How long does it last? How much happiness would you say it gives you? Is it a 10? a 9? Is there any potential pain that comes with this action? If so, subtract that number from the number you give your action in terms of happiness and you'll find your final unit of happiness. Bentham also believed the more happiness you bring to your actions in your life the better it is for society. All of Kid President’s ideas about this world is how to make it better as a whole and not on an individual level. Of course he wants everyone to be happy, but his ultimate goal is to have a happy world, where everyone can be happy with one another. Further into the video, he mentions how adults are upset all the time, even on tv, yelling at each other. His solution: Be More Awesome. Apparently its not that hard!
So, I close with this.... What will you do to make the world more awesome?
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I just bumped up the hedonic meter by sharing this with my 8th-grade daughter. She's very happy to have been introduced to Kid President, and just ran to her room to watch him again. Thanks for making the world a little happier, Megan. (But speaking for myself, KP's felicific score doesn't come close to biscuits from Loveless.)
ReplyDeleteWell, regardless of what the world tries to make of me, I try to make something of the world. =] I am glad she likes him! He's a hoot to watch, and brightens up any sad or boring day.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Kid President is wonderful to watch. I introduced him to my best friend and she loved him. Who knows, maybe he will actually become president one day and share his happiness outlook with the world. Oh, that really would be wonderful. The pursuit of happiness is something I think the human race as a whole has lost sight of because, in my opinion, we tend to place our ideas of happiness in things other than the idea itself. For the most part, it is materialistic things. Everyone thinks they will be happier if they had more money because they could afford nicer things or pay to have these great adventures, etc. The list could literally go on forever. But if every single possession was suddenly taken from you, could you still be happy? I certainly believe so. Sometimes I even think I might be happier without possessions because sometimes I feel like they hold me back. I saw a quote one time, although it did not list an author that said, "The more things you own, the more you are owned." I really related to that.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Megan!