For most of history, civilizations were grounded in religion. And religion taught that each person plays a role. You are a male. You are the soldiers. Your role is to help women. Your role is to defend your nation. Your role was to work on the farm. Your role was this or that. Your role is a respiratory therapist.
Your goal was to do something to make other people happy. You cooked cake so others could enjoy it. You welded swords so others could defend themselves. You worked on the farm to feed yourself and others. You made cars so that others could transport themselves from here to there. You build roads so the cars other made could get across the country faster and more efficiently.
You defended your country to keep others safe. And this created an environment where others could work to achieve whatever their goal was. And so they worked to achieve their goals. And, in some way, they worked to make the world safer or to help others to do whatever their goal was.
And your training for your role began at a young age, whatever your role was. And this kept your body and mind busy. This made it so you didn't have time for worrying about what you wanted. This kept you satisfied. And once you got your job, you were satisfied because you were helping others. So the rate of things like depression and suicides was kept relatively low for most of history.
Today, we are taught to be happy. We are taught in schools at an early age to seek personal happiness. We set goals for ourselves that we think can make us happy. And we are told we can be whatever we want. In fact, if you are a man and you want to be a woman? Fine. You can accomplish that. If you are 5 feet 2 inches and you want to be a basketball player? You can accomplish that if you work hard enough and try hard enough.
But this sets up an environment of failure. It sets up an environment where people fall short of their goals. For instance, the guy who is 5 foot 2 inches probably will never be a professional basketball player no matter how hard he tries. The male who wants to be a female will probably still not be happy in the role of a man. In fact, sad to say, others will probably have a difficult time accepting that person as a different sex. It's sad that people just can't be accepted as they are, but in our real world, that is just how it is. I treat people with respect and dignity no matter who they are or what they look like. But, sad to say, many others do not. So, to change sexes to make yourself happy is a tough road to travel on. And it will not make you happy. And one psychologist I talked to said this may explain the high rate of depression and suicides among the transgender community. But I digress.
No matter what your goal is, if your goal is to find personal happiness, you will never find it by buying things or trying to do something that you will never accomplish. You decide to buy baseball cards to make yourself happy. What will happen? You will be happy at the moment, and then you'll need something else to make yourself happy. You buy a car? You buy a house? You fix up the house? Then what? You are still in search of true happiness. You cannot get there.
Just look at any rich person who has it all. They are never satisfied. They just want more. And this is the dilemma of money and happiness. As the old saying goes, money cannot buy happiness.
Why? Because there is only one place where you will find true happiness. There is only one euphoria, and it is not here on earth nor in this life. True happiness is in Heaven. And that is why, for most of history, faith was inculcated in civilization. Faith or religion taught that true happiness is in helping others. Your road to true happiness is living a humble life, doing the best you can in the role you chose for yourself, and you do this to help others. By helping others, you feel better about yourself. And this is how to lower the depression and suicide rates.
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