[Xmca-l] Re: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

[Annalisa Aguilar]

Hi Ulvi,

I would say that the preconditions are self-acceptance, which is my reason for mentioning cows and cats. Of course cows and cats are not self-conscious so I was being a little ironic to say that we could evolve to their state. More to your point, it is because we don't accept ourselves as we are that causes unhappiness. So to be more precise about how to think of it is to consider the removal of non-self-acceptance rather than an addition of self-acceptance, because as infants and children we accept ourselves just fine! Why are children so happy?

Zoya seems to have accepted herself as herself, living in her present moment, living to the task at hand as was necessary. It is my belief the reason why she was able to face her death so fearlessly, and why she was so remarkable to the people around her while she lived.

I would not call being in the present moment idealistic, but realistic. :)

Kind regards,

Annalisa

________________________________________
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Ulvi İçil <ulvi.icil@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, December 1, 2014 4:04 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya

Thank you Annalisa.

You are right. There is certainly many many happinnesses.

But the question was: One big, common happiness for all. Is there such
happiness?

Anf if there is, what are its preconditions?

Kind regards,

Ulvi


2014-12-01 10:41 GMT+02:00 Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu>:

> Dear Ulvi,
>
> I think it absolutely depends on what you mean by happiness!  :)
>
> But to Zoya, it seems that she became the person she became from the deep
> reading she did. I'm sure writing in a notebook is a part of that as well.
> I suspect in the backdrop of her hard life, these past-times were essential
> to her development, especially concerning her imagination.
>
> Have you noticed how cows are not bothered if they have matching horns or
> crooked horns? Or cats do not complain that their silly acrobatics are
> posted on the internet?
>
> If we evolve to a state of being non-self-conscious, as animals are, we
> might be happier than we are now. Though maybe I am wrong.
>
> Maybe happiness is just _being_ happy?
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Annalisa
>