Should a person be 'happy' living in this miserable and corrupt world?

[Qoeleth]

I would throw in that maybe ‘happiness’ or lack thereof is not something to which ‘shoulds’ or ethical imperative can be applied.

If you find a person who is unhappy, it would be unreasonable to reprimand him/her, and say “You SHOULD be happy.” It would also be unreasonable to say to a happy person, “You should not be happy.” Although, there is the famous story in the sayings of the Desert Fathers, where a hermit reprimands some monks for laughing saying, “How can you laugh when you are going to have to face Judgment Day?”

I think God can be encountered in both joy and sorrow- perhaps, for Christians, since our image of God is a suffering victim, more so in sorrow.

In either case, there can be no ‘should’ about how we feel.

 

[fakename]

I think some people need happiness and suffering in differing ways.

First, those predisposed towards suffering and melancholy ought to be treated so that they “lighten up” while those who are predisposed towards happiness should be told to be more sorrowful. This is because one cannot progress in morality unless one does what is against pleasure. But what one is disposed towards is what pleases one the most, so one should do the opposite of their dispositions.

Secondly,one should suffer most before one enjoys oneself; for it will steel you against bad influence.

Thirdly, as Aristotle says, people cannot suffer all the time and people need rest or else on either condition they will die. And this is seen because pleasure occurs when a part of the body is working well. So at least some pleasure is needed.

Fourthly it’s true that saints enjoy things more than most people, so just being a saint doesn’t destroy pleasure. The reason is that the greater the purity of human nature, the greater is sensible pleasure as stated in the Summa Theologica: newadvent.org/summa/1098.htm#article2. And indeed I think this is because the soul and the body produce pleasure so that the purer soul feels the purer pleasure.