I remember someone made the remark that control is the key to happiness. Thinking of the word control conjures up feeling of mastery, in power, certainty and ability to manipulate. Yes, if you can control you can do whatever to suit yourself. If you can afford a car or better still a helicopter, you have control of your commuting and do not have to wait for buses or stuck in the traffic jam. If you own a firm you can determine you own working time and not the other way round.
The two examples cited are related to money. More control actually comes from political power. If you are the superior you can command your subordinates. If you are the president theoretically you can control the life of all people in your country. Even if you are just a primary school teacher you can still control your students. Control gives us a sense of superiority and feeling of in power.
People not in control seldom feel happy. If you can't control your own body you are no where near to happiness. Patients with Broca’s aphasia often get frustrated of their ability to express their thoughts; people with Parkinson’s disease are more susceptible to depression; and a complete paralysis of body is likely to leave one in complete dejection.
Thus the first and foremost is the control of one’s body, movement, behaviour and mind. While controlling your own life is of utmost important, people are far more interested in controlling other people’s lives. However controlling others is by far the hardest part because everyone resists control from others. teenagers don’t like to be controlled by their parents. Everyone undergo such rebellious age to find their own identity and to be in control of their lives. The one thing human always wanted to control is our affinity to others. The people that I love vs the people that love me, this is the hardest problem in love but unfortunately there is no way to control love.
Although our control of other human’s behaviours is rather limited our control of inanimate objects is quite remarkable. Human beings have been attempting to control nature since the early time of civilization. Technology can thus be described as the study of controlling nature: how to predict and change things. From the weather, the living condition, the food we eat to the sex of our children and our health. We intend to know everything so that we can manipulate nature at our own will. Sadly there is always resistance to control both from nature itself and from within the human race.
These group of people are known as religious people. In fact such people hold a totally different view on happiness, that is, contentment. They think that we shall all be contented with what we have and not demand for more control of nature, especially area of life and death which deemed to infringe on god’s sovereignty. According to them nature is the creation of god thus should not be tampered with. We should render the power of control to god, essentially he is the highest controlling power of the universe.
Whether god did create this universe is a moot point. here we shall focus on the notion that contentment can bring happiness. It sounds plausible that if you are always contented then you should be happy always. Now consider this. In the first example if you are stuck in a traffic jam since you can't do anything you just have to console yourself with the thought that everyone else is also in the jam. That is when people have the idea that contentment can bring happiness. However arguably if you are given the ability to clear the traffic jam and go home sooner won't you be happier then? Thus such contentment shall be seen as a failure to control and the adaptation of psychology in order to reduce the frustration due to the failure.
Human only submit the power of control when they feel that they can't control. In the ancient time people can't control (or predict) rain fall so they submit (ascribe) the control to god and let him assume control. Human today have marched a long way from rain dances rituals to get rain. With the advancement of meteorology human are now capable of rainmaking by cloud seeding thus controlling rain. Why shall we give up this control and be contented with a long draught and withering plants?
The same logic applies to other areas of science. Once we were ignorant so we submitted the power to god but now that we know how to control why should we give it up? If we can determine the genetic of our children, our lifespan, our birth and death or even our destiny and afterlife, why shall the religious people stop us?
p/s just realize that this relentless pursuit of control is similar to the notion of
