Seven Common Sins
Illusions of Happiness - a show by Jacqui Lindo
Illusions of Happiness - a show by Jacqui Lindo
Lust
has become the way you make yourself an object of desire. You believe if others desire you by any means, there is no way you couldn't be happy with yourself.
has become the way you make yourself an object of desire. You believe if others desire you by any means, there is no way you couldn't be happy with yourself.
Wrath
has become a search for physical domination. You can't be confident enough with yourself so you have to prove it to yourself. You use an excuse like sports to act it out and you think it's what happiness is.
has become a search for physical domination. You can't be confident enough with yourself so you have to prove it to yourself. You use an excuse like sports to act it out and you think it's what happiness is.
Pride
has become doing things for pride, honor, the A+ on that next assignment - Striving for intangible, internal things that can be taken away, filling that hole where happiness should be.
has become doing things for pride, honor, the A+ on that next assignment - Striving for intangible, internal things that can be taken away, filling that hole where happiness should be.
Greed
has become the way you use tangible and external things to fill a hole inside you and you call it happiness. (shop happy)
has become the way you use tangible and external things to fill a hole inside you and you call it happiness. (shop happy)
Envy
has become the way we fish for compliments and want reassurance from others that you are okay the way you are. When looking at someone in-shape, they got there though hard work, there is no reason to hate them, when they could probably help you get to where they are if you just asked. Confidence does not come from being better than others, but from knowing you can be happy with yourself and that you have the power to make yourself what you wish to be to the best of your capacity. This was a hard one to learn.
has become the way we fish for compliments and want reassurance from others that you are okay the way you are. When looking at someone in-shape, they got there though hard work, there is no reason to hate them, when they could probably help you get to where they are if you just asked. Confidence does not come from being better than others, but from knowing you can be happy with yourself and that you have the power to make yourself what you wish to be to the best of your capacity. This was a hard one to learn.
Gluttony
has become satisfying the senses, with food and drink to make yourself temporarily happy.
Why do you think they sell their product by calling it a “happy meal?”
has become satisfying the senses, with food and drink to make yourself temporarily happy.
Why do you think they sell their product by calling it a “happy meal?”
Sloth
has become what we call the want for a permanent vacation, and that is exactly what it is. A vacation from being what makes us most human, the ultimate avoidance of becoming excellent at anything, doing nothing and thinking about nothing. You think this makes you happy, but instead it makes you empty.
has become what we call the want for a permanent vacation, and that is exactly what it is. A vacation from being what makes us most human, the ultimate avoidance of becoming excellent at anything, doing nothing and thinking about nothing. You think this makes you happy, but instead it makes you empty.
This show brings together philosophy, psychology and a study of modern times on the topic of the seven deadly sins and happiness. The idea for this show came after watching the movie “Se7en” and hearing this line: “people are innocent only because their sins are so common.” I had already been exploring the nature of happiness in order to change myself, but had I been looking around me enough as well? Have the original sins become common, and has happiness been forgotten?
To answer this you will first have to look at society around you as I have. The work here depicts the once deadly, but now “common sins,” or illusions of happiness. Depending on the person you are, you will either see these “common sins” as a part of normal lifestyle or recognize them as pleasures, weaknesses, or problems, that are not a part of true happiness. Don't worry which one you are, either way most people would not know what happiness is if it bit them in the butt and I find it sad that so many people have not had the opportunity I have had to discover it.
My friend, and fellow graduate Seth Felix was able to explain happiness and morality in his essay below. You could say it is a condensed Aristotelian philosophy lesson, but it is a brilliant one. Seth has been a huge part of my life, in three years he took me through the best and sometimes most painful changes in my life. I lived through all of these illusions presented here, and with our daily philosophical talks he was able to make me make myself into a better human that I have wanted to be for so long. I would like people to read this so that they can leave here with at least some grasp as to what happiness really is, and what it means to be most human.
A short essay by Seth Felix:
The fundamental nature of morality seems to be ordered towards something distinctly human. That is, no other creature preoccupies itself with morality, it simply is itself. Going backwards then, we can say that the most human thing then is being moral. So then, this leads itself to the question of what is moral?
Seeing then that moral is what it is that is most human, we ask ourselves what the common factor is then that all humans aim towards. Then, we must make an assumption, or an axiom, here, that from observation it seems all humans do action towards what they think will make them happy. Here again then, we must make an observation and see then what it is that makes people happy. It seems that beautiful things are what humans aim themselves at, there seems to be some measure of happiness with beautiful things. What then is the common factor between all beautiful things? It seems that all beautiful things are excellent things, as excellence defines beauty, with a beautiful thing being anything that denotes it as better among its kind. Asking then, what it means for something to be better, it would first require you to understand the thinghood of something. The thinghood being that about something which makes it what it is and continue to be itself.
This boils down to then, understanding what it means for something to be what it is. A chair is meant to hold someone, a basketball player is meant to play basketball. Understanding that, then we can say what an excellent chair is, or what an excellent basketball player is. Taking this all the way, we ask then what it means to be an excellent human? Seeing as being moral is the most chiefly human thing, it would seem a moral human is an excellent human.
Now that we understand why we want to be moral, we ask what it means to be moral. Moral actions, having all humans a sense of what they are, are actions that seem to be aimed at some same goal in action. We take note that, in each moral action we do, it necessarily deals with the effects your actions have upon other humans. Then again, we look for a common factor is what at first seems moral, even if we do not know. It would appear that all moral actions are actions that help other humans become excellent in all their actions.
For instance, we look at the commonly understood virtue of generosity. When someone is generous, they help others achieve some end they could not have achieved by themselves (by nature of the act). Here then, we see the outcome of the act helped them act more, hopefully towards a more excellent end. We can say the same of say, kindness, in that you help others live their lives uninhibited by your acts. All these things then seem to be ordered towards not inhibiting other people in their ability to commit acts excellently.
With this fledgling idea of what morality is, we take note that not all activities have to deal with other people. Many acts one does deals only with themselves. These acts seem to be the end of moral actions, in that moral actions allow others to do these types of acts most excellently.
After many car ride discussions Seth and I discovered a few things about what you should do with your life, and the answer was to live excellently. We found that there seemed to be a hierarchy of activities that you could do excellently, meaning not all activities can be done continuously. The best activities seemed to be the ones you could do the most of. Seth found that the only action that you can always be in act with and therefore the greatest was contemplation. It made so much sense. What are people constantly trying to do to make themselves feel better? Center themselves? Pray? These are all ways that we contemplate, and they feel good because they make us human.
Another important epiphany I wish to share with you was that excellence and happiness are states of being. They can not be taken away from you and they cannot be better or worse than someone else's excellence or happiness. If you are doing anything that can be lost, or taken away and calling it happiness, well, you are falling into the same illusions illustrated in this gallery.
To answer this you will first have to look at society around you as I have. The work here depicts the once deadly, but now “common sins,” or illusions of happiness. Depending on the person you are, you will either see these “common sins” as a part of normal lifestyle or recognize them as pleasures, weaknesses, or problems, that are not a part of true happiness. Don't worry which one you are, either way most people would not know what happiness is if it bit them in the butt and I find it sad that so many people have not had the opportunity I have had to discover it.
My friend, and fellow graduate Seth Felix was able to explain happiness and morality in his essay below. You could say it is a condensed Aristotelian philosophy lesson, but it is a brilliant one. Seth has been a huge part of my life, in three years he took me through the best and sometimes most painful changes in my life. I lived through all of these illusions presented here, and with our daily philosophical talks he was able to make me make myself into a better human that I have wanted to be for so long. I would like people to read this so that they can leave here with at least some grasp as to what happiness really is, and what it means to be most human.
A short essay by Seth Felix:
The fundamental nature of morality seems to be ordered towards something distinctly human. That is, no other creature preoccupies itself with morality, it simply is itself. Going backwards then, we can say that the most human thing then is being moral. So then, this leads itself to the question of what is moral?
Seeing then that moral is what it is that is most human, we ask ourselves what the common factor is then that all humans aim towards. Then, we must make an assumption, or an axiom, here, that from observation it seems all humans do action towards what they think will make them happy. Here again then, we must make an observation and see then what it is that makes people happy. It seems that beautiful things are what humans aim themselves at, there seems to be some measure of happiness with beautiful things. What then is the common factor between all beautiful things? It seems that all beautiful things are excellent things, as excellence defines beauty, with a beautiful thing being anything that denotes it as better among its kind. Asking then, what it means for something to be better, it would first require you to understand the thinghood of something. The thinghood being that about something which makes it what it is and continue to be itself.
This boils down to then, understanding what it means for something to be what it is. A chair is meant to hold someone, a basketball player is meant to play basketball. Understanding that, then we can say what an excellent chair is, or what an excellent basketball player is. Taking this all the way, we ask then what it means to be an excellent human? Seeing as being moral is the most chiefly human thing, it would seem a moral human is an excellent human.
Now that we understand why we want to be moral, we ask what it means to be moral. Moral actions, having all humans a sense of what they are, are actions that seem to be aimed at some same goal in action. We take note that, in each moral action we do, it necessarily deals with the effects your actions have upon other humans. Then again, we look for a common factor is what at first seems moral, even if we do not know. It would appear that all moral actions are actions that help other humans become excellent in all their actions.
For instance, we look at the commonly understood virtue of generosity. When someone is generous, they help others achieve some end they could not have achieved by themselves (by nature of the act). Here then, we see the outcome of the act helped them act more, hopefully towards a more excellent end. We can say the same of say, kindness, in that you help others live their lives uninhibited by your acts. All these things then seem to be ordered towards not inhibiting other people in their ability to commit acts excellently.
With this fledgling idea of what morality is, we take note that not all activities have to deal with other people. Many acts one does deals only with themselves. These acts seem to be the end of moral actions, in that moral actions allow others to do these types of acts most excellently.
After many car ride discussions Seth and I discovered a few things about what you should do with your life, and the answer was to live excellently. We found that there seemed to be a hierarchy of activities that you could do excellently, meaning not all activities can be done continuously. The best activities seemed to be the ones you could do the most of. Seth found that the only action that you can always be in act with and therefore the greatest was contemplation. It made so much sense. What are people constantly trying to do to make themselves feel better? Center themselves? Pray? These are all ways that we contemplate, and they feel good because they make us human.
Another important epiphany I wish to share with you was that excellence and happiness are states of being. They can not be taken away from you and they cannot be better or worse than someone else's excellence or happiness. If you are doing anything that can be lost, or taken away and calling it happiness, well, you are falling into the same illusions illustrated in this gallery.
