Are relationships a sign of weakness?

Doranq

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I enjoy video games, seafood and basketball. Why?
Because others don't enjoy those things.
While on the other hand the things you do not enjoy others do find enjoyable.

I don't think my philosophy suggests that wanting more happiness is the opposite of NOT having happiness or enjoyment. I think that if you want more or greater happiness than you're not truly happy and that other people can only harm you by sapping your energy and eliminating your sense of self. I think the only way to truly be happy is to forsake other people and discover the you that exists outside of your interactions with and the expectations of others.

Point being. Different things make different people happy. What makes you happy is bound to make others not so happy. Visa versa. Some people value things much more highly than others as well. Examples of what people find "true happiness:" Power, Money, Love, Sex, Murder, Music, Art, God, Math, Kind acts, Solitude, Friends and family, Nature,Drugs,Fighting,Learning, and much more. So that said we have a very large variety of people on earth with different likes and dislikes. To say one thing would make someone truly happy is ignorant to that fact.


Now for the underlined part. All of that can be achieved in or out of a relationship. That comes down to the individual. However forsaking people doesn't seem efficient and it seems rather counter productive towards the progression of humanity. Mmmm perhaps many many many years in the future that kind of thinking could be entertained when technology reaches a specific point or we further evolve but as it is now, just no.


I think if it works for you that is fine. :\ sadly you don't have the power to declare who is and isn't truly happy. Especially over the internet when you can't even see how someone in the flesh where you can really see how they live and gauge how they feel.

Is the desire to be in a romantic relationship a form mental weakness? Like you don't have the mental strength to live life on your own, so you need the crutch of another person giving you emotional support?

Do you agree?

As for your question
No. Having a desire in of itself is not a weakness. A desire only becomes a weakness if the person allows said desire to cause harm to them in some manor.


Follow up question. Would being in platonic relationship make you weak? Why or why not?
 

KennF

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Statement A:
I don't think my philosophy suggests that wanting more happiness is the opposite of NOT having happiness or enjoyment.

Statement B:
I think that if you want more or greater happiness than you're not truly happy

You are contradicting yourself. Statement A says if you want more happiness, that you may have some happiness. Statement B says if you want more happiness, then you aren't happy.

Happiness, and emotions in general, are not binary.

Day 1: I spend the day walking along the beach in joy and contentment.

Day 2: I spend the day walking along the beach, with my husband, and have more joy and greater contentment. Maybe he made a funny comment at something along the beach and spent the afternoon laughing and feeding off of that comment. Something I may not have experienced without his comment. Maybe it was a kiss that created a physical sensation. Maybe it was a shared memory of another beach we walked.

Does Day 2 mean that during Day 1 I was not joyful or was discontent?

I say both days were joyful, and Day 2 was more enjoyable. Your Statement B says that I was not truly happy on Day 1.


I will give you my real world application.
For many years, I was completely happy with the notion that I liked a normal 9-5 job. That, if anyone was going to be in my life as friends, or otherwise, they could not upset the balance I had created. After falling in love with my husband, he got offered an opportunity to work in the airline industry (a life long dream of his).

I thought this was the end of our relationship, but I learned I was more adaptable than I had realized. As a result, I am stronger because of the situation.

I had never been in a position to test the limits of my adaptability before. I had never been confronted with the need to communicate on this level with anyone realizing the limitations of time.

I adjusted my behavior to make the relationship work under the new dynamics. I am more open, more direct, and my relationship with him, my friends, my family, my colleague and my associates has greatly benefitted.

I had always been adaptable. I hadn't known it. I wasn't weaker because of him. He didn't do it for me. But the situation created adaptation within me that made me a better me.

Before the change, I wasn't weak. I had built a quite successful career and lifestyle. I still live that and more.

If you define that as weakness, then that's your label and I think most people in the world will be happy living in that weakness where you were sufficient before, but someone helps you become more than you were.

Enjoy.

-Kenn
 

Infernal

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If you need someone to complete your life, then you're probably going to end up in an unhealthy codependent relationship. A real relationship should complement your life.

I'm not saying relationships are easy. It requires work on both parts, and if neither person works for it, then it will fall apart. It doesn't make you weak.
 
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reckless_heart

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My answer to be OPs question is one word, synergy.. The ability of two or more people to achieve greater things together that they could not do seperately with individual effort..

At times it can be a miraculous thing