Society is today extensively an area of escape mechanisms. And here is how some of them operate. The person who is unhappy in his personal life, who is not satisfied, whose conduct has been such that he is a failure as a human being or is too selfish and self-centered to try and fulfil the simple natural processes of living, gradually develops an intense success mania. Happy people don't care so much whether they are the chairman of the board or not. Top spots in human industry, merchandising, in the professions of law and politics, are many of them held by miserable individuals.
That may be one of the reasons why things don't run more smoothly for if authority is invested in an unhappy person who is poorly oriented, naturally the projects will not go well. To the degree an individual is unable to find pleasant living doing simple kindly things to that degree he buries himself in some type of a project. If his various associates don't hold his interest or become obnoxious towards him, he plans activities which cuts him away from them. The person who is unhappy wishes to find a way to forget himself. Because he is unhappy, he also wants to hit back. There is nothing a miserable person finds more objectionable than happy people around him because they have something that he doesn't; peace of mind. Serotonin is released when you are happy. Dopamine is released when you feel pleasure.Escape mechanism also run to alcohol. The alcoholic is always somebody running away from something. And while very often the alcoholic won't admit it, it's essentially true. Many persons wonder why some moderate drinkers become alcoholics and others do not. The answer is pressure. If for instance, a person drinks just because it is considered socially required, he may suffer from alcohol but he will not become an alcoholic.
Alcoholism is simply a phase of
man's subconscious suicidal instinct.
It was the mere final culmination of the individual running away from himself. Death comes as a symbol of the escape of the individual from all responsibility and all condemnation or criticism. Tupac said, "anyone with thug-life tattooed on his stomach feels guilty." That artist rapped heavily about death, being high till he dies, saying "his every move is a calculated step to bring him closer to embrace an early death." Most people have been brought up to speak kindly of the dead. Tupac who is subject to criticism which he may justly deserve felt that in death he may no longer be criticized for his career in the dope game. There are all kinds of obscure pressures that influence this situation. Happiness is not achieved by escaping the "Myself", from running away from the "Self"; instead, it would be interesting to confront oneself boldly, to observe the "I", to study it in order to discover the causes of suffering. When we discover the real cause of so much misery and bitterness, then obviously, we can do something about it. If one manages to finish with the "Myself", with "My Getting Drunk", with "My Vices", with "My Affections" which are so painful in my heart, with those worries that are ravaging my brains and making me ill, etc, etc; clearly, then, that which is timeless comes, that which is beyond the body, affections and the mind, that which is truly unknown to the understanding and is called: HAPPINESS!
References: Manly P Hall and Samael Aun Weor
