Skip to content
Personal Growth —

The Thing Is We Don’t Really Want What We Think We Desire

Slavoj Žižek considers the pursuit of happiness to be dumb because we don’t really want it anyway.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

Right at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence there’s that phrase: “pursuit of happiness.” But is that really what you want? Philosopher Slavoj Žižek has his doubts. 

“Let’s be serious,” Žižek says about being in a heightened creative, AKA flow, state. “Happiness doesn’t enter it,” he says, “You’re ready to suffer.” You may feel intensity, yes, excitement, yes. But happiness suggests satisfaction, and there’s nothing satisfied about a creative fever. It’s much more akin to a desperate want.

In any event, Žižek has decided, “We don’t really want what we think we desire.” He says that this is not an unusual event, either, but instead just the way human beings function.

I imagine Žižek would agree with the untraceably old adage: Be careful what you wish for. Meanwhile, you may need some Pharrell Williams right about now.

Headline image: Henry Burrows

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next