Altruism And Happiness

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Altruism can be defined as the regard for others. Altruism is an action which usually involuntary, and people unconsciously act on their own for this. This includes especially the people working in the police and law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, soldiers, etc. Their jobs are such that their family has to live a tough life of not knowing if that person would be able to make back home that night. But even with such pressure, these put their lives before others. Agreed that they work to earn money and support their family, but then again they could have taken any other job. Why this? The same goes for any blue-collar worker. They too impact greatly on the whole community and even their jobs are life-threatening at times (such as a miner; the methane levels in the mines make it a hazardous environment for miners as even a spark from their tools could light a spark and the whole mine would catch fire, harming everyone). They too could have just done something safer, but they still end up doing such a job, and this is a form of altruism even though the person doesn’t think about helping others all the time. But then again, the society is in a better shape as such jobs keep the city at peace, and there is happiness. Wonder why? It’s because there is the absence of sadness. If you see an established city, it’s not necessary that you show happiness, but then again you’re not showing sadness. If you migrate from a city to a village, you MIGHT feel sad as there as less facilities, less things to do. But of course, happiness is all relative according to me. One might feel better to move away from a busy city and enjoy the bliss and solitude of a village. Martin Seligman tells us how positive psychology helps improve the happiness of an individual. He suggests that we have three types of happiness- subjective, individual and group. These forms of happiness are in
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