Another aspect of the documentary Happy that I watched this week that was I found interesting was this relation to the first and second languages we talked about in class. Throughout the documentary, it was really interesting to see people identify and describe their lives through their second language; talking about their material values, jobs, wealth. The focus is placed on utilitarian individualism and careers rather than expressive individualism and private, personal satisfaction. This made me realize how much of an issue it actually is for people to see past this second language to their first language and find ways to make themselves happy.
In Japan people have been over working themselves so much that they literally overwork themselves to death. This concept is so common now that there is a word for it; karoshi. It's sad to see so much importance placed on work and having a successful career that personal happiness and development of the Self gets downplayed and takes a second place to this sort of material success. People need to realize that there is more to success, happiness, and life in general than just a good or successful job. They need to realize that personal happiness is what is really important in life and that you can achieve that in many different ways as long as you move past the little (second language) aspects of life.
I think both of these thoughtful posts on the documentary Happy are quite interesting. This would be an interesting film, and I my sense is that the film itself would take a strongly "expressive individualism" view of the question. In this last post I am confused about the way you are using the "second language" idea. The first language as far as Bellah is concerned is Individualism, which can be broken down into utilitarian and expressive varieties. Then we also have cultural/religious vantage points, and these are the "second languages."
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