Would humans be happier if there were fewer choices in life???

Question:And the world a safer and more peaceful place if there were less complexities?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: And the world a safer and more peaceful place if there were less complexities?

Doesn't this question follow the basic route of ignorance is bliss? It is potentially true that happiness would be easier without so many complexities which quintessentially, knowlege brings us but does this happiness not seem slightly superficial in comparison to the eudamonia we can achieve be staying happy throughout the "complexities" as it were. Would you swap all your knowlege for comfort? Would you prefer to sacrifice your own conscious, basic intution which instructs you of mortality and death for an easy, comparitively lazy happiness?
I know I wouldn't
M.E.J

To be honest, I think that it would be possible to have fewer choices, be ignorant, and be terribly unhappy. I think happiness comes from creating a sense of meaning in your own life and is independent of the level of complexity in your life. I guess choices and knowledge lead to increased stress, but a certain amount of freedom allows you to create a sense of meaning by choosing to live as you desire. I would even go as far as to argue that the more limited you are in your choices, the less true happiness you will experience.

Safer, yes, but it would also be rather boring, I would think. Some people run on excitement and complexity(is that the right word?). That's just my opinion.

Thats a good question. i think we would be happier. We have way to many choices, and now we are spoiled. We expect a certain level of service and "handouts" that have become ridiculous. Less choices, less hassle.

hellz nahh ... life is all about the challenges and choices your given, if life was all flimzy and peaceful, what would you lean anything? what i really want to know is why you would ask something like this? idk about you but if life was like ur saying i would freak from boredom

It would be less complex but i dont think we would be happy.

Imagine living in the Middle Ages, with much less food, rampant spread of disease and no real medicine to make people well. Imagine living in Neanderthal times.

Both those eras had fewer choices. Do you think those people were happier than we who can get our diseases fixed, our wounds sewn up, and our bellies full?

And as for a "safer more peaceful place"--hmmmmm:
[1] is Greek tyrants
[2] is tyrants of Syracuse
[3] is tyrants of Haiti--with a partial list of their victims.
[4] is tyrants of 2004

Then there are the Khans; the Soviets; the Chinese.
Need I go on?

If there were fewer choices in life.... there would either be some person making choices for us (who we may or may not like) or we would be living an incredibly simple life (Nymphs, for example)

This feeling of being happier is a memory of being able to depend on parents. We're semi-miserable because we want out... we want to be able to make our own decisions. When we finally are free of the terrible reign of our parents, we see how difficult it really is to have to make all those choices.

No matter what, it is human nature to be curious. If we had fewer choices, we would wonder what it was like to have more. Because we have more, we wonder what it is like to have fewer choices.

It's a vicious circle that can't be ended. Those of us who figure out ways around the cycle are the ones that are truly happier.