Complete 3 page APA formatted essay: Compare Contrast.(Deneen) This alternate life that they are always after seems to promise happiness to whomever embraces it, it is one of youth. Deneen equates it

Complete 3 page APA formatted essay: Compare Contrast.

(Deneen) This alternate life that they are always after seems to promise happiness to whomever embraces it, it is one of youth. Deneen equates it to reckless abandon, when you did as you pleased without consequence. Lester states of his youth “a time when all I did was party and get laid, I had my whole life ahead of me…” (Spacey) When he finally gets it in the form of a youthful girl, he realizes that he does not want it, because pictures of his life flash before his eyes, of his wife and children. It is too late though because he ends up getting shot and dies. At the end of the movie when Lester is dying, he is heard to state “I guess I could be pretty pissed about what happened to me, but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold onto it. Then it flows through me like rain. I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what am talking about I’m sure. But don’t worry-you will, someday.” (Spacey) From his words one gets a sense that Lester is going through regret, acceptance and then realization. Regret that he went through life not seeing that he had all along been happy but he always wanted more. acceptance that after all this, he finally realizes his mistake and he is ready to accept his fate. realization that it is too late for him and he knows that it will be too late for you because humanity will always want what is on the other side of the fence, hence they will all fall into Deneen’s idea of America, one of regret that you were happy but you never saw it, and then it is too late. (Thoreau) Jon Gertner The idea of America according to Jon Gertner is one where people are in pursuit of happiness, all trying to do one more thing so as to attain it. He postulates that every individual thinks that they will attain happiness if they perform a particular act or acquire a particular thing. They tend to imagine that that is what is what is missing from their lives and acquiring it will solve all their problems. He puts forward the argument that we imperfectly imagine what we want and how we will cope with it. He states that this is never the case because people always over estimate the impact that acquiring that particular thing or performing that particular act will have on their lives. (Gertner) The problem is that we falter when it comes to imagining how we will feel about something in the future. He states that individuals experience a dimming excitement in response to whatever they thought would be the answer to all their problems calling the gap between what we predict and what we ultimately experience ‘the impact gap’. “The problem”, he postulates “is not whether you will be happy after attaining that goal, but figuring out which of those futures is going to have the high payoff and is really going to make you happy.” Through various studies, he has established links between prediction, decision making and well being stating that “it is a common assumption that we would be happier with an option to change our minds when we are in fact happier with closure.” Gertner draws his work from George Loewenstein who stated that “Happiness is a signal that our brains use to motivate us to do certain things.