Poverty, Happiness and Harmony

In the way of Materialistic Dialectics, connections exist between poverty and happiness, so does happiness and harmony. Poverty, to some extend, cause people unhappy. It makes sense that people do not stay optimistic when they worry about their food security. As to happiness and harmony, it is easy to understand that people in harmonious society tends to be happier than those not. However, according to dialectics I mentioned at the very beginning, connections between the three terms are not absolute at that.

Poverty here is a relative term, for no definite standard is given to this concept ---we have no idea that livelihood above or below which level can be seen as rich or poor. Wealth stands in the opposite of poverty. Can wealth bring happiness? Of course. People try to satisfy their material needs first before they pay attention on the satisfaction of their mind. Taking China's economy development as a example, before the time of reform and opening-up, people died because of starvation. At that time, they even do not have spared time to reflect whether or not they are happy--- a dark period indeed. Under such a horrible circumstances, were you them, would you be happy?

Happiness consists in contentment, and the conditions of contentment varies, from different people in different social status and same people in different age. Candies and toys may bring children happiness, but they can not work on adults; Luxury brands may help certain people feel distinguished, while others take quality as the priority. Therefore, poverty is not the only factor resulting in unhappiness. Happiness comes from people's mental world. The pursuit of happiness should aim at enriching people's minds, rather than wealth only.

Harmony is a rather complicated state. " Contradiction is ubiquitous among the world", Marx observed. None can escape from the law of the unity of opposite, the same is true for our society. New contradiction emerges as we tackle down the old one. That is to say, harmony maintains as a ideal state, no absolute harmony can be achieved. But, things spiralled to move forward with contradictions transformed into other forms under the changing conditions. Modern history of Chinese evidenced this point. From the foundation of People's Republic of China to the modernization of socialism society, Chinese communist party adapt their working focus to the development of economy.

On the whole, we can draw such a conclusion---people in poverty can seek for happiness through the enhancement of their inner world; completely harmonious society is the pursuit of idealism, but the society can be more harmonious with the gains of happiness.