This actually is a matter of simple logic - I can deny denying something. If I accept 1+1=2, then I do not deny 1+1=2. I would deny that I deny the aforementioned balanced equation. I also have a kitchen sink, I flush all my denials down the drain, hence we shan't ever speak of any of them ever again, except on Thursdays of leap years :)

"Isn't the desire to be always happy really just wanting to feel good all the time? And isn't that unrealistic and childish and selfish?"

Absolutely not.

It is perfectly natural and normal to desire happiness, to feel good all the time. To expect it would be childish. To believe that you don't have to ever experience anything other than happiness, that misery is only for others may be selfish.

Do you want to feel bad sometimes? Do you wish for unhappiness? If so, you are an anomaly.

I am okay with it, NOW.

I won't call it out (any more) but when I was quite young, I was told that I have a (well) above average IQ and that the world was my oyster. Indeed, when I was very young, school was a joke and I could tell that I was smarter than most - if not all - of the other kids. I was not properly challenged and felt cocky and way over-confident.

After high school, I joined the US Air Force. They tested me and determined that I was qualified to train at any job I wished to. I chose to be an Aircraft Loadmaster.

The training was almost all mathematics, specifically algebra, and thought I had mastered it in 7th grade. Ha! I was shocked when I failed a one-week block of training and had to repeat it. For the first time in my life, I actually had to TRY, to put up a more-than-zero effort. I was humiliated and taken down a few notches. What a jackass I was!

I never have failed any training or college course since. In college, I maintained a GPA of 4+ but I never made a less-than-maximum effort. I also have encountered MANY people that are obviously WAY more intelligent than I could ever hope to be. Many of them are modest about it too.

I realize now that there is an infinite scale and that we all fall onto it somewhere. Most of us are not near the top. Few of us are near the bottom. Most of us are somewhere in between – we are average. I AM okay with that, and I will always try my hardest, to be the best average I can be.

If you mean all of us humans, the answer is no, not at all. If there is more than one person in any given situation, there will be conflict. If there are more than two, there will be siding, and if there are more than three, there will be "us against them". The more people, the more conflict.

That is how humans roll. We are greedy to the core.