The Myth of Perpetual Happiness

If you’re influenced by popular culture then you likely think you should be happy much of the time. We see ads filled with smiling young people ecstatic because they’re all swilling some sugary beverage. We see ads filled with smiling happy parents because their children are playing with the latest expensive toy. We see ads filled with smiling happy seniors who are delighted because some new product has enabled them to walk without incontinence or achieve sexual intercourse once more or, perhaps, merely enabled them to stave off senility for a few precious months. Regardless of the product, everyone is happy. Even the guy whose ultimate dream was merely to eat an entire pizza without succumbing to indigestion is happy. Thanks to a new pill, he can now gorge and then smile at the end of his over-indulgence.

Doctors also play their part in this assumption of eternal happiness. If you feel sad, they will readily prescribe a pill that will dull your senses because although there are no legal Happy Pills yet, being insensible is surely better than feeling sad.

We play our own roles too. Not satisfied with our sex lives? Someone must be to blame! Because somewhere in the Declaration of Independence, doesn’t it say we have the inalienable right to happiness? Therefore, if we’re not happy it’s time to change jobs, partners, clothes, or hairstyle. It may even be time to…