![]() ![]() ![]() As well as dozens of Joyce Carroll Oates novels about suburban dystopia. Happiness can never last, not just because bad things are bound to happen, but because sitting on the beach with an umbrella drink gets boring after a week or two. The problem is that it’s innately unsustainable. There’s nothing wrong with seeking ways to experience relaxation and contentment in your life. ![]() It is indeed the case that our society is built, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, on the “pursuit of happiness.” The engine that drives our economy is the consumerism that seeks to maximize pleasantness, comfort, and convenience in life and avoid discomfort, awkwardness, and chaos. Marketing firms increasingly sell happy experiences instead of products: happiness is a relaxing vacation on the beach, an intense night at the bar, a satisfying drink on a hot day, or the contentment and security of retirement… Neoliberal capitalism encourages its subjects to base their lives on this search for happiness, promising pleasure, bliss, fulfillment, arousal, exhilaration, or contentment, depending on your tastes and proclivities (and your budget). Under Empire, happiness is seen as a duty and unhappiness as a disorder. And the contrast that they draw between joy and happiness seems a lot more helpful than the evangelical youth group answer I had. But lately I’ve been reading a book called Joyful Militancy by two Canadian anarchists Nick Montgomery and carla bergman. ![]()
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