Why our individualistic culture makes us less happy

[Chris]

Why our individualistic culture makes us less happy is an interview Swedish researcher Carl Cederström about his new book entitled The Happiness Fantasy.

It begins with a brief history:

Aristotle was one of the first to offer what you might call a philosophy of happiness. For him, happiness consisted of being a good person, of living virtuously and not being a slave to one’s lowest impulses. Happiness was a goal, something at which humans constantly aim but never quite reach. Epicurus, another Greek philosopher who followed Aristotle, believed that happiness was found in the pursuit of simple pleasures.

The rise of Christianity in the West upended Greek notions of happiness. Hedonism and virtue-based morality fell somewhat out of favor, and suddenly the good life was all about sacrifice and the postponement of gratification. True happiness was now something to be attained in the afterlife, not on Earth.

The Enlightenment and the rise of market capitalism transformed Western culture yet again. Individualism became the dominant ethos, with self-fulfillment and personal authenticity the highest goods. Happiness became a fundamental right, something to which we’re entitled as human beings.

Seems to leave out the rise of progressivism, socialism, modern liberalism, and postmodernism--the author of the piece or the book--both seems to lean left:

A new book entitled The Happiness Fantasy by Carl Cederström, a business professor at Stockholm University, traces our current conception of happiness to its roots in modern psychiatry and the so-called Beat generation of the ‘50s and ‘60s. He argues that the values of the countercultural movement — liberation, freedom, and authenticity — were co-opted by corporations and advertisers, who used them to perpetuate a culture of consumption and production. And that hyper-individualistic culture actually makes us much less happy than we could be.

The interviewer:

Capitalism is built on a set of assumptions about human nature: We’re self-interested, obsessed with status and prestige, and inherently competitive. If all of these assumptions were wrong, it’s highly unlikely that capitalism would work as well as it does.

The author:

I think there’s a fundamental human desire to feel connected to other people. I also think capitalism has been very successful at presenting human life as an individual pursuit, but that’s a lie. Human life is far more complicated than that, and we’re all dependent on other people in ways we rarely appreciate.

I don't disagree. If your only focus is on persuing capitalist happiness without concern connections in community you won't truly be happy. I think that's just common sense.

[Mister D]

I don't know anything about this guy but I think he might be referring to how we relate to one another and how we perceive ourselves in relation to society. Gonna call it a night but will chime in tomorrow.

[midcan5]

"Each morning the day lies like a fresh shirt on our bed; this incomparably fine, incomparably tightly woven tissue of pure prediction fits us perfectly. The happiness of the next twenty-four hours depends on our ability, on waking, to pick it up." Walter Benjamin

Corporations define happiness and hippies were Reagan voters? Sounds like baloney to me, although I agree with this quote, "Instead of obsessing over the self-actualized perfected person, maybe we should care more about equality, community, vulnerability, and empathy. Maybe we should get out of our heads and be more present in the world around us. I think that’s how we build a better world."

But happiness is so hard to find in many people and in life. It almost seems like a personal thing rather than societal, although of course a hard life or a dictatorial society can't help. We have a large family and some are happy, some seek happiness, and some will never be happy or is that contented for where do the two meet?


"Happiness is an imaginary condition attributed by adults to children and by children to adults." Thomas Szasz

"Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness." Zhuangzi

PS this hippie would never have voted for Reagan.