All sorts of opinion leaders these days are pimping the cult of happiness. And we don't mean happiness of the self-actualization variety. We mean the passive sort of happiness, the happiness that comes from accepting one's lot in life. The happiness, in short, of accepting the status quo. What is one to make of the message radiating from The Haves to The Have-Nots that "money cannot buy happiness"? Sounds a little hypocritical to me - doesn't it sound that way to you? But they are wiser than us because they are richer, so we might as well listen to them. Right?

The linked article discusses the cult of happiness in modern society. It suggests that the vapid promotion of happiness is the last resort of leaders with an impoverished social imagination, and that it perilously diminishes the push for change that energizes the dialectic of a free society. There are forces out there that want us to be passive, so beware...

"Politicians, economists, teachers? why are they so desperate to make us happy?" from The London Telegraph