Right-wing culture warriors have been relentlessly attacking people’s personal liberties – running hellish crusades to deny our freedom to vote, to read what we want, to form labor unions, to make our own reproductive decisions… etc.
Now, apparently having run out of freedoms to ban, here they come with a twisted attempt to politicize another of our inalienable rights: The pursuit of happiness! They’ve launched a campaign of psycho-babble, preaching that those who embrace progressive ideas and causes are doomed to a life of perpetual unhappiness. “Don’t go there!” they squawk.
This babbaloney is even being advanced by such self-proclaimed “serious” conservatives as New York Times pundit, Ross Douthat. He recently opined that “The left-wing temperament is, by nature, unhappier than the moderate and conservative alternatives.” Yes, Douthat insists that we progressives are hampered by “a refusal of contentment,” unlike the joyful serenity enjoyed by right-wingers.
Golly, Ross, how could we have missed the conservative blissfulness inherent in Donald Trump’s perpetual glower and nastiness? And that snarling, right-wing gaggle of quacks, prima donnas, and haters in Congress sure offers a fine public example of intrinsic conservative conviviality.
But Douthat plunges deeper into his dark rabbit hole, theorizing that “youth unhappiness” increases “the further left you go.” Not sure how many progressive youngsters he’s actually met, but I’ve been lucky to meet and work regularly with young champions of environmental justice, union organizing, women’s rights, etc. They have continuously lifted my spirits with their optimism, sense of fun, and jubilant camaraderie.
And, by the way, young progressives don’t need me – much less an aloof, dour conservative – speaking for them. They have their own voice and are on the way up – laughing at the likes of Douthat.
I am deliriously happy working to elect Democrats here in Lewisburg, PA. I sometimes get a teeny bit unhappy when, as a Democrat, I am called horrible things. But then I know I am not a baby eater, etc. and happiness floods back as I head out to canvass for my neighbor running for the State House!
I read this column of Ross Douthat's the other day and thought it was the most ridiculous, tiresome blather I'd ever seen in what's supposed to be a "serious" newspaper. Mr. Douthat is thought to be an intelligent fellow, and I suppose he is, but his poutiness strikes me as more negative than positive-- talk about unhappy!
I don't see how an intelligent person can believe the nonsense of either the far Right or the far Left. Also both leftist-authoritarian and rightist-authoritarian Governments have been tried . Communism and Fascism. They create hell on earth, except maybe for the 0.1% on top, the high ranking Party members. Near as i can tell , either the exponents of authoritarian ideologies are hoping to be high ranking commissars, ayatollahs, gauleiters etc, or they are insane. One can be insane and still be clever- Hitler being a classic example.
For these reasons, I favor as little government and much individual rights as possible. I saw a meme I like on Quora: when the population has guns, there will be occasional tragedies. When only the Government has guns, there will be genocide." it is true- google "massacres in America" and you will get pages of them. Black people, Indians, Chinese, labor unionists, massacred by the Powers that Be. Not to mention the genocides carried out by the Ottoman Turks, Russian empire, British empire, German empire, USSR, Nazis, and Mao's lunatics. Ideologues Left or Right are damned dangerous and should NOT be allowed anywhere near power.
Mr. Smith-- You are, I believe, totally right about the passionate ones on both left and right ends and the awfulness they engender. Where I don't agree with you is in your libertarian attitude about governments. Like people, there are good ones and bad ones. I'm hanging in there with government of the people, by the people, and for the people (is that the right order?). It's possible, as we've known from past examples. I guess it's inevitable that even good governments can't seem to last very long.
Mr. Douthat is thought to be an intelligent fellow, and I suppose he is, but his poutiness strikes me as more negative than positive-- talk about unhappy!
"You just need to pray about that and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you."
-- just about any Trump-worshiping evangelical Christian
Two years after 9-11, what Pres George W Bush called a "trifecta," as it bailed out his failed presidency, I might have been despondent and probably was for a time. A family photo taken over 40 years earlier snapped me out of it. In 1960 we were a young married couple struggling to get by on meager pay, a 4-year old son and and a toddler to care for. That cold morning our year old son was photographed pointing to something coming out of the oven, glee written all over his face. He was ecstatic.
Hence, a poem in 2003 that I entitled "Life" but might have called it "Happiness."
Life isn't a beach.
It isn't a peach.
It isn't a warm, cuddly puppy.
Life isn't a kitten
Nor a poem one has written.
It isn't an "O" so surprised guppy.
Life's not unsticky wickets,
Winning lottery tickets,
Nor even a Chinese made trisquette.
Here down below --
For those in the know --
Life is a hot buttered biscuit.
This seems as good a time and place as any to call attention to a service started by the Brooklyn Public Library and one that my library, the Seattle Public Library, participates in: Books Unbanned. This service provides access to the e-books and audio books in the library to young people (ages 13 to 26) who live anywhere in the U.S. All they have to do is go to the Seattle Public Library website and fill out a simple form. This service is entirely supported by donations. I'm proud to be a donor.
There are -- I hope -- other libraries whose leaders are interested in this service. Its purpose is to help young people "read what you want, discover yourself and form your own opinions." Young people everywhere need our support, especially in places where they feel alone and misunderstood. This is a way to help them.
I've seen the studies supposedly showing that right-wingers are "happier" than lefties and they all come down to the same thing, which Douthat (Ross Douthat? "Serious?" Really??) calls "a refusal of contentment."
That's his "serious" version of "I'm alright, Jack," an expression that translates to "I got mine, so screw you." Put another way, what the studies say is that lefties can't be "happy," i.e., "content," while being aware of the suffering of others.
If abandoning my sense of justice is what it takes to be "happy," to "accept contentment," I don't think that's a type of "happiness" in which I have any interest.
As a footnote, some years ago I wrote a relatively long piece relative to one such study. The link is here:
https://whoviating.blogspot.com/2010/11/are-you-happy-now.html
The "contentment " Douthat speaks of is really an "I got mine and I ain't sharing" mentality that permeates through the ranks of conservative elites like him.
Then how come the socialist Scandinavian countries are found to be the happiest countries in the world and the US is #35 and heading down?
Socrates' group concluded that happiness is "the exercise of vital talents in a setting affording them scope." This means that an effective President, even though she might be grumpy, would be a happy person. An important function of good government would be to provide opportunities to achieve happiness to individuals whose personal ideas of happiness (e.g., running a monster truck or going to every single Taylor Swift concert) have failed them. This means education, jobs and a good social safety net.
The young people I meet who are actively involved working on issues that are important to them, such as climate change, human rights, and more, seem much happier, grounded and full of more home than the conservative youth I meet. Most of the conservative youth are doing just what their parents are doing: complaining, without any effort to be involved in change or fixing things they are complaining about.
This is another example of the right's all out attack on everyone and everything in America. They will not be "happy" until they have stripped Americans of ALL their rights and freedoms and "pursuit of happiness". It all part of their overall strategy. They will not be "happy" until they have stripped every American of their Freedom, Health, Wealth, Safety and Happiness!! Do NOT buy their Bullshit!
Sort of true of both big parties, i think. One is basically Fascist and the other is much too Mao-ist for my taste.
It comes down to Democratic Freedom or Republican Fascism.
So now they want to tell me what to think and what makes me happy … guess that is a lot easier than actually governing, building or doing otherwise useful, productive jobs.
But I thought everybody KNEW that we liberals were all a bunch of miserable, evil, godless, atheistic, Al Queda-supporting, anti-American, anti-business, anti-capitalist, anti-gun, anti-Israeli, anti-Second Amendment, anti-Tea Party, anything goes, Ayn Rand-hating, Biden-supporting, business-hating, Christian-persecuting, conservative-baiting, Department of Education-supporting, doesn’t support the military or the troops or the war, economy-wrecking, environmentalist whacko, everything is relative, EVILutionist, existentialist, feminazi, free enterprise hating, fundie-hating, gay marriage-supporting, global warming-supporting, hippie love, homersheckshural, Humvee-hating, if it feels good do it, illegal immigrants coddling, insurgency-supporting, Iran-coddling, Jesus-hating, mark of the beast, Muslim terrorist-supporting, National Education Association–supporting, Obamacare-creating, one world government supporting, pro-abortion, pro-Biden, pro-book, pro-breastfeeding in public, pro-European Union, pro-government schools, pro-increasing the minimum wage, pro-literacy, pro-Palestinian, pro-regulation, pro-science, pro-teaching about homersheckshurality as a normal lifestyle, pro-teaching evolution, pro-union, Republican Party-bashing, secular humanist, sodomy “pride”, tax and spend, treehugger, Trilateralist, Trump-hating, U.N. supporting, U.S. sovereignty and exceptionalism-rejecting, wants the terrorists to win the War on Terror, wants to force Americans to accept socialized medicine and condoms and age appropriate sex education in our school and Lord knows what all, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, Communist, DEMONcratic, far-left, far-right, Fascist, Islamofascist, leftist, LIEberal, Leninist, Marxist, Maoist, Nazi, neo-Confederate, Pacifist, reactionary, revolutionist, Socialist, Stalinist, Trotskyite, Angela Merkel-loving, body-piercing, government-expanding, holistic-wacko, Hollywood-loving, Kum Bah Yah-singing, latte-drinking, neurotic, New York Times-reading, perverted, pierced-nose, sushi-eating, tax-hiking, tofu-chomping, vegan, Volvo-driving, weenie, left-wing freak show SOCIALIST COMMIE PINKOS who HATE AMERICA and HATE OUR FREEDOMS and WANT BIG BROTHER TO DICTATE EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES!
TRUE CHRISTIANS UNITE!™
GOD'S LAW IS CLEAR -- THE PENALTY SEVERE!!
YOU DON’T BREAK GOD’S LAWS — GOD’S LAWS BREAK YOU!!!
MAGA yesterday! MAGA today!! MAGA forevermore!!!!
Now, if you're a conservative, doesn't that make you feel like you've got the love of Jesus, love of Jesus down in your heart?
/scathing_snarkasm
very clever! And not at all insane. I suspect that Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would approve.
Whew! That was a lot to read in one breath! I managed . . . barely. Thanks, I think, for the list.
I was a couple of lines in before I realized the list was alphabetized.
You forgot baby eating and satan worshipping.
We better agree with conservatives or get labeled as one of the above
Obviously, a "life of perpetual unhappiness" is the whole point. It is called "the pursuit of happiness", not "the catching of happiness" or "the achievement of happiness." Blame it on the founding fathers.
or maybe the bossa nova.
That's such a good thought! And point!
Exactly!
Everyone has an opinion including NYtimes editorial writers.It's an opinion not the truth.We need to distinguish fact from opinion...that's what adults do.
Male conservatives, in general, have a need to satisfy their personal egos no matter the subject. Example Donald Trump. Dave Peacefull
The point of what I just shared is- yep, the people on the right are so much happier. Yeah right.
Doesn't make intuitive sense. Liberals are supposed to view the world as a work in progress, and achieve happiness through change for the better. Conservatives are supposed to adhere stubbornly to the present or past keeping change at bay. This is not happiness producing. This guy is all wet.
From my experience, right-wing idiots are the most miserable people I’ve ever seen. They’re always yelling at the protesters or screaming at people who may be on a picket-line, etc. — to me these are the most miserable people I know.
Thank you so so much Mr. Hightower! You give me hope and I am turning to you more and more for the dose of sanity and the wise voice I need to hear. I don't have any wise elders left and so I am especially grateful to you.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Douthat is a jerk.
Douthat used to make a modicum of sense. But lately he seems to be getting further and further to the right and down his rabbit hole.
yeah the far Right seems really happy don't they ? As near as I can tell they are only happy when they are pissing on other people. And maybe not even then. I don't understand it myself. Maybe i am old and tired, but I just don't have the energy to meddle in my neighbors' affairs. Ya grow weed in your basement? Your business, not mine. You collect guns? Your business, not mine. You're gay? Ditto. Myself, about all I want to do is pound steel and cultivate my garden. Don't bother me and i won't bother you. You need a hand with gardening or plumbing or electrical or something, I'll help ya. Now i don't claim to be wise man or anything; but it seems to me that if people would just cultivate their gardens, lend a hand when they can, and not try to run other people's lives, we'd all be a damned sight happier.
thank you for your insightful views and comments.Appreciate all that you do!
Yes
I read -- well, try to read -- Ross Douthat regularly because I trust the Times and I'm constantly on the lookout for a reasonable, common-sense, logical expression of conservative viewpoints. (No, seriously. I'd like to hear something even slightly persuasive from those folks.) But with Douthat and all of them, my mind races to the wrongheadedness of the view before I finish the sentence. I'll keep reading, but I really wish the Times would find a better conservative voice. I need to be challenged, not prosyletized.
By all means read Thom Hartman's list of 27 things that red states have higher rates of - things like maternal and infant mortality, spousal murder, homicide and suicide, teen pregnancy, abortion, forcible rape, and more. Also not a surprise the, the 10 states whose people have the lowest credit scores are all southern red states. Also, about the last set of storms to hit the country- 3 of them are blue states, 12 are red states- maybe nature doesn't like their behavior either.
I suppose that Marjorie Taylor Greene is Douthat’s example of a happily contented conservative. Or perhaps the ultra-conservative members of the Supreme Court.
I'm not sure how I fit into that conversation. I seem to get less happy the more successful the current people-who-call-themselves-
conserative get. Being a bit on the Liberal side, I guess what they're saying is true.
Blistering column, Jim! Funniest thing, after reading it I experienced a long period of contentment, an emotion that I as a Liberal had never felt before...
If there's anything that makes this lefty unhappy is people who make it their life mission to take away my rights as a woman, ruin the climate and put the most money in the hands if the fewest....I could go on, but you get my drift. I don't know if I believe the rights claim about about being happier. Im not sure people who are capable of the cruelty of some of these people are so happy. If they are, heaven help us. Taking children from immigrant mothers, passing abortion laws that ignore the life of the mother are not the work of "happy" people.
To suggest that it is being progressive is the cause of our misery is absurd. Their actions are! Best way to make me happy is to win some elections.
I totally agree with you, Jim! Progressives and liberals truly care for each other, and are motivated by hope for every human being’s good!
Yes, these right-wing nut jobs never fail to impress with their constant feeble attempts to make out like progressive people need to be controlled in every way they can possibly think of. Most progressive people that I know lead happy, fulfilled lives full of purpose, service and fun. The only reason we may be unhappy is that we have to constantly fight to maintain our basic rights, and to fight for the right of all people to be and exist as who they know themselves to be.
Hi Jim,
First let me say I've enjoyed your wit and insight for 15 years. About who is happier-yes it's a fact that progressives are filled with the knowledge that poverty and racism must be fought and that it's our collective responsibility to make that happen- so serious stuff. Joy of proto-fascism? The billionaire oligarchs get a vicious satisfaction in sucking the lifeblood of the rest of us. In fact studies find that once people reach a decent middle class income as so many union households in the seventies did, t increased wealth brings little joy except for the spoiled brat kind. And we know Trump is the most spoiled brat of them all.
The right wing politicians claim that the national dept is a major cause of inflation. But these same politicians support business executives who load companies with dept. This practice is what causes inflation and major job loses.
Indeed, the left tends to be less "content" than conservatives because they refuse to accept platitudes, either from the press or from politicians. And poor Douthat should really have become a priest instead of a journalist--his major thrust in virtually every column is where the Catholic church stands on issues.
What?! You're not convinced? You un-American you!
Just look at any '50s TV family, so happy in their comfortable conformity. Never see them expressing anything harsh. Certainly no agitation, no people of...well, you know. Those kind.
Thanks,Murray
Thanks,Mary.
In a sense, Douthat is right. My wife and I are liberal as hell. Also, because of her intelligence and hard work (with a company that manufactures life-saving devices) we are rather well-off, with sufficient resources for ourselves, our extended family and friends, and for donations to scholarships, food shelves and low-cost housing. The agony results from our conclusion that we can never have enough to meet the needs of the many with barely enough to survive. I'm not sure that Elon Musk could meet those needs. We still vote Democrat for lack of a better choice. If there was a viable Socialist Party in the U.S., that is how we would swing.
Restore the 'browser' connection or I will not renew subscription.
I'm tired of my Progressive friends asking for everything to be free.
All "free" services in other countries are paid by VAT on all purchases. Wake up!
And single payer medical care ? Look at the VA.
Hey, the VA gets mostly positive ratings from those it serves. Its services also get high ratings. There are reporters, and others, who are paid to 'dig up dirt' on every misstep the VA or one of its providers makes and to publicize those missteps. Congress has oversight of the VA and members who dislike it use their privilege to call for information and hearings to address complaints, even on very short notice, taking VA staff away from their regular duties to respond to those complaints. I know this because I worked at a VA health care system.
I'm not saying and I won't say that the VA is perfect and I, too, along with others, had questions about decisions the 'higher ups' made. But there are facts that show that the VA serves people who are, on average, older, poorer and sicker with health conditions that members of many other health care systems. So long as the leaders of this country pursue wars, spend enormous amounts of money on the military and create more veterans, these issues will continue.
I am good friends with a lady that works for the VA and she says that a lot of this crap you hear on right-wing news sources is a bunch of sensationalist bullshit & that the VA is doing just fine.
It would be doing even better if these right-wing idiots would keep their damn dirty fingers out of it and try telling us the truth for once.
"Free" doesn't mean "poofed" into existence by some supernatural force. It means without expenditure at the point of use with the costs being spread out over the population as a whole rather than being piled on the individuals using the service involved.
Which is why it is usually applied to things that should be human rights (e.g., health care) or things that are so necessary to the economy and society that they amount to a universal benefit (e.g., education, infrastructure).
So I really really REALLY doubt your "progressive friends" have ever seriously proposed that "everything" should be "free."
I must be unhappy I don't bitch whine and complain like a conservative who is always worried about what others are doing
I can no longer bear reading Douthat’s columns (and I am a long time subscriber to the NYT). He is a paragon of sanctimony.
(Jim: before I started in on your column, I thought that you were going to call out Gov. DeSantis’ crackdown on laboratory created meat substitutes. Indeed, whether or not I am allowed to ingest faux meat has no bearing on my happiness index. )
Many of our Universities did not learn the lessons how to deal effectively with campus protests/sit-ins/encampments from my student days in the 1960-70's. Why NOT? repeating the same missteps is baffling.
No one should say all youth or any other group has the exact same views on all important issues, but suppression leads to more people's involvement. Thus those institutions not learning lessons is good!
Does anyone but his committed fan base bother to read what Douthat writes?