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'The trouble with normal is it always gets worse,' sang the Canadian guitarist Bruce Cockburn back in 1983. Seems he was on to something. Normal doesn't seem to be working any longer. The new Holy Grail is happiness. At every turn are 'how-to' happiness books, articles, TV and radio programmes, videos and websites. There are happiness institutes, camps, clubs, classes, cruises, workshops, and retreats. Universities are adding courses in Happiness Studies. Fast-growing professions include happiness counselling, happiness coaching, 'life-lift' coaching, 'joyology' and happiness science. Personal happiness is big business and everyone is selling it. Being positive is mandatory, even with the planet in meltdown. Cynics and pessimists are running for cover while the cheerleaders are policing the game with an iron fist. Only the bravest are not being bullied into cheering up or at least shutting up.
But a society of 'happichondriacs' isn't necessarily a healthy sign. No-one is less able to sustain happiness than someone obsessed with feeling only happiness. A happy and meaningful existence depends on the ability to feel emotions other than happiness, as well as ones that compete with happiness.
'Happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim,' said Einstein. 'I am even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig. The ideals that have lighted my way are Kindness, Beauty and Truth.'
If we've become pigs at the happiness trough, it's understandable. As higher systems of meaning have withered, life purpose has dwindled to feeling good. Innocence, the lifeblood of happiness, is obsolete. We live on cultural soil perfectly suited for depression.
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Let's All Light Up!