Some Random Notes
I'm told that money can't buy happiness. Well, maybe not, but poverty isn't much fun either. Also, I've noticed that my happiness has increased with my income.
I am suspicious of anyone who tells me that money can't buy happiness, that it isn't everything, etc. Of course it isn't everything, and of course there are poor people who are happy. But I'm still suspicious of people who tell me this--I think they want my money. Or at least they don't want me to have it.
I'm fascinated by people who think having money is somehow illegitimate or that any gain is somehow wrong. We've only just begun to parse the psychology of mass envy.
Why is this important? Well, on the international stage, the United States is the current Empire just as Britain was in 1875. And as such, we attract all kinds of opposition, 98% of which is based on opinions and reasoning that would normally be the subject of clinical attention. The World, in other words, goes nuts when it comes to the subject of America. (E.g., blaming us for the tsunami last December.) Resentment of power is an ancient and abiding emotion and is always legitimized beyond the point at which other strong emotions would be regarded as illness.
Yes, one is easily tempted to regard most of humanity as utterly crazy--dysfunctional, violent, consumed by resentment and hatred, subject to the most outlandish conspiracy theories, etc.
And the solution? I'm sorry, but it's a boring one. It consists of having everyone shutting up, sitting down, and getting to work. Also, it consists of seeing the world soberly, without the frisson of imagining dark powers lurking here and there.
I am suspicious of anyone who tells me that money can't buy happiness, that it isn't everything, etc. Of course it isn't everything, and of course there are poor people who are happy. But I'm still suspicious of people who tell me this--I think they want my money. Or at least they don't want me to have it.
I'm fascinated by people who think having money is somehow illegitimate or that any gain is somehow wrong. We've only just begun to parse the psychology of mass envy.
Why is this important? Well, on the international stage, the United States is the current Empire just as Britain was in 1875. And as such, we attract all kinds of opposition, 98% of which is based on opinions and reasoning that would normally be the subject of clinical attention. The World, in other words, goes nuts when it comes to the subject of America. (E.g., blaming us for the tsunami last December.) Resentment of power is an ancient and abiding emotion and is always legitimized beyond the point at which other strong emotions would be regarded as illness.
Yes, one is easily tempted to regard most of humanity as utterly crazy--dysfunctional, violent, consumed by resentment and hatred, subject to the most outlandish conspiracy theories, etc.
And the solution? I'm sorry, but it's a boring one. It consists of having everyone shutting up, sitting down, and getting to work. Also, it consists of seeing the world soberly, without the frisson of imagining dark powers lurking here and there.
posted by Spleen Board | 9:22 AM
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