In Pursuit of Happiness (Better Living From Plato to Prozac) Mark Kingwell If the history of western civilizations thoughts on happiness is of interest then this is the book to read. I found a lot of interesting background and a few new ideas. Here are some quotes and comments: we cannot judge happiness except on the scale of an entire life. This is a useful concept to differentiate between pleasure and other short term feelings that are sometimes called happiness. At one point the book tried to define happiness by what it isn't. I found this "ZEN" like approach complimented the traditional definitions and provided useful direction. Myth 1 - Happiness is easy. Myth 2 - You can buy happiness. Myth 3 - Happiness is simplicity itself. Myth 4 - Happiness is immoral. Myth 5 - Happiness is madness. Myth 6 - Happiness is elsewhere. Myth 7 - Happiness is your birthright. Myth 8 - Happiness is fixed. Our culture seems to accept these myths at times without noticing the contradictions and flaws. We think happiness is related to achieving some goal (elsewhere) or that having more money is the answer. Of course, they may play a role but they are not happiness. Much of the book talks about our expectations and how that causes problems. For example, if our culture defines a unrealistic state of happiness and then encourages everyone to chase it.. what happens? We have a lot of unhappy people thinking happiness is somewhere else. That is exactly what we have today. In the end the author doesn't have any grand conclusions and leaves each of us to find our own answers. I was a little disappointed by this and felt we do know a lot about happiness. Oh well, each book has a few ideas and we can harvest those and enjoy them. If we look at ecology we find it fits here nicely. The diversity and chaos is indicated by myth 8 (happiness is fixed). The idea of conservation and limits sneaks in with myth 2 (you can buy happiness). The idea that happiness is elsewhere (myth 6) says we can run away from our problems and not connect to the land. In other words, we build happiness under our feet. The idea that happiness is easy, wicked, or simple all push us towards irresponsible actions. The responsible ecological lifestyle is just an awareness of how the world works and the limits we all face. It isn't hardship and is compatible with our quest for happiness. This is one viewpoint anyway. One of the chapters talked about solitude and how most of us are powerless in the face of large volumes of information. This condition has appeared in the last 100 years and requires that we guard our thoughts and attitudes about happiness. Unfortunately, the author did not provide and answers, he just described the problem. This same idea pops up in many of todays books and i'm now reading one with the title "Rich Media, Poor Democracy). A review is coming. Feel and be aware of this moment. jeff
