Happiness Has No Manners
There are several historical theories of happiness, and most of them are quietly arguing with each other. Line them up — the poem this essay accompanies has a roll call of the famous dead — and they sort themselves into a few stubborn camps, each with a flaw it would rather you didn't notice. First, the subtractors. Epicurus , the Stoics, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Diogenes in his barrel: happiness by wanting less. Cut your desires, unclench your grip, stop shoving the river, and the ache goes quiet. It is wise, and it is also a little suspicious, because taken far enough the cure for suffering becomes a cure for living. Shrink your wants enough and you have shrunk your life to fit inside a walled garden. Schopenhauer is at least honest about where this ends: he says happiness is merely the toothache stopping. Comfort, in that picture, is the summit of the possible — you quiet the ache by quitting the life. Then the strivers. Aristotle says happiness is the soul performing its proper f...
