Happiness is a Lie

Peace isn't.

Photo by Taylor Heery on Unsplash

Are you happy? What does that feel like? Are you a simulacrum of one of those joyful characters I see endlessly on cereal packets, billboards and TV ads - and TV ‘reality’ shows - endless smiling and jumping with excitement about some new product or experience?

I’m not that person. And I suspect you are not that person either. Admittedly I am someone with a history of depression, but when I’m not depressed - and I haven’t been for at least a decade - I am perfectly normal, thank you very much. And normal very much does not feel like those garish advertisements for living.

There are quite a lot of people who claim to experience ‘very high levels’ of happiness in this country - around 30 per cent, see https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/qualityoflifeintheuk/february2023 I suspect these are the people imagined in the adverts and marketing campaigns. The trouble is I don’t think they exist. In reality, it is impossible to know if people are happy or not. This would be so even if we could agree on a consensual definition of happiness. Yet the media onslaught leads to the perception that you if are not happy you should be ashamed. After all, happiness implies success, misery implies failure. But the human capacity for self-deception is limitless.