Individual & collective happiness etc.

What fun in Happiness last time, listening to Kyle's Happy Playlist and pondering our own. How sobering, though, to see Robin Williams cavorting on the Bobby McFerrin's "Don't worry, be happy" video in full knowledge of his tragic self-negating destiny. But perhaps it's not accurate to say he took his own life, rather that life's vicissitudes and invasive mental disease took it from him. Before then he made a lot of people happy and dispatched a lot of gratuitous worry. So sad he couldn't do the same, ultimately, for himself. But mental illness is like a hurricane, there's only so much you can do to prepare for it. Luck is also required.

What would we add to the list? Mine had to include The Beatles' In My Life, leading to Hey Jude, to When I'm 64... And thinking of Tom Petty, a Resilience soundtrack would be a great sequel. That's the quality of character these times seem most to require and will most reward. 

Today in Happiness we begin with a surprising statement from Spinoza: "When each man most seeks his own advantage for himself, then men are most useful to one another." That's discordant with the notes we sounded last time against "visceral egoists" and for altruists. But pantheists don't really believe in individuals and their egos, certainly not in an Ayn Randian sense. He did believe that happiness comes from identification with the most inclusive whole we can conceive. So, I wonder what Lenoir intends with that decontextualized epigraph.

Would we rather be happy than "sublime or saved"? Not sure we have to face that choice. "Earthly happiness" checks both of those boxes, for me (and Voltaire). Note to class: register for PHIL 3310, "Atheism & Philosophy" next semester if you want to pursue that question. It's distinctly related to the modern bifurcation Lenoir deplores, the separation of individual well-being from the common good.

Michel Houellebecq writes all about "narcissistic individualism: his characters are apathetic, egoistic, frustrated, cynical...joyless hedonis[ts]" who wouldn't know the meaning of individual good if it bit them. He seems to think they are us.

But who are we really? Lenoir's friend Bruckner thinks "we are probably the first societies in history to make people unhappy about not being happy... the obsession with happiness often thwarts happiness." How depressing. Irony is supposed to make you smile, at least, isn't it?

And oh by the way, depression is a symptom of our unhappy obsession and a reflection of our question for self-realization without adequate social support. Making matters worse, nature has wired us to look for trouble. "We become more aware of negative events... dissatisfaction makes us strive constantly for more and better things." Can we learn to take satisfaction in our very dissatisfaction, to see it as emblematic (again) of our capacity for resilience? Don't back down, get back up, be happy. Is that a formula we can work with?

Another question today points back to J.S. Mill's "durable joy" and delight in feeling, after much too much thinking. "Would you become blase, were all your desires satisfied?" Mill perplexed himself with the realization that fulfilling all his intellectual and social/political goals would leave him no happier than before. Then he broadened his portfolio of desires to include Wordsworth. We can learn from that too, not necessarily from Wordsworth (though also not necessarily not). Our poetry may be music, and "the music can commence again..." Silly music (and poetry) is sometimes the best balm. Take it away Eric...

Squeeze this one into the Happy/Resilient playlist too. "It's alright," as Tom sings, "I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive... at the end of the line."
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It’s the birthday of American astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) (books by this author), who once said, “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” Tyson is the host of the popular shows Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and Star Talk. He grew up in the Bronx and remembers visiting the Hayden Planetarium’s Sky Theatre on a school field trip, which inspired his interest in astronomy and science. He said, “So strong was that imprint [of the night sky] that I’m certain that I had no choice in the matter, that in fact, the universe called me.” He’s now the director of the Planetarium. Tyson’s television shows, podcasts, and books have inspired millions of people to see the universe with new eyes.
He’s so popular that he has appeared as himself in television shows and movies like The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons, and Zoolander 2. He’s also been featured as himself in comic books like Action Comics #14, in which he discusses Superman’s home planet of Krypton.
On the importance of explaining complex science to the layman, Tyson once said: “Humans want to think that they’re the center of the world. Children think this way. Then you come into adulthood and it’s a little disappointing to learn that’s not the case. We still think of events happening locally, in our lifetimes, as significant in a way that is out of proportion with reality. This can be depressing to some people, if you come into it with a high ego. If you go into it with no ego at all, you realize that you can be special not for being different, but for being a participant in life on Earth. That participation, if you’re open to it, can be quite illuminating, even sort of spiritually uplifting. You’re a part of all of life on Earth. Earth is part of all the planets that exist in the galaxy. The galaxy is part of an entire system of the universe.”
Tyson’s books include Death by Black Hole (2007) and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (2017).

It’s the birthday of scientist Robert Hutchings Goddard, born in Worcester, Massachusetts (1882), who is known as the “Father of the Space Age.” From childhood, Goddard had been fascinated by space travel, finding inspiration in part from H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds. He began studying physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and as a student he decided that the most effective propellant would be a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. In 1926, he discovered an even more effective liquid fuel combination: gasoline and liquid oxygen. He launched the world’s first liquid-propelled rocket, a small device that went up 41 feet and landed 184 feet away. In 1930, Goddard moved his operations to Roswell, New Mexico, establishing the world’s first professional rocket proving ground. WA

Now to Happiness: A History...