Most Interesting Books of 2006
Artificial Happiness
The Dark Side of the New Happy Class
by Ronald W. Dworkin
Published by Carrol & Graf
The defining slogan of the late 1960s became "Do your own thing," just as Consumerism become our new religion, anxieties tentupled, the quiet desperation turned boisterous, and all classes of Americans suddenly demanded what Thomas Jefferson declared we had the right to pursue: happiness. But not, unfortunately, the happiness derived from creative work, or contact with the natural world, or reverence for living beings, or transcending the narcissistic self, or caring for other persons. This nouveau happiness had to be quick and effortless. It came to America, via the medical profession, in three guises: the cult of exercise, alternative medicine, and psychotropic drugs: drugs that change your moods, including anti-depressants, antianxiety drugs, narcotics, and stimulants. Dworkin calls this approach 'Artificial Happiness'. His book traces the history of these three movements, and deftly exposes the dangerous ignorance that underlies this Lotus-land of artificial bliss. (The author is not opposed to alternative medicine for physical ailments; he objects to using it to cure unhappiness.) What's wrong with using drugs to be happy? Dworkin writes: "Artificial Happiness arrests the individual's impulses to change life when life needs changing."
— Michael Pastore
