Happiness? What Happiness? No, No--Contentment. I See It Coming.

The book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which I've just finished, makes fascinating points about how we, as a species, have evolved. Such as:

• Gossip has been essential to the building of a functional society almost from the start, from the point at which humans could communicate with each other, because it was a way of getting news from each other, about each other. You might say that 'fake news,' which is part of what gossip is, is a staple of our existence;
• As much as many of us are interested in social justice, hierarchies are in our midst and always will be, as much because we prefer to rank each other against each other;
• To that end, empires are also a staple of humankind, because some people have always believed that they are superior to another (usually white toward non-white);
• The "free market" never has been free, and people who think of it as potentially free find ways to control markets so that they are free for them but never mind anybody else.

There are plenty of other grains of wisdom contained within; plenty of ways in which the author, Yuval Noah Harari, has distilled the essence of the development of humankind. There's one, though, that caught my eye, one for which the application in these strangely bereft times is particularly apropos.

To wit: We can't stand prosperity. It hasn't made us happy, though by all rights, it should have. It's what we've striven for all this time. And we're living in the land which, with its overflowing (for the most part) resources, we've had the best chance of gaining life, liberty, and the happiness that we've pursued.

Except we don't have it. All that ability to get and create 'stuff' didn't do what it was supposed to do. Otherwise, we'd be the happiest people on earth. Okay, take away the craziness of the virus for a minute: That was still true. 45 wouldn't be president if enough of us had felt happy about living and being here.

"We tend to believe," Harari writes, "that if we could just change our workplace, get married, finish writing that novel, buy a new car or repay the mortgage, we would be on top of the world. Yet when we get what we desire we don't seem to be any happier. Buying cars and writing novels do not change our biochemistry. They can startle it for a fleeting moment, but it is soon back to its set point."

Anger created 45. Anger sustains him. But it's still anger. He has to create anger, sustain it, and cause enough of it to get re-elected. Here's the thing: I don't think he can do it long enough now with enough people. Anger begets scapegoats, and he's running out of them, especially in terms of this epidemic. The lag time between his recognition of the danger and the running amok of this epidemic out of control gets more obvious with time, not less. He looks worse with time, not better. People are burning out on him. 

How many people are gathering at the state capitols now, and protesting? I don't see the steps jammed anywhere, social distancing notwithstanding. Oh, some will always be there. But it feels strained now.

People would rather be content with where they are and what they're doing, than happy. Happiness is a state of euphoria, more of an idealistic notion, and thus can't last even if we strove for it endlessly. I think the virus will cause more contentment instead. People will be thankful to have moved through this awful time and have what they have. There will be less clawing and scratching, at least for a while. There will be a collective sigh, a collective taking stock. It will last beyond the next work cycle.

45's in a hurry to get us beyond this and into prosperity again. He can't see that that will take far longer than he wants, and saying so cannot make it so. Remember, all the legislative wrangling is taking place just to get people to the next week. It can't renew prosperity by itself. That will take confidence. That will take time.

Because we're still losing lots of people to this disease. And 45 has never mentioned that in terms of feeling sorry for their families; not once. People are starting to notice. That must be dealt with in order to move on; it can't be overlooked or easily dismissed.

Contentment, real contentment, takes time. It usually emerges out of disaster or tragedy, when those affected must sit back and reflect. They get up from their seats and do something. It will happen soon enough. November is coming. Having been fooled by a phony promise of happiness with one president, they will be content with another one.

Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark