Are you happy? If so, why?

Leftism undermines this factor of happiness by its inherent secularism and embrace of atheism. As the Real Clear Science article notes, progressives tend to be far less religious than conservatives. What a dark and depressing worldview: we have just 70 odd years to live, many of them in fragility and suffering, in an ultimately meaningless and random universe where morality is entirely subjective. For the atheist, there is no ultimate justice, and wicked people can escape judgement. In the atheist worldview, the Josef Mengeles of the world got away with their crimes, never facing ultimate justice.

It is harder for people with such a worldview to be generally happy.

I am happier being married than being alone. I feel loved and cared for. I have a person to go through life with. I feel fulfilled and happy because of my wife. 

It’s possible to be happy without marriage, of course. But marriage sure helps. Even with all its troubles, tends to make people happier. It has made me happier.

Leftism has undermined marriage by promotion and normalization of sexual deviancy. Hookup culture  and the sexual revolution claimed to empower women, but in reality has harmed women. Even some secular feminists are speaking out:

“I used to believe the liberal narrative on the sexual revolution. As a younger woman, I held the same opinions as most other millennial urban graduates in the West. I conformed to the beliefs of my class. 

Of course freedom is the goal, I thought. What women need is the freedom to behave as men have always behaved, enjoying all the pleasures of casual sex, porn, BDSM, and indeed any other sexual delight that the human mind can dream up. As long as everyone is consenting, what’s the problem? 

I no longer believe any of this. 

I’m not a religious conservative. I’m a feminist, and I’ve spent my entire professional life working on the issue of male violence against women—first in a rape crisis center, and later as a journalist and a media relations director for a legal campaign against sexual violence.

It’s precisely because I’m a feminist that I’ve changed my mind on sexual liberalism. It’s an ideology premised on the false belief that the physical and psychological differences between men and women are trivial, and that any restrictions placed on sexual behavior must therefore have been motivated by malice, stupidity or ignorance.”

– Loise Perry, I’m 30 and the Sexual Revolution Shackled My Generation

Hookup culture has produced people with many sexual partners but little commitment. Why would men commit when they can have the all the benefits without it? It appeals to men’s basest sexual instincts. But it does not product happy men or women.

Another feminist writes,

One of the greatest joys in my life is having kids, raising them, watching them grow up, spending time with them. Kids are awesome! I am definitely happier having kids.

When I was 19 years old, I married my wife and adopted my son. I remember calling my dad freaking out a bit, “I have no time to myself anymore!”

It’s true: when you have kids, you cross this big adulting chasm from “everything I do revolves around me and my interests” to “OK, I have to take care of another human being before everything else”.

This is a huge maturity and growing-up stage in life. And it has produced a great deal of long-term joy for me and billions of others.

Yet many people refuse to take this growing-up step for dubious reasons.

Leftism has in some circles claimed that having children is actually evil because it contributes to climate change.

But the reality is, having kids is an important part of the human experience. It’s a commandment from God. It forces you to grow up. It forces you to take care of another human being; prior to this, your whole life is concerned with taking care of yourself. These growing pains are a part of growing up; missing this opportunity stunts special growth and maturity. 

It seems to me drugs trade longer-term joy for short term pleasure. Not unlike porn, really. For many people, drugs are a coping mechanism that makes them forget about problems in their life. For others, they’re just temporary pleasure but produce no long-term joy or fulfillment, and may even subtract from it.

Some folks tell me this is only true of harder drugs, but I suspect cigarettes, marijuana, and alcohol also fall into this category, too. 

A recent post by financial blogger J.D. Roth documented his journey from goody-two-shoes rule-follower to daily marijuana user to addiction, damaged relationships, coping, and finally, deliverance from the drug:

In late 2016, when I first began experimenting with pot, I maybe used it once a week. Instead of drinking on a Friday night, I’d get stoned.

The frequency with which I used pot increased over time.  […]

My pot use crept from once or twice a week to almost every single night. It took a couple of years to get there, but get there it did.

By the time the pandemic hit, I was a daily marijuana user. If you’ve been reading me for a while, you know that this was also around the time that my mental health problems peaked. (Shocking!) […] And as 2020 arrived, the depression became coupled with anxiety. Oh, how much anxiety I had! It was dreadful. It prevented me from accomplishing even basic tasks.

But the worst thing was that I’d become stupid. I’ve always thought of myself as a smart guy, a guy who likes to read and think Deep Thoughts and have complex discussions with friends. But I was becoming dumber and dumberer, and I could sense it. I truly began to panic once I realized that I was losing the ability to write a coherent article or essay.

For me, writing is life. Writing is how I process my thoughts and feelings and the world around me. If I can’t write, I’m crippled. The pot was leaving me wordless and broken.

But I didn’t know that the pot was taking away my ability to write. I didn’t know that the pot was making it tough for me to read. I didn’t know that the pot was exacerbating my depression and causing my anxiety and turning me into a bitter old man. I couldn’t see the source of my problems. All I knew was that these things were happening, and I hated it. To cope, I got stoned. Again. And getting stoned just made me more anxious and stupid. 

-J.D. Roth, Marijuana and Me

The left has pushed for more and more legalization and easy access to drugs, despite it hurting many people’s long-term happiness. You won’t find many fulfilled, happy drug addicts and alcohol abusers. 😊 Even if that drug is tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, or other lighter drugs.

For generally happiness, I recommend avoiding all of these. I’ve avoided all but alcohol, and the few times in my life I’ve abused alcohol, I’ve regretted the foolishness it brought on.

The more I avoid these, the happier I am.

I am happier because of my conviction that I am in charge of my own destiny. If I want to make money, I work harder and learn more. I’m able to better myself through my own efforts. 

But folks on the left are unhappier here because they’re fighting a battle that cannot be won: equality of outcome, or what the left calls equity. 

It’s a losing battle because there will never be equality of outcomes; people are not the same. The man who refuses to get a job will never have the same outcome as a hardworking man. (Going back to my faith, “If a man refuses to work, neither should he eat.”) Each person must decide to work hard to succeed; government agencies and corporations artificially propping up one group over another will not work in the long run and ultimately undermines personal agency.

Moreover, attempts at forcibly installing equity, such as colleges favoring African Americans over Asian Americans, creates a kind of reverse racism where not all people are equal and they are judged by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character or their merit.

Feeling empowered to succeed on through your own personal agency and self-determination, without assistance from government or corporation, contributes to personal happiness. The left disagrees, and is unhappier for it.

Is the world filled with systemic racism? Are your neighbors and family a bunch of redneck hick racists? And are they unconcerned with the impending doom of climate change? Are they a bunch of breeders who are hastening the destruction of the planet by their recklessly large families?

If the world all around you is horrible and depressing, you’re probably not going to be very happy.

This increases my happiness.

I can’t speak for all conservatives, but I am happy primarily because of my faith, my marriage, my kids. It also helps that I’ve avoided drugs, I believe in personal agency, and I recognize beauty, goodness, and progress in the world.

You probably don’t need all these things to be happy. But it helps.

Are you happy? If so, why?