Posted on 02/22/2006 9:58:24 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
WASHINGTON -- To bemused conservatives, it looks like yet another example of analytic overkill by the intelligentsia -- a jobs program for the (mostly liberal) academic boys (and girls) in the social sciences, whose quantitative tools have been brought to bear to prove the obvious.
A survey by the Pew Research Center shows that conservatives are happier than liberals -- in all income groups. While 34 percent of all Americans call themselves ``very happy,'' only 28 percent of liberal Democrats (and 31 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats) do, compared to 47 percent of conservative Republicans. This finding is niftily self-reinforcing: It depresses liberals.
Election results do not explain this happiness gap. Republicans have been happier than Democrats every year since the survey began in 1972. Married people and religious people are especially disposed to happiness, and both cohorts vote more conservatively than does the nation as a whole.
People in the Sun Belt -- almost entirely red states -- have sunnier dispositions than Northerners, which could have as much to do with sunshine as with conservatism. Unless sunshine makes people happy, which makes them conservative.
Such puzzles show why social science is not for amateurs. Still, one cannot -- yet -- be prosecuted for committing theory without a license, so consider a few explanations of the happiness gap.
Begin with a paradox: Conservatives are happier than liberals because they are more pessimistic. Conservatives think the book of Job got it right (``Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward''), as did Adam Smith (``There is a great deal of ruin in a nation''). Conservatives understand that society in its complexity resembles a giant Calder mobile -- touch it here and things jiggle there, and there, and way over there. Hence conservatives acknowledge the Law of Unintended Consequences, which is: The unintended consequences of bold government undertakings are apt to be larger than, and contrary to, the intended ones.
Conservatives' pessimism is conducive to their happiness in three ways. First, they are rarely surprised -- they are right more often than not about the course of events. Second, when they are wrong they are happy to be so. Third, because pessimistic conservatives put not their faith in princes -- government -- they accept that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. They believe that happiness is an activity -- it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.
The right to pursue happiness is the essential right that government exists to protect. Liberals, taking their bearings, whether they know it or not, from President Franklin Roosevelt's 1936 State of the Union address, think the attainment of happiness itself, understood in terms of security and material well-being, is an entitlement that government has created and can deliver.
On Jan. 3, 1936, FDR announced that in 34 months his administration had established a ``new relationship between government and people.'' Amity Shlaes, a keen student of FDR's departure from prior political premises, says, ``The New Deal had a purpose beyond curing the Depression. It was to make people look to Washington for help at all times.'' Henceforth, the federal government would be permanently committed to serving a large number of constituencies: ``Occasional gifts to farmers or tariffs for business weren't enough.'' So, liberals: Smile -- you've won.
Nevertheless, normal conservatives -- never mind the gladiators of talk radio; they are professionally angry -- are less angry than liberals. Liberals have made this the era of surly automobile bumpers, millions of them, still defiantly adorned with Kerry-Edwards and even Gore-Lieberman bumper stickers, faded and frayed like flags preserved as relics of failed crusades. To preserve these mementos of dashed dreams, many liberals may be forgoing the pleasures of buying new cars -- another delight sacrificed on the altar of liberalism.
But, then, conscientious liberals cannot enjoy automobiles because there is global warming to worry about, and the perils of corporate-driven consumerism which is the handmaiden of bourgeoisie materialism. And high-powered cars (how many liberals drive Corvettes?) are metaphors (for America's reckless foreign policy, for machismo rampant, etc.). And then there is -- was -- all that rustic beauty paved over for highways. (And for those giant parking lots at exurban mega-churches. The less said about them, the better). And automobiles discourage the egalitarian enjoyment of mass transit. And automobiles, by facilitating suburban sprawl, deny sprawl's victims -- that word must make an appearance in liberal laments; and lament is what liberals do -- the uplifting communitarian experience of high-density living. And automobiles ...
You see? Liberalism is a complicated and exacting, not to say grim and scolding, creed. And not one conducive to happiness.
I've seen George. How could anybody tell?
They have lots to be happy about - celebrating their "rights" by having abortions, being envious of hard working "rich" people, killing off handicapped people, protest after protest, etc. It just depends on where your values are...
Why liberalism is doomed to fail. The majority of people want to be happy.
Democracy works!
D'Souza said it best in one of his books...liberals place faith in equality of outcomes, while conservatives place faith in equality of rights; liberals place faith in economic redistribution, while conservatives place faith in economic freedom. With such idealistic, impractical hopes, it is clear why liberals would never be happy.
Liberalism in a nut shell.
Liberals believe that the path to happiness should be built by others; conservatives recognize that it can't be.
Conservatives are happy with themselves, while liberals are continually peeking into the next man's bank account and envying him his acquisitions.
Then why do they work so hard to be gay?
read later
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Good point.
But many people don't know how to be happy. They think there's some special way or some special something they must have. They don't know what Abe Lincoln knew when he said --
As long as there are people who look outside themselves for happiness, liberalism will have an audience. Convinced that special privileges and special hand-outs will bring them happiness, many accept the liberal lie that they are victims deserving of "reparations." But then they are stuck with the victim role, a role that excludes the happiness they wanted in the first place. So they are understandably angry and liberalism re-directs that anger toward conservatives with the further lie that these people are still unhappy because they don't have enough hand-outs, set-asides, special privileges, respect, self-esteem, etc. Since it's never enough, liberalism continues to thrive.
ping for later
As long as their wealth is excluded. They like compassion by proxy using other peoples money.
I stopped at my doctors office today without having an appointment.
I waited for an hour to get in to see him. While waiting I was exposed to National Public Radio piped into his waiting room.
When he ask "how are you?" , I told him that I was fine when I walked into his waiting room, but after one hour of NPR torture "I was deeply depressed".
He smiled and said he would make a note on my chart to have Rush on the waiting room radio for my next visit.
I told him that even the most boring classical music would be better than the NPR b. c.
Just doing my bit to change the world for the better.
I get my gasoline from the same gas station almost all the time. One of the reasons for it is because they have a large tv sitting up on a shelf and it's always on Fox channel.
It has to bug the hell out of their lib customers though.
My Dentist is a political conservative too. It's always nice to be in friendly territory.
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