Back to Most Recent Posts
October 28, 2008
If You Want To Be Happy For The Rest of Your Life... Be a Republican
But perhaps I should be gratified to have hard evidence of the truth of my suspicion that a basic dispositional division between people is the source of our two parties: fundamentally optimistic people, believing in the power of the individual human will and spirit to triumph at last over all obstacles, become Republicans; fundamentally pessimistic people (some might also call them realists), who recognize how powerless the individual can be against institutions and larger social forces, become Democrats.
My theories, however, are for another day. The PEW report stresses that being Republican does not actually cause happiness, but it does find that setting aside all other extenuating factors that tend to increase happiness (money, being married, being healthy), a Republican is more likely than a Democrat to be very happy. And the report finds that more Republicans have more of the things that make people happy (And I quote):
- They have more money.
- They have more friends.
- They are more religious.
- They are healthier.
- They are more likely to be married.
- They like their communities more.
- They like their jobs more.
- The are more satisfied with their family life.
- They like the weather better.
- They have fewer financial worries.
- They are more likely to see themselves doing better in life than their parents did.
- They're more like to feel that individuals - rather than outside forces - control their own success or failure.
- They have more of what they most value in life. (No, it's not money.)
So, while the Democrats may win the White House in a few weeks time, they are and will be still, it seems, losers in the art of getting happy.
- Emily Colette Wilkinson @ 9:01 PM ~ comments: 6 ~ Links to this post
Visit The Millions Book Review Index
Anonymous @ October 29, 2008 9:26 AM @ October 29, 2008 3:59 PM
--George Bernard Shaw
@ October 30, 2008 6:07 PMSponsor:
