What follows was recently published in The Wanderer, a traditional Catholic newspaper that comes out (in print!) every week–the oldest continuously published Catholic journal in the United States, in fact, to which I contribute a column once a month. Readers will, I hope, forgive me if they recognize this as a severely abridged, slightly amended, (and possibly even improved) version of an essay posted on Priceton some time ago.
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In the last few decades, it seems, everyone has discovered a recipe for happiness, from Hugh Hefner to Madonna to Deepak Chopra, to the cannabis retailers one now sees on every street corner; from the self-righteous torchers of cities to the anatomical male rapists who self-identify as females in order to get sent to women’s prisons. Oh the joys of the examined life! But it doesn’t take much thought to recognize that it is only ideological snake oil that they are trying to sell. Given the popularity of these and other ethical and religious quacks and charlatans, it is almost impossible to persuade people, especially today’s enrollees in Self-Esteem University, that the ancients, the deadest of the dead white males, had something rather valuable to say on the question of how to live rewarding and meaningful lives. Continue reading “Happiness Among the Ruins (II)”