ZYGMUNT BAUMAN ON HAPPINESS AND THE ART OF LIFE

Zygmunt Bauman, The Art of Life (New York: Polity Press, 2008) (From the backcover: "In our individualized society we are all artists of life--whether we know it or not, will it or not and like it or not, by decree of society if not by our own choice. In this society we are all expected, rightly or wrongly, to give our lives purpose and form by using our own skills and resources, even it we lack the tools and materials with which artists' studios need to be equipped for artists' work to be conceived and executed. And we are praised or censured for the result--for what we have managed to failed to accomplish and for what we have achieved or lost." "In or liquid modern society we are also taught to believe that the purpose of the art of life should be and can be happiness--though it is not clear what happiness is, the images of happy state keep changing and the state of happiness repines most of the time something yet-to-be-reached." From the "Introduction": "[A]s long ago as 18 march 1968, in the heat of the presidential campaign, Robert Kennedy launched a scathing attack on the lie on which the GNP-bound measure of happiness rests: 'Our GNP takes into account in its calculations the air pollution tobacco advertising and ambulances riding to collect the wounded form our motorways. It registers the costs of the security systems which we install to protect our homes and the prisons in which we lock up those who manage to break into them. It entails the destruction of our sequoia forests and their replacement through sprawling and chaotic urbanization. It includes the production of napalm, nuclear arms and armed vehicles, used by police to stifle urban unrest. It records . . . television programs that glorify violence in order to sell toys to children. On the other hand, GNP does not note the health of our children, quality of our education or gaiety of our games. It does not measure the beauty of our poetry and the strength of our marriages. It does not care  to evaluate the quality of our political debates and integrity of our representatives. It leaves out of consideration our courage, wisdom and culture. It says nothing about our compassion and dedication to our country. In a word, the GNP measures everything, except what makes life worth the pain of living it.' Robert Kennedy was murdered a few week after publish this fiery indictment and declaring his intention to restore the importance of things that make life worth living . . . " Id. at 4. And, in the near half-century since Kennedy's "attack on the lie on which the GBP-bound measure of happiness rest," things have only gotten worse. Everyone is encouraged and expected to "brand" themselves (that is, make themselves a product). Everyones' attention span has been reduce to near zero (for example, the 140-character text message or tweet is the outer range of our reading attention span). Email, not face-to-face conversation is the preferred means of communication (for example, we feel more comfortable emailing the person in the office next door than to knock on the door and have a chat.). And the unreal reality-TV has become the benchmark upon which we measure life (here, just think about the fact that a reality-TV person is the preferred choice of tens of millions of American voters). No wonder those with even  half a clue are so unhappy.).