Conservatives: Pursuing Happiness Better

Science has known for quite some time that conservatives, by most measures, are happier than liberals, earn more, and have better sex lives. The building blocks for a happier life are all there.

But why?

Dennis Prager has some ideas.

The unhappy gravitate toward the left… Life is hard for liberals, and life is hard for conservatives. But conservatives assume that life will always be hard. Liberals, on the other hand, have utopian dreams. At his brother Robert’s funeral, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy recalled his brother saying: “Some men see things as they are and say ‘why?’ I dream things that never were and say ‘why not?'”

Utopians will always be less happy than those who know that suffering is inherent to human existence. The utopian compares America to utopia and finds it terribly wanting. The conservative compares America to the every other civilization that has ever existed and walks around wondering how he got so lucky to be born or naturalized an American.

The liberal in Minnesota grouses himself into incontinence over LGA cuts,  and works himself into a froth over how much “Better” a Minnesota we’d have if everyone else was just paying more money.

Third, imagine two Americans living in essentially identical socioeconomic conditions. Both earn $45,000 a year, both have the same amount of debt on their homes and both have the same number of dependents. One seeks governmental assistance wherever possible; the other eschews any governmental help. Which one is likely to be the liberal and which one is likely to be the happier individual?

This is not a question only an oracle can answer. The one who yearns for governmental help is the one who is likely to be both liberal and less happy. Conservatism, which demands self-reliance, makes one happier. The more one feels that he is captain of his or her ship (as poor as that ship may be), the happier he or she will be.

Read the whole thing.  If you’re a Lib, try not to hurt yourself.

13 thoughts on “Conservatives: Pursuing Happiness Better

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  2. This Minnesota conservative expresses his happiness by stalking women he meets online. While armed. With extra ammo. And maps. In a Planned Parenthood parking lot:

    Hackbarth said he had coffee with the woman on Nov. 15, and asked her to dinner the next night but she told him she couldn’t because of a commitment she had with a female friend in Highland Park. Hackbarth said he felt that she might have been seeing a man instead, so he parked his car and walked around the block looking for her car. (The security guard spotted Hackbarth’s gun when he got out of his car and put on a winter coat.)

    When he didn’t see the woman’s car, he returned to his truck and left. That’s when police intercepted him.

    “I was not a jealous boyfriend,” said Hackbarth, who is in the process of divorcing his wife of 25 years. “I was just trying to check up on her. It’s totally a misunderstanding.”

  3. Yes……also, we don’t obsesse with getting the gov’t to control us or others. I can complain, but in the end, we just go about our lives.

    Wonder if there is a connection to this and the fact that the left injects politics into everything. There obessesion and hatred of President Bush showed up in all kinds of non-political settings. It’s almost like they wake up in the morning and think “I hate Bush” before even getting out of bed.

  4. Dennis Prager, who says that if scientific research conflicts with “common sense,” then science must be wrong?

    A little context, please?

    What? You don’t know it?

  5. That would be scientific research as it used to be. You know, “racial hygeine” and all that.
    Bet the Stooj misses those days!

  6. That’s our DiscordianStooj: if you want him to worship it you’ve got to stick a “science”-y label on it.

    If we called him “Dennis Prager, Super Scientist” would that make him all better, DiscordianStooj?

    Oh wait, I forgot the other part. He would have to confirm stuff that you already believe, wouldn’t he. Oh well … 😉

  7. That’s pretty funny, Tim. Just because someone has an “R” behind his name does not mean they are conservative. Especially in Minnesota.
    Nice try.

  8. It is difficult to believe that Prager would think “Gosh! science says the Earth is round, but common sense tells me that it is flat! I guess I’ll believe that the Earth is flat, then!”

  9. A little context, please?

    I believe the line was “If scientific research says something, and common sense says something else, the research is always wrong.” I would imagine he was talking about happiness or how men and women are different, which are common topics on his show.

    Research, of course, can be wrong. Personal surveys, which is how much of the “happiness” research is done, are not scientific. But to claim that “common sense” is always right is just foolish. “Things are the way I believe they should be, and nothing will convince me differently” is a dangerous way to live.

  10. Maybe some linkage to where it says he said these words would be nice?

    The “I would imagine” part of your response makes me think you don’t know exactly what he said.

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