A large percentage of self-help books, personal improvement seminars, and happiness websites share a subtle conceit: they are based on the idea that feeling good is supposed to be easy. If we just followed the right formula – if we had the right goals, did the right tricks, tidied up our closets and shut down our negative thoughts – we would simply and naturally slip into happy.

That's based on the idea that human minds are flexible and easily changed, and that we live in a world that will gladly make room for  lifestyle changes. Happiness, according to the current paradigm, is almost entirely in your head – it's about your habits and your brain chemistry. No need to worry about the world around you.

The idea that we can become happy through a series of easy tweaks has more to do with historical trends and economics than with how happiness actually works. As I began digging in to contemporary thought on the subject, I found that most plans for reaching happiness didn't just simplify the human condition – they oversimplified it, often reducing and flattening it. And to compensate, the authors had to present a distorted, shallow picture of themselves to fit into it.

Some of them seemed to live in worlds where they were blind to injustice, or refused to allow themselves to be bothered by cruelty and prejudice. They viewed other people as the means to their own happy ends, and didn't see them in their complexity. Sometimes, they failed to recognize the ambivalence in their own feelings.

In other words, their paths to happy lives appeared only when those lives were unexamined. They were trading some of their ability to live full human lives in exchange for the chance to find one particular kind of happiness.

I found this disturbing.

I found something else disturbing as well: the emphasis on individual psychology leads to the decontextualized, culture-and-history-free approaches common today. These often end up placing responsibility for happiness on the individual, sometimes saying that you and you alone are responsible for your happiness. There is often a subtle, implicit undercurrent that blames people, and sometimes even shames them, for not being happy.

Eventually I came to a conclusion:

A life without happiness isn't worth living, but a world without insight and morality isn't worth living in. Figuring out how to fit happiness into a life that's also ethical and wise is important. And wisdom, morality, and happiness don't always show up at the same time.

Responsibility, Respect, and Recognition of Our Contexts

This website is different from those others. There are paths to happiness that pass through the thoughtful, responsible lives that most people want to lead.

It may not be the easiest way, but the slow, thoughtful change that comes with a better understanding of the human minds and cultures leads to a greater understanding and appreciation of human condition.

I start exploring happiness with the questions, "Where did we come from?" and "Where are we now?" Looking into the history and culture of ideas will give us insights about where to go.

You'll find these values on this site:

• It takes a socially responsible approach to happiness.
• It respects the individual, and all the complexities and contradictions that come with her.
• It recognizes the importance of our cultural contexts because they provide both opportunities and challenges in the quest for happiness.
• It will take the time to explore questions and issues as fully as they need to be. This is not a meme factory.
• Being happy isn't the only valid goal. It looks at happiness as a part of a balanced life.

Impractically Happy isn't about the quick fix, or pop-psych or pos-psych advice. It's about the human condition: the complexity of being human in the modern world, and the challenges we face and sometimes overcome. It's about the value of being human – in all its contradictions – as seen through our quest to be happy.

Please join me on this exploration of culture and emotion. And if you  like, you can drop me a note.

-Steve