As we write, it is a dreary Monday made even more cheerless by the state of American politics and the world in general. If ever there was a time to take a stroll on the sunny side of the street, today is the day. But in this uniquely dark season, we worry that even an innocent celebration of the human spirit will cast more shadow than light.
Today, we believe, the New Hampshire weather reflects the mood of its people.
While we don’t have the confidence to tell you why you should be happy despite the state of things, perhaps we can help you become happy on your own terms. To accomplish the feat, we turn to Bertrand Russell for help.
Russell, winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature, was a philosopher, mathematician and historian who died in 1970 at age 97. Throughout his long life, he didn’t exactly avoid complex topics. Among his works are: A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz, Principles of Mathematics, The Analysis of Matter and Human Knowledge – Its Scope and Limits. He also wrote, in 1930, one of our favorite books in the regrettably named “Self-Help” genre: The Conquest of Happiness.
We have mentioned Russell’s thin volume in this space before (much to the appreciation of Concord’s Ray Perkins Jr., who happens to be board vice chairman of the Bertrand Russell Society), but not in much depth. Here, then, are a few passages meant to serve as a very brief synopsis of Russell’s guide to escaping “ordinary day-to-day unhappiness,” a book that seems to us just as relevant now as then.
First, the problem: “I am persuaded that those who quite sincerely attribute their sorrows to their views about the universe are putting the cart before the horse: the truth is that they are unhappy for some reason of which they are not aware, and this unhappiness leads them to dwell upon the less agreeable characteristics of the world in which they live.”
Second, the epiphany: “Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, individuals for whom I felt affection.”
Third, the conquest of happiness:
“The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all. . . . It is amazing how much both happiness and efficiency can be increased by the cultivation of an orderly mind, which thinks about a matter adequately at the right time rather than inadequately at all times.”
“Our doings are not so important as we naturally suppose; our successes and failures do not after all matter very much.”
“I think that in general, apart from expert opinion, there is too much respect paid to the opinions of others, both in great matters and in small ones.”
“The world is vast and our own powers are limited. If all our happiness is bound up entirely in our personal circumstances it is difficult not to demand of life more than it has to give.”
“The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.”
Russell was not the first thinker nor the last to suggest that a “profound instinctive union with the stream of life” is the foundation of happiness. But his approach is that of the no-nonsense logician: If you seek out and nurture genuine interests in people and things outside of yourself – and cease focusing on all of the things that make you unhappy – life gets better.
We believe that to be true, but there’s only one way to find out.