The Right to Unhappiness

Our culture produces an irradiant fantasy of happiness. Ad-space is rife with happy couples doing happy things that compel us to be happy. Consumer joy is the social imperative. This is similar to what schizophrenics refer to as a command hallucination; for example, as Coca-Cola commands: Enjoy. It is hallucinatory because, according to TV, baseline happiness is mandatory and ambient: whipped by the harsh sitcom-superego, you hallucinate a command that you need to be happy, that happiness is normal, that everyone else is happier than you are. If you are not happy, it’s likely your own fault and it is your solemn duty to get happy. The first solution to your lack of happiness is to eat something; like, for example, a happy meal. If that fails alcohol can be found on any street corner. The anxiety produced by your hangover can be assuaged by buying something such as a pair of jeans, a new mattress, or a trip to Europe. If those do not satisfy then there is probably something wrong with your brain and Big Pharma has an array of psychotropic solutions that can restore your enjoyment. These drugs make happiness the ultimate accessory like a husband, a winning smile, or a pickup truck. You can display your happiness on social media and bring it out to cafés and social functions: check out how happy I am; you tell your children to be happy, or else. But this apparatus of happiness is likewise an analgesic: it is a numbing agent meant to dissolve and cohere the contradictions of a violent and barbaric society (let alone a terrifying existence). All of the varieties of human sensitivity are likewise denied in favor of the anesthetic joy of consumption. Unhappiness then is not only sadness and the ability to grieve, but is itself an entire universe of feeling that the happiness command prohibits. As such, as an act of rebellion against a terrible society, and with the intent to feel everything—no matter how hellacious or unpleasant or terrifying—I choose not to enjoy; I choose the right to be unhappy.