happiness is a warm gun

Astute reader and frequent provider of nifty news items, Austin Kelley, just send me a pointer to an AlterNet article posted today titled The Science of Happiness: Is It All Bullshit? It's about the appearance on The Daily Show (posted 8/10/2007) of Harvard professor Tal Ben-Shahar, author of Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment. Unfortunately, the article isn't very insightful. Compared with the dangerously dehumanizing stuff in the mental health business, positive psychology is so innocuous that I almost felt sorry for Ben-Shahar. Well, sorry no, but thanks for playing. Better to watch the interview itself. Comedy Central prefaces the video with the note: "Jon is amazed that professor Tal Ben-Shahar gets away with teaching happiness at Harvard." As most of you know, Positive Psychology is a subject "dear" to my heart, and about which I've written previously in a post called Positively Fourth Street. Have a look at that too. There's more to come on this front. One of these days. NOTE: For best results, play this concurrent with the above.

---