The International Day of Happiness was March 20 this year, and I missed it. In fact, I have been missing it since the United Nations resolution of 2012 declaring it a yearly event. I had no idea there was a Day of Happiness.
Another fine comment, Michael. I too rather wish that Keats had lived long enough to finish "The Fall of Hyperion" and indeed much else. A s another student of Northrop Frye, I had to think about your his response to the Jeffersonian "pursuit of happiness" in the "Anatomy of Criticism": "one cannot 'pursue happiness' but only something else that may give happiness." This made me create a couple of Google Ngrams about the phrase "pursuit of happiness" from 1700 to present and thenfrom 1940 when it had an all time peak to the present. It showed that Americans have cottoned to it during times of war (1860 and 1920 as well as 1940. The latest peak was around 2010, which makes me think that our country has been at war with itself since the Affordable Care Act in the Obama administration and the white outrage against a black president, leading up to the 2016 election. Your notion of a "national PTSD" along with the daily news intake makes me think of a collective Post Trump Stress Disorder.
Another fine comment, Michael. I too rather wish that Keats had lived long enough to finish "The Fall of Hyperion" and indeed much else. A s another student of Northrop Frye, I had to think about your his response to the Jeffersonian "pursuit of happiness" in the "Anatomy of Criticism": "one cannot 'pursue happiness' but only something else that may give happiness." This made me create a couple of Google Ngrams about the phrase "pursuit of happiness" from 1700 to present and thenfrom 1940 when it had an all time peak to the present. It showed that Americans have cottoned to it during times of war (1860 and 1920 as well as 1940. The latest peak was around 2010, which makes me think that our country has been at war with itself since the Affordable Care Act in the Obama administration and the white outrage against a black president, leading up to the 2016 election. Your notion of a "national PTSD" along with the daily news intake makes me think of a collective Post Trump Stress Disorder.