This is a reposting from 2014 & 2016 & appears to have become my New Year take on life: it may explain why so many proudly refuse to read the newspapers. They want to stay in a state of “happification.”
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FB prompted me to like the FB wall “Happify” which would teach me the science-based way to stop negative thoughts & feel happier every day. Apparently the system comes recommended by the NY Times & Katie Couric. Well there is just nothing worse than a negative thought so I rushed to the page to get happified hoping that a stupor or induced coma weren’t required.

I had some questions: Does social criticism mean you’re not happified? Does justified outrage mean you’re resisting happification & being controlled by the dark forces of the universe? Or does it just mean you read the newspapers? Just how far does the happifying thing go?

Well after some moments on that wall I felt giddy with glee, purged of all negative thoughts. But when I came back to my own wall a friend had posted about the high court ruling in Delhi, India which let a man go scot-free after the 2010 rape & murder of a 65-year-old woman because she was post-menopausal & thus the crime cannot be considered rape. The judges ruled “even if the sexual intercourse was forceful it was not forcible & contrary to the wishes & consent of the deceased.” They can’t ask her if it was contrary to her consent because he murdered her. The esteemed judges found she might have died from natural causes. And here we thought the US Supreme Court took the cake for judicial dereliction & pompous idiocy.

This happifying thing isn’t working for me. There ain’t no science that can cut across reality without inducing a coma–which may be a lot easier than changing reality but somebody’s got to kick ass. My mother always chided me with the Bible: “Revenge is mine; I will repay saith the Lord.” My answer remains the same: “Why should God have all the fun?” Think of how happified we’ll all feel when these judges are put behind bars after being declared insane?