Oh man, I've gotta stop. I've been binging on economic news and the inner workings of the colossal scandal on Wall Street for the past few weeks and I'm starting to get really depressed. Why do I do that to myself? Probably because I'm a "liberal." Around election time, journalists trot out the curious results of annual surveys that clearly indicate conservatives consistently self-report being happier than liberals (incidentally, I meant to write about this year's crop of stories on the subject earlier, but I was just too damn pleased about the election results).
Generally I consider myself to be a pretty happy, optimistic person. I always have. But I cannot truly say that I am a "very happy" person. So I suppose I fit this poll and these broad categorizations neatly. But why don't I consider myself "very happy"? I just can't when I feel so much outrage about the about endless war and poverty and violence and environmental degradation and unemployment and any number of issues. I feel human misery in my bones and I want to help. In other words, I pay attention to the news and I believe that people can and should do something about each other's problems.
Good grief that sounds corny. Maybe I should just tune it all out! That might just be how conservatives do it. After all, Stephen Colbert is fond of saying, "facts have a well-known liberal bias."
