Book 2 - Blog 1

 

America the Anxious: Are You One of Them?

 
 

     

“How do you find happiness?” That’s the question that kick started the entirety of Ruth Whippman’s book, America the Anxious. I found this book from yes magazine’s article of “The Science of Creating a Compassionate World: 10 Best Books of 2016” and so far, it has been nothing short of an interesting read. Coming to California as a British native, Whippman was shocked to see Americans and their insistent pursuit of happiness. Along with other core American aesthetics such as “the American Dream,” she claims happiness is something Americans believe is achievable with time and effort. She, on the other hand, is skeptical about it. She sees this obsession with being happy as a contributing factor to America’s anxiety (hence the book title). The rest of this book entails her searching for the answer of whether happiness is something worth seeking after, or if it only contributes to our dissatisfaction with life.

 

Whippman’s book consists of conducting research on the efficiency of the methods that Americans obsess over as the guides towards happiness. These methods include: meditation, mindfulness, self-help/betterment books and apps, and even inspirational email subscriptions. One of the biggest principles in what she calls the “Great Project of the Self” is that happiness has to be achieved by looking inward. If you want to find happiness, you have to do it yourself and not look for others. She then disputes this by showing studies that indicate happiness is higher in groups that embrace socialization, not in those who discourage it.  

 

As a fellow American who has fallen into this rabbit hole of pursuing happiness before, I am no stranger to the idea of “self-help” and finding happiness within oneself. Instead of socializing, go do five minutes of meditation. Go journal. Go on solo walks. Before starting this book, I never doubted the validity of these ideas. If you’re more in tune with your emotions, that should bring you more contentment in life, right? Even when I found meditation a bit silly, I still thought it had its benefits. However, with her critique in mind, I have started to question whether these are actually helpful in finding happiness, or if this is just another consumerism ploy by the self-help industry to make money. Her critique also reminds me of America and its obsession with being independent. Instead of leaning into relationships, we are taught to figure things out on our own accord and that that’s the only way towards success. I wonder why we have adopted this ideology when we as humans are social beings and thrive from social connections.

 

Even though I’ve only read two chapters so far, her book coupled with her witty humor has captured my attention and made me, too, interested in finding out the answer to her question. I think the book is noteworthy especially as we are only going to continue growing more in a technological world and can often isolate us just as much as it connects us. I’m excited to see what else is in store for me in her following chapters.