Will Wilkinson has now begun what I hope will be a chapter-by-chapter take down of Bobo’s “Social Animal”. He begins with Chapter 12, which makes me think he won’t do all of them. Even if you don’t read it, click on it as a show of solidarity.
Personally, I find it difficult to take things like “happiness studies” (which Bobo loves) very seriously. I always think of Genghis Khan:
The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.
It seems just as likely to me that if happiness can actually be defined and studied, we may well learn that people are happiest pillaging and murdering, not leading dignified lives infused with neoconservative values.