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NOTE How to Be Happy in a Statist World

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I wrote a book called Three Minute Therapy, and I was afraid Mark was only going to give

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me three minutes, so I appreciate a whole twelve minutes.

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The title of my talk is How to Be Happy in a Statist World, which could also be titled

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How to Avoid Being Depressed in a Depression, and eight months ago it could have been called

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How to Avoid Being Recessed in a Recession.

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I'd like to start with a quote by Mises from Human Action and he says the theme of psychology

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is the internal events that result in or can result in a definite action and I would add

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or emotion.

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In other words, when we have, when we act, when we have emotions, it doesn't come from

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a particular situation.

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If I win the lottery and I feel good, it's not winning the lottery that makes me feel

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good, but rather it's my cognition, the ideas in my head, my thoughts, values, attitudes,

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notions, what I tell myself about the situation, not the situation itself that causes my good

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feeling about it.

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Now that's a very powerful notion because if it's your thinking that causes your depression

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So that leads to the question, what thinking, what is the nature of thought that leads to

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misery, that leads to depression, anxiety, anger, those kinds of feelings, and what could

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So, to give you a little foundation, we can divide all of human action and human emotion

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into three major categories of preferences and goals.

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And the first can be phrased as, I prefer to do well and get approval, and if I fail

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I'm no good, I'm worthless, I'm unlovable, I'm an awful person, or rather than those global evaluations, which will come in a minute, it's too bad, it's unfortunate, and it's disappointing, and it's frustrating.

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So, when we start with a preference, I prefer to do well and get approval, we see advantages

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and disadvantages if we get our preference or if we don't.

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The second area is not in terms of oneself, but in terms of how others treat me, and that

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can be phrased as, I prefer others treat me well, fairly, reasonably, kindly, equitably,

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justly, and if they don't, that's too bad, that's unfortunate, that's frustrating.

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And then the third area is in the area of inanimate objects, just the world itself,

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and that can be phrased as, I strongly prefer that life go well, hassle-free, and easy.

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And if it doesn't, that's too bad, that's unfortunate, that's sad.

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So when we start with goals and we put preferences to our goals and we don't get what we want,

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we see it in terms of the reality of advantages and disadvantages.

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Now if that was the only way people thought about these things, I'd be out of business

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because everyone would be able to be fairly reasonable and undepressed no matter what

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the circumstances were around them.

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Fortunately, or unfortunately, as imperfect humans with imperfect brains, we often take

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our preferences, our wishes, our desires, and escalate them into demands, musts, shoulds,

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supposeds, have tos, demands that we put on ourselves, others, or situations.

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So for example, if I said, I prefer to do well and get approval, and then I thought

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I did imperfectly, or I failed at something, then normally that leads to a global conclusion,

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I'm no good, I'm a rotten person, I'm a failure. Or I prefer you treat me well, and if you don't,

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you're no good, you're a horrible person, you deserve to roast in hell, and I have appointed

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myself your roaster. And that leads to anger, resentment, and hostility. And then finally,

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Basically, I prefer life to be fair, easy, and hassle-free, and if it's not, that's

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horrible.

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I have to be miserable forever.

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I can't stand it, and that leads to addictions, procrastination, and depression about external

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situations.

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So if that's the case, if we are thinking in terms of demands, musts and shoulds when

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When we get depressed or anxious about the world situation and about the meltdown, what

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can we do about it?

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And the answer is we can apply the scientific method of setting up hypotheses and looking

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for evidence.

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So for example, if I'm feeling angry or depressed about Obama and the administration and Bush

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I can ask myself first, what am I telling myself? It's not this executable situation that's making me depressed, but it's what I'm thinking, and now we know it's some demand, some must or should, and it could be something like, Obama must not do this, life must not be so unfair.

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And I can't stand it. It's awful. It's horrible. So then we can ask ourselves, what's the evidence this is the case? Who says things absolutely have to be the way I want them to be? Where is it written that politicians should act reasonably and justly? And if you think about it, there's no evidence in the global sense

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Why things must be this way, the way I want them to be, there's reason why I strongly

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prefer it, because if it's not, there are great disadvantages, many more than advantages,

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and I don't like feeling the way I do, but I definitely can stay in the way I like what

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I don't like, I've survived it before and I'll survive it in the future, and I can still

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Now, I'd like to, when I give this talk, I often get questions from libertarians in particular

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about the idea of the must, and the question is along the lines of, well, you're saying

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musts are wrong, musts are irrational, but there are some musts that make sense.

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In order to live I must eat, or one plus one must equal two.

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And just as in different fields the same words may be defined differently, it's the same

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with this.

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For example, psychic depression is different from business cycle depression, it's two different

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realms of discourse.

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and the same with pathological or psychological musts or absolutes versus logical ones.

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So it's logical to say, in order to survive I must eat, but if you're not angry, depressed

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or anxious when you think that, then it's more of a preferential, a logical must.

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But I'm talking about absolutistic musts, musts that lead to global evaluations such

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I would like to close with another quote from Mises, this is from his notes and recollections, and he says,

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says, whosoever foresees so clearly the disaster and the destruction of everything he deems

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of value cannot escape pessimism and psychic depression.

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Well, now you know otherwise.