Obviously this effect works for the ignorant folks that the story lists (Christians, Southerners, etc.), but I'd imagine it even works for the non-ignorant Conservatives.

"Conservatives' pessimism is conducive to their happiness in three ways. First, they are rarely surprised -- they are right more often than not about the course of events. Second, when they are wrong, they are happy to be so."

I didn't like the third point he made, but those two were a good starting point. Ignorance of the horrors of the world will make you happy, but so will the recognition that there are horrors in the world and they're not likely to happen to you. Sure things are bad, but think about how bad they realy could be? Compared to a lot of our history, things are FANTASTIC. It's hard not to be happy with so many things going well, when they could be going so very much worse.

Don't grind your teeth, enjoy the ride! (You know assuming you're not gay.)

I've read George Will's articles many times in the back page of Newsweek, and I read this article and came to the same conclusion I usually arrive at: while George Will occassionally makes some good points, he ultimately writes some of the messiest sprawling political junk out there. His
research is soft, and I find it personally
a bit hypocritical for him to be criticizing
social scientists when he himself shows
some lackluster ability to cite sources
and when he does, not take them out of context. For example, we have no idea what this survey he is talking about how this survey asks them to assess their happiness. They could be assessing their happiness after reading one of George Will's articles for all we know. Or assessing their happiness in reference to politics. Who knows? Why did you post this article crazymonk? Did you find some relevance in it?

Is there method to this madness?

I'm not sure what you are trying to
say, crazymonk.

I posted it because I found the article interesting, and thought it would be worth seeing it discussed on this page. More generally, I just post whatever I find interesting.

Ok. Fair enough. But what are your opinions on the article?

I think it's an interesting article, but I'm not surprised by the conclusion. As I said, "Ignorance is bliss" -- it's easy to be happier when you don't believe that class conditions are unfair, the environment is being mistreated, corporations are manipulative and dangerous, etc.

But that's not what he said. What he said was that Conservatives know about all of the bad stuff, and just don't let it effect them.

Which, I would argue, is at least partially accurate.

15% of kids in Las Vegas schools fall asleep during class.

60% are tired.

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4540155

I've always thought that school hours are too early. I got less sleep during high school than during any other time in my life.