No one says it better than my favorite talk show host, mentor and N.Y. Times bestselling author Dennis Prager, when he says that happy people make the world better and unhappy people make it worse.
After years of writing and speaking on the subject of happiness, including his remarkable book, Happiness Is A Serious Issue, Dennis has come to the conclusion that happiness is much more than a positive emotion. It is — in fact — a moral obligation.
How could that be? Happiness is just a silly emotion that we feel when things are going our way right? Wrong!
Why? Because happiness is much more than an emotion. When people are happy, they tend to treat others more kindly, give more generously and be more thoughtful.
Even more importantly, when people are unhappy, they tend to be more mean spirited, stingier and less considerate.
And so, it’s not so much that happy people are necessarily better, but rather that unhappy people are generally worse. And so, in the moral arena — that is, the world of good and bad (evil) and the world of what helps and what harms — unhappiness tends to slide into “badness” or being “hurtful” towards others.
This is why — in order to avoid being evil or doing bad, that is — in the moral universe — happiness tends to make the world a good place, a kinder place and a more just and loving place to live.
No one says it better than Dennis. So, why not sit back and watch a video of Dennis explaining this concept in his very own words. Enjoy, Neil Neimark, M.D.