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It used to be said that English people take their pleasure sadly. No doubt this would stil
In the course of my travels in the American I have been impressed by a kind of fundamental malaise which seems to me extremely common and which poses difficult problems for the social reformer. Most social reformers have held the opinion that, if poverty were abolished and there were no more economic insecurity, the millennium would have arrived. But when I look at the face of people in opulent cars, whether in your country or in mine, I do not see that look of radiant happiness which the aforesaid social reformers had led me to expect. In nine cases out of ten, I see instead a look of boredom and discontent and an almost frantic longing for something that might tickle the jaded palate.
But it is not only the very rich who suffer in this way. Professional men very frequently feel hopeless thwarted. There is something that they long to do or some public object that they long to work for. But if they were to indulge their wishes in these respects, they fear that they would lose their livelihood. Their wives are equally unsatisfied, for their neighbor, Mrs. So-and-so, has gone ahead more quickly, has a better car, a larger apartment and grander friends.
Life for almost everybody is a long competitive struggle where very few can win the race, and those who do not win are unhappy. On social occasions when it is de rigueur to seem cheerful, the necessary demeanor is stimulated by alcohol. But the gaiety does not ring tree and anybody who has just one drink too many is apt to lapse into lachrymose melancholy.
One finds this sort of thing only among English-speaking people. A Frenchman while he is abusing the Government is as gay as a lark. So is an Italian while he is telling you how his neighbor has swindled him. Mexicans, when they are not actually starving or actually being murdered, sing ad dance and enjoy sunshine and food and drink with a gusto which is very rare north of the Mexican frontier. When Andrew Jackson conquered Pensacola from the Spaniards, it was Sunday. She pointed out the scandal to her husband, who decreed that cheerfulness must cease forthwith. And it did.
When I try to understand what it is that prevents so many American from being as happy as one might expect, it seems to me that there are two causes, of which one goes much deeper than the other. The one that goes least deep is the necessity for subservience in some large organization. If you are an energetic man with strong views as to the right way of doing the job with which you are concerned, you find yourself invariable under the orders of some big man at the top who is elderly, weary and cynical. Whenever you have a bright idea, the boss puts a stopper on it. The more energetic you are and the more vision you have, the more you will suffer from the impossibility of doing any of the things that you feel ought to be done. When you go home and moan to your wife, she tells you ',hat you are a silly fellow and that if you became the proper sort of yes-- man your income would soon be doubled, lfyou try divorce and remarriage it is very unlikely that there will be any change in this respect. And so you are condemned to gastric ulcers and premature old age.
It was not always so. When Dr. Johnson complied his dictionary, he compiled it as he thought fit. When he felt like saying that oats is food for men in Scotland and horses in England he said so. When he defined a fishing-rod as a stick with a fish at one end and a fool at the other, th
A．make people indulge in pleasures
B．lead to despondency
C．pose touchy problems for social reformers
D．throw a heavy burden on the country’s welfare program
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