Happiness is Blandness

If governments were to prescribe anything more specific, then the likely result is highly prescriptive policies which seek to micro-manage people's lives and attitudes. After all, what makes people happy - eating greasy food, for example - doesn't always fit neatly into government policy.

An alternative outcome of such micro-management is wall-to-wall blandness. A glimpse into the kind of world which would be the likely outcome if the happiness patrol had its way was given in a recent article in Men's Health. Based, once again, on supposedly scientific findings, the authors claimed that if you want to be happy you should ditch "moody music" which increases self-focus and fill your iPod with "eclectic rock that takes the mickey". The examples given were Tenacious D and Machine Gun Fellatio.