Blog 9

While looking back at Barbra Graham’s and David Brooks’ articles one can see that they are connected by people’s struggle for happiness and the different ways it can be achieved. In Graham’s article, it was interesting that she never really planted roots. She was always moving from town to town and even other countries. Despite all her experiences she was never satisfied. She said, “it had taken thousands of miles and one child for me to understand that the quitting I took for freedom was as much of a trap as the social conventions we were trying to escape.” All of her traveling was her way of searching for happiness, but as Brooks says, “fulfilment is a byproduct of how people engage in their tasks.” This explains why she was never content with her life and always changing what she wanted to do. She thought that avoiding “social conventions” would bring her happiness. When her husband wanted to settle down she did not, so she simply divorced him, packed up, and moved on with her life. Reflecting on her travel throughout her life and having a child she finally was “engaging” in life and  was able to achieve her own happiness. These two articles are connected by the pursuit of happiness that everyone can relate to in their everyday life. Graham’s article shows how someone may be on a journey to find their happiness but ultimately will never know how it will be achieved. Graham believed that traveling and leaving everything that weighed her down behind was what she wanted most out of life. Happiness is described as an internal journey in both articles. Brooks describes how people tell this generation to “find their passion and then pursue their dreams,” implying that “they should find themselves first then go off and live their quest,” which is the opposite of what Graham did. She was unhappy for so long because she had not pursued happiness from within. At the same time though that is nearly unachievable like Brooks claims because “most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life,” but rather “they look outside and find a problem, which summons their life.” The journey to happiness is difficult and different from person to person. Some people will find it from within and others will find it through a worldly issue they encounter at some point in their life.

The Epidemic of Worry

After reading “The Epidemic of Worry” by David Brooks I have a better understanding of anxiety in our world. It is not the same from person to person and is even more different in each country. Anxiety itself can also vary and as described, comes in two main flavors. No two people have the same struggles and often fit into one of the categories based on their social status. The educated have worries specific to problems that occur in their lives. They may feel “plagued by a daily excess of choices” and struggle to find their inner peace. These overwhelmed people tend to “use money to buy privacy, and so cut themselves off” from the world and creating important relationships. This unusual election has stirred up anxiety in most anyone you could ask. Members of the educated class are specifically worried that their lifestyle may “rest on unstable molten layers of anger, bigotry and instability.” When people are comfortable living a specific way and a force threatens to change it, they become afraid -and not necessarily of the change-causing-factor, but of the unknown to come. The less educated often feel anxiety from the feeling that “the structures of society are built for the exploitation of people like themselves.” This creates a sense of helplessness if “everything is rigged.” People begin to doubt their own abilities and control of their lives, creating anxiety. Elections are already complicated but are made even more when including anxiety. Voters tend to not “worry if their candidate can’t pass a fact-check test,” rather they are looking for someone they can relate to, that “shares their exclusion.” Listening to friends and family debate about this election this past year and comparing it to Brooks’ article, I now realize I have heard both “flavors” of anxiety. There are people who fear what Trump would do in office and others who find him refreshing and a change that America needs. Some people have well thought out arguments, but there are always those who’s entire reason for supporting a candidate is fueled by the fear of the opposite being in office. That is what makes this election so unique to the ones before. People are voting based off anxiety of “who they fear the least,” instead of someone they would be proud to have represent our country as president. It has become so extreme that Brooks’ is concerned that “America’s culture may be permanently changed for the worse.” Hopefully after the election is over society can go back to normal until the next election.