And We Thought We'd Be Happy...

"I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get no satisfaction

'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no..."

- The Rolling Stones

From the time that we turned teenagers, we wanted our freedom, our independence, our way.  We thought we were smart enough, old enough, experienced enough, to make our own decisions in life.  In THIS INTERESTING LINK to an article in the National Review by David French, we learn that sometimes when we get what we ask for, it doesn't really satisfy us.  In today's post, I want to relay the information that David French compiled by summarizing it and using direct quotes from the article.

In the article you can read by clicking the link above, David French writes that Bradford Wilcox and Lyman Stone theorize that the unhappiness in our nation is tied to a "sexual recession."  They bring out data that show that there is a large decrease in sexual activity.  More interestingly, they talk about a link between marriage and happiness.

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 They say,

"Controlling for basic demographics and other social characteristics, married young adults are about 75 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not married, according to our analysis of the GSS, a nationally representative survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. As it turns out, the share of young adults who are married has fallen from 59 percent in 1972 to 28 percent in 2018."

Then they talk about religion.

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They say,

"Young adults who attend religious services more than once a month are about 40 percent more likely to report that they are very happy, compared with their peers who are not religious at all, according to our analysis of the GSS. (People with very infrequent religious attendance are even less happy than never-attenders; in terms of happiness, a little religion is worse than none.) What’s happening to religious attendance among young adults today? The share of young adults who attend religious services more than monthly has fallen from 38 percent in 1972 to 27 percent in 2018, even as the share who never attend has risen rapidly. "

The author finds this so interesting (and so do I), that for a very long time, our culture has dictated to us that the OPPOSITE was true.  Our culture - media, cultural elite, Hollywood and colleges have told us that if we were freed from the bonds of marriage and the chains of religion, only then would we be happy.

David French writes, "In reality, singleness is often stressful and lonely, religion provides community and purpose, and married people enjoy the excitement of more sex and the joys of unified child-rearing."

How often do you see marriage and religion portrayed in a positive light?  Not much, huh?  Here's how Mr. French finishes his article:

"I’m not a person who believes that good art must always endorse good values, but it would be nice if the dominant tone of our pop culture wasn’t an outright lie. And that goes double for the world of higher education, which at least has aspirations for the pursuit of truth. Faith and family aren’t guarantors of human flourishing (nothing is), but our nation certainly feels their absence, and our culture aches at their loss."