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Nanoseconds Of Happiness
Where does that leave homo economicus? Are we really just like children at a birthday party rushing from one toy to the next? Do people like Barber have a point when they warn that an "ethos of infantilization" has infected our society?
Perhaps. But remember, homo economicus is also homo ludens, a creature of play. Is it really so wrong to amuse ourselves with our toys?
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Political economist Adam Smith was wiser about such things than today's scolds and killjoys. A man of deep classical learning, he knew perfectly well that "frivolous objects" could never secure our happiness, which was above all a matter of the soul. So Smith took a clear-eyed view of the iPhones of his day -- the "tooth-pick, ear-picker, or machine for cutting the nails." But he also knew that our longing for what he called "baubles" and "gewgaws," like our longing for power or riches, was a productive force that tapped deep into the wellsprings of human nature. It was natural, he thought, to aspire to such things, and natural for us to imagine that having them would bring us happiness and ease.
That belief, Smith fully acknowledged, was a "deception." He understood that humans innately overestimate the amount of pleasure that gewgaws and iPhones would bring. And yet he thought that the impulse to acquire them was precisely the force that "rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind," prompting us to build cities, invent and improve the arts and sciences, and change the "whole face of the globe." The key to all human progress, Smith knew, was the pursuit of happiness.
So pursue away. Of course, the iPhone won't make you truly happy -- at least not for long. But don't let that keep you from enjoying it. People were meant to play, and there is tremendous power in such pursuits. Smith probably would have chuckled indulgently at the iPhone lineups at AT&T. He may even have picked one up for himself.
Darrin M. McMahon, a professor of history at Florida State University, is the author of "Happiness: A History."
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