In response to yesterday: happiness may be a choice, but it is a political choice.

We are socially compelled to be happy: it is a desire we must urgently pursue and sacrifice to achieve. However, to choose happiness when faced with the pain and suffering of others, or a global catastrophe, requires a convoluted contradictory stance.

Nietzsche says we should instead pursue "joy", which involves sacrifice and may include suffering over the long term to achieve a goal that is great and rewarding. Others, such as Timothy Brennan, say "pleasure" is preferable.

"Happiness" is now politicized and commoditized, enfolded within an individualistic imperative for emancipatory freedom. Our blind pursuit of happiness has become an entitled right.