Uncovering the bizarre and dubious connections between words as written in 5 million books over the centuries.
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12.19.2010

War, Peace, Happiness since 1776


The Declaration of Independence marked a bold new direction for Americans, and for the world in general.  In the years since 1776, how have the ideas of war, peace, and happiness competed for our collective attention?

It would seem that the two World Wars have been immortalized as humanity's most prolific nightmares of the past 200 years - shadowed by small, simultaneous bumps in writings about peace.  The idea of happiness has been in a steady decline in our imaginations, surprisingly not varying with our belligerence or pacifism.

Could war and peace be so integral to our experience of life that they have little effect on our notions happiness?

Has "progress" lead to unhappiness?

1 comment:

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