{"product_id":"9781400835973","title":"Perpetual Euphoria: On the Duty to Be Happy","description":"\u003cp\u003eHappiness today is not just a possibility or an option but a requirement and a duty. To fail to be happy is to fail utterly. Happiness has become a religion--one whose smiley-faced god looks down in rebuke upon everyone who hasn't yet attained the blessed state of perpetual euphoria. How has a liberating principle of the Enlightenment--the right to pursue happiness--become the unavoidable and burdensome responsibility to be happy? How did we become unhappy about not being happy--and what might we do to escape this predicament? In \u003ci\u003ePerpetual Euphoria\u003c\/i\u003e, Pascal Bruckner takes up these questions with all his unconventional wit, force, and brilliance, arguing that we might be happier if we simply abandoned our mad pursuit of happiness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e  Gripped by the twin illusions that we are responsible for being happy or unhappy and that happiness can be produced by effort, many of us are now martyring ourselves--sacrificing our time, fortunes, health, and peace of mind--in the hope of entering an earthly paradise. Much better, Bruckner argues, would be to accept that happiness is an unbidden and fragile gift that arrives only by grace and luck.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e  A stimulating and entertaining meditation on the unhappiness at the heart of the modern cult of happiness, \u003ci\u003ePerpetual Euphoria\u003c\/i\u003e is a book for everyone who has ever bristled at the command to \"be happy.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47173176590576,"sku":"9781400835973","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781400835973_p0.jpg?v=1763712486","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781400835973","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}