Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets

The Downfall of Marriage: The Pursuit of Happiness

Another friend, recently remarried, offers this reflection: “Anecdotally, one gets the impression that many married men are not happy. In today's culture, where images of delectably beautiful women are being sent your way 400 times a day, it is hard to be satisfied with a fat, dumpy wife. Then, of course, there is Hollywood playing fast and loose with your expectations. Be that as it may, the man who has broken up more marriages than anyone else is not some pretty boy like Clark Gable or Brad Pitt, but a homely Oxford don and medical researcher, John Locke, who insisted in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding that the pursuit of happiness was the highest goal of life.

“This insight not only made it into the Declaration of Independence,” our friend continues, “in the famous trilogy with Life and Liberty, it also informed a major shift in the way life is experienced. Locke became the godfather of romantic love. Hallmark Cards should have a portrait of John Locke in the lobby. By drawing attention to happiness and self‐fulfillment as the central focuses of life, Locke gave the Valentine card, the soap opera, and the divorce lawyer their start. Romantic love was the undoing of marriage as it had been known. Romantic love set people yearning for more than obedience and social support—property accumulation—from marriage. You may think this is piffle. Or brilliant. In either case, this isn't my idea. It is a copyrighted insight of ...