It's only relatively recently, since the 18th century, that people expected religion to make them happy. In a way, it's a perverse affirmation of the Enlightenment.

It's only relatively recently that human beings have begun to think of happiness as not just an earthy possibility, but also in some ways as an obligation or entitlement, a natural human right. I think this has created a new and very modern pressure, even a new type of unhappiness: the unhappiness of not being happy.

Man needed to be upbeat to keep going. And all species need to be happy enough to reproduce.

That said, the people who study subjective well-being will tell you that most people are pretty happy.

Here at Florida State I can assure you that, for these kids anyway, happiness is essentially a hedonistic search for intense pleasure. It's 'Girls Gone Wild' and Spring Break madness. But from everything we've learned about life, the pursuit of hedonism and pleasure for pleasure's sake won't make us happy.

That's when happiness became an assumed entitlement of all human beings. Unfortunately, that puts a great deal of pressure on us.