to intellectuals, the pursuit of happiness is something unbecoming of cultured people. it is appropriate, the elite might argue, only to the shallow and unsophisticated. how many novels and movies about happy people win critical acclaim? anguish and discontent are taken as the mark of a deep thinker, a well-rehearsed frown as his badge. pace epicurus, a happy intellectual is an oxymoron.
suffering is often seen as a precondition not only for great insights, but for any meaningful existence. i suffer, therefore i am. marcel proust, one of the great malcontents of all times, held that the only possible paradise is the one we've lost. and if there are no obvious problems one can always invent some. thinking up problems serves as a makework scheme for the problem-solving classes.