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… is from page 107 of George Will’s 1992 book, Restoration [2]:
The sensible worry about democracy in America today is that the public is being degraded by the government’s constant concern for the public’s happiness.
DBx: The pursuit of happiness is exclusively for individuals. Looking to the state to make you happy is a fool’s hope. The state – its officials ever-eager for votes – will go through the motions of trying to make you happy (if you are in a significant coalition of voters). But your happiness is your responsibility and yours alone. For you to attempt to farm out responsibility for your happiness to others – especially to strangers – is for you to reject your human agency and, in the process, to infantilize yourself.