Ignorance was bliss
From John Bunyard Sir: Rod Liddle’s attribution of unhappiness to a surfeit of choice (‘Profusion of choice makes us unhappy’, 27 May) is imaginative, if difficult to prove empirically: those who lived through the no-choice command economy of the Soviet Union can attest that it was no barrel of laughs. The truth is that there is no single explanation for today’s unhappiness. One underdiscussed but important contributor, however, is the psychological effect of the proliferation of broadcast media.
The world of 50 years ago — with which today’s comparisons are made — was one where the majority of Westerners could spend the greater part of their lives receiving only reinforcement of their beliefs, whether affirmatively (patriotism, family, church, monarchy) or negatively (communism, sexual deviancy, atheism). Such a situation was propitious for primate brains, in which reinforcement is a chemical matter. Exposure to conflicting beliefs on an hourly basis by courtesy of the satellite has changed all that. The unhappy reality of Mandelson, Mugabe, Rumsfeld, Ahmadinejad and Chirac all in one news broadcast is more than evolution could equip us for.
John Bunyard
Ashford, Kent
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