Happiness or Freedom?

The Times of London editorializes on the choice our governments have between making the population happy - Obamacare? - and providing them freedom. It concludes freedom is more important with this final paragraph:


"Precisely because human life is prolifically diverse, the history of Utopian politics is littered with offences against freedom by people who thought they knew what the people really wanted. The economics of happiness invariably leads to the politics of paternalism. The happiness gurus would be better off starting with Aristotle’s generous account of flourishing, an idea that implies people choosing their own life course. If politicians need a single objective — and it is not obvious that they do — then setting the people free is a lot better than forcing them to be happy."


We are losing the wisdom of Aristotle and letting the politicians expand their power over us in the most successful experiment in individual freedom extant, just as our predecessors have allowed Emperors, Kings, Princes, et al, to control them.