Not a happy lot

 Americans are not a happy lot. They spend very little time looking honestly at themselves in the mirror, discovering and valuing who they are as human beings. (They don’t listen to Mr. Rogers telling them they are liked for who they are.) As a result, they are easy prey for the influencers, social media, corporate marketers and celebrity pitchmen telling them they are not thin enough, pretty enough, with smooth enough skin, sparkling enough eyes, fashionable enough clothes, fancy enough cars, smart enough kids, big enough houses, silken enough hair, spike enough heels, all guaranteed to make them feel good about themselves. It’s buying into the delusion that superficial beauty and material possessions will bring happiness, when all they do is create an armor against self-realization that is not easy to penetrate.