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The right to pursue happiness is issued toAmericans with their birth certificates, but no one seems quite sure which wayit ran. It may be we are issued a hunting license but offered no game. JonathanSwift seemed to think so when he attacked the idea of happiness as "thepossession of being well- deceived", the felicity of being "a foolamong knaves". For Swift saw society as Vanity Fair, the land of falsegoals.

It is, of course, un-American to think interms of fools and knaves. We do, however, seem to be dedicated to the idea ofbuying our way to happiness. We shall all have made it to Heaven when wepossess enough.

And at the same time the forces of Americancommercialism are hugely dedicated to making us deliberately unhappy. Advertisingis one of our major industries, and advertising exists not to satisfy desiresbut to create them-and to create them taster than any man''s budget can satisfythem. For that matter, our whole economy is based on a dedicated insatiability.