While I'm thinking about the whole positive thinking crowd, I think what really irks me is that we don't have much respect for how humans work. I read somewhere that we don't lay awake at night thinking of how much we want to do nice things for people. And people can say count your blessings all you want, but I have to admit that having clean tap water doesn't make me extremely happy, despite the fact that objectively it increases my quality of life a lot.

I actually find I'm happier when I'm not being pressured to be especially happy. My state of warm contentment isn't considered happy enough, so I end up feeling bad about my only mildly pleasant feelings, instead of being able to enjoy mild pleasantness. I will probably never be a happy person, but I don't think that that means I won't be able to be a good person or lead a good life