Thought for the Day

When it has any use of belief, our age presses religion into the service of power. The rest of the time, it banishes faith from any position of authority. Once the lifeblood of intimate, social, and civic life, the sacred makes its appearance now as a mere distraction--whether embraced or condemned--from the main event. Ignoring previous counsel and reflection from Aristotle to Freud, we embrace a gospel of personal happiness, defined as the unbridled pursuit of impulse. Yet, we remain profoundly unhappy.
--Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn in the "Introduction" to The Triumph of the Therapeutic by Philip Rieff