So I've been doing some serious thinking about your question. I think I captured the essence of it in one of my responses above.... the one about some people's delusions of understanding fundamental truth.
We are, as a species, the moths who flutter around the light bulb of Universal Truth. But it's too hot for us. If we get too close, we fry.
And that is why we must never let the "progressives" get their damn fists closed on the nuclear button of our world government. They will destroy the toilet. They will make human life extinct, in spirit if not in fact.
Good points, but I'm not sure this applies to the vast majority. This, I think, really does fully explain OB but not you and most other folk. And, I'm afraid, maybe even me to some extent.
My opinion is that a large driver of happiness is derived from some sort of cult mentality - religion, region, family tradition, and way of life. I'm a Westerner so it's clearly noticeable in my demeanor on certain topics such as overly burdensome gun control. My immediate instinct is to resort to some form of "You can kiss my country ***", even though I realize there is a place for regulation, risks, that guns arent saving anybody from internal government abuse, etc.
However, I found that leaving the cultish lifestyle for independent thinking to be a hollow. Belief in "this is the way it should be" or "this is the way it is" is a driver for people to strive for, and humanity needs that for the most part, IMO. Animal instinct drives this same behavior for survival, so if you want to look at it from a science/evolutionary perspective you'll see a possible relic.
As far as cult goes here, Jazzfanz GD and America has sliwly been losing touch with this is how life is. I hypothesize that the widespread loss of religion leads people to search for a new cause to fight for to fill that void of meaning to life.
