If we are fools enough to remain at the mercy of the people who want to sell us happiness, it will be impossible for us ever to be content with anything. How would they profit if we became content? We would no longer need their new product.
The last thing the salesman wants is for the buyer to become content. You are of no use in our affiuent society unless you are always just about to grasp what you never have. The Greeks were not as smart as we are. In their primitive way they put Tantalus in hell. Madison Avenue, on the contrary, would convince us that Tantalus is in heaven.
Thomas Merton, OSCO
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 84
