Happiness and the right to pursue it are sometimes wildly unrealistic as ideals; and, because wildly unrealistic, unconsciously self-destructive.
Interesting essay with some good tidbits. This bit on pathologies could also apply, more mildly, to how we react to differing opinions:
We tend to pathologise the forms of happiness we cannot bear.
And on education:
There are, for example, only two reasons for children to go to school – apart, that is, from acquiring the werewithal to earn a living: to make friends, and to see if they can find something of absorbing interest to themselves.
Mark Larson 