The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

period, when many people have thrown over the
old standards without acquiring new ones. This
leads them into various troubles, and as their
unconscious usually still believes in the old
standards, the troubles, when they come, produce
despair, remorse, and cynicism. I do not think the
number of people to whom this happens is very
large, but they are among the most vocal people of
our time. I believe that if one took the average of
well-to-do young people in our day and in the
Victorian epoch, one would find that there is now a
great deal more happiness in connection with love,
and a great deal more genuine belief in the value of
love than there was sixty years ago. The reasons
which lead certain persons to cynicism are
connected with the tyranny of the old ideals over
the unconscious, and with the absence of a rational
ethic by which present-day people can regulate
their conduct. The cure lies not in lamentation and
nostalgia for the past, but in a more courageous
acceptance of the modern outlook and a
determination to root out nominally discarded
superstitions from an their obscure hiding places.