Ethical systems that despise happiness often unconsciously provide outlets for cruelty and power.

Evidence

The sort of ethic that is called ‘noble’ is less associated with attempts to improve the world than is the more mundane view that we should seek to make men happier. This is not surprising. Contempt for happiness is easier when the happiness is other people’s than when it is our own. Usually the substitute for happiness is some form of heroism. This affords unconscious outlets for the impulse to power, and abundant excuses for cruelty. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2347

Categorization

• XREF: XREF: Relates to philosophical ethics and the psychology of political actors. — connects to: The worst human pleasures, including cruelty and power, are mental rather than physical — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 615; Ideological commitment requires willed moral blindness to human suffering; Colonial states engineered morality by harnessing affect in their agents. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 426 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 2347

Library Connections

• The worst human pleasures, including cruelty and power, are mental rather than physical #complicates (0.60) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 615

Broader Connections

• Ethical merit requires the conquest of contrary impulses #complicates (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 243
• Ideological commitment requires willed moral blindness to human suffering #complicates (0.55)
• Colonial states engineered morality by harnessing affect in their agents. #expands (0.50) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 426