LOS ANGELES — Gratitude is the attitude most people attribute to the Thanksgiving season. But what if that was America’s outlook for the entire year? In PragerU’s newest video, The Key to Unhappiness, PragerU Founder Dennis Prager names gratitude as the most important trait a human being can possess in order to unlock happiness and goodness.
According to Prager, having gratitude leads to a good and happy life. Grateful people walk around with the belief that they are truly fortunate. This sense of thankfulness not only makes a person happier, but also more kind. In short, almost everything good flows from gratitude.
Therefore, the converse is also true: Almost everything bad flows from ingratitude. Prager contends that it is impossible for ungrateful people to be happy or good: “There isn’t an ungrateful happy person on earth. And there isn’t an ungrateful good person on earth.”
The first reason why ungrateful people are not good or happy people is that a lack of gratitude creates a victim mentality. This mindset blames family, historical maltreatment, or literally anything else, for any real or perceived deficiencies in a person’s current situation. “Perceiving oneself as a victim, or as a member of a victim group, may be the single biggest reason people hurt other people, from hurtful comments to mass murder,” says Prager.
The second reason why ungrateful people are not usually good or happy is that they are also angry, and angry people typically lash out at others.
Unfortunately, modern society has replaced gratitude with a growing sense of entitlement, the idea that you are owed that which you have not earned. “The more that you feel that life, or the state, or that others owe you, the angrier you will get, the more bad you will do, the more you will lash out, the less happy you will be,” explains Prager. “We’re actually developing bad people by making people feel entitled.”
Prager outlines two simple rules for life: “Rule number one; the less you feel entitled to, the more gratitude you will feel for whatever you get, and the happier you will be. Rule number two; the more you feel entitled to, the less happy you will be.”
Prager believes that any decision about a social policy should be based on whether it will increase or decrease gratitude among people. “Then you will know whether it is something that will bring more goodness and happiness to the world, or less.”
“If I could make one wish, that all people would have one single quality, yes, it would be gratitude,” concludes Prager. “That is the source of happiness, that is the source of goodness, and the more good people, and the more happy people there are walking around, the better, obviously, our world will be.”
MEDIA NOTE: Dennis Prager, PragerU Founder, is available for interview, as is CEO Marissa Streit. Please contact MediaInquiries@theKcompany.co.
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PragerU, founded by Dennis Prager in 2011, is a not-for-profit organization that helps millions understand the values that shaped America and provides millions of Americans and people around the world with the intellectual ammunition they need to advocate for limited government, individual responsibility and economic freedom. In 2016 alone, PragerU’s videos received over 250 million views, a figure that will eclipse 350 million in 2017. PragerU is a resource for all who value liberty. It is a threat to all those who do not.
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