The left are a miserable lot. Psychologically, they differ from the right in how they feel when they engage with their opponents. For the most part, the right is willing to consider even their foes human. While they fight with all sincerity, you'll typically find more happy warriors on the right than on the left. They are typically very secure in their beliefs. 

I don't think it would be news to my readers that the left doesn't fight with the same amount of positivity. You've seen for yourself how they're willing to rage at the slightest provocation. They have entire groups that go out and cause violence and destruction while screaming at people, sometimes incoherently. The left has been known to abuse their own bodies, purposefully uglifying them in protest of everything from traditionalism to gender roles. They'll even inject themselves with chemicals and mutilate themselves, proof that they don't just have no love for others, but none for themselves either. 

They hate the country (not during election season, apparently), they hate God, they hate Republicans, they hate traditional values, and they hate you. 

Yet here they are, telling us that they're so full of joy. Their campaign is running on joy. Kamala Harris is so joyful, and the Democrats are joyful, and their supporters are joyful, and happy, happy, joy, joy. 

I won't get too deep into the philosophical specifics of joy, but I will say that joy is something you have. It's not something you acquire.

Let's say that you win $10 million. You'd be elated. Suddenly, things that were once closed to you open themselves for acquisition. That boat you always wanted can be yours now. You can go on that expensive vacation you always wanted. You can buy that dream house. 

But if you didn't have joy then, you still won't have joy after you have these things. Joy is a thing you can always find in the present if you look for it. Even if you're down in the dumps, you can keep your little lamp lit with the simple joys around you because joy springs from the appreciation of what you have and are now, not what you want or could be later. Joy is in the journey, not just the end result. You'll remember the memories of getting there far more fondly later in life than the arrival itself, and those memories are far more useful anyway.

This seems to be largely forgotten in the modern era, when immediate gratification has become the chief concern for many. They receive what they want instantly, whether it's information, food, or entertainment. Even companionship has been too streamlined, taking a lot away from the process of courtship. 

What does this have to do with the left and their "joy"? 

The left considers its joy something it has to obtain. For them, there's a Utopia on the horizon and there can be no joy until the fight is won, and they will fight this fight by any means necessary. Only after they achieved that Utopia, where everyone is happy, equal, and there is no sickness or strife, can there be any joy for anyone. 

This is all just dragon chasing. In the current universe we inhabit, a perfect Utopia isn't achievable. We can try to get as close to it as we can as a collective, but a fantastic life is only something you can achieve by allowing yourself to have the joy of now and appreciate what you have in the present. That's not to say you shouldn't work to better yourself or your situation. But again, if you work toward your goals thinking you'll find joy once you've succeeded, you're going to be disappointed when the void still isn't filled. 

The left will never reach their Utopia, not just because it's impossible to do so in this life, but because even if they did receive it, they wouldn't recognize it. Their joy will always be on the horizon, and they will make everyone else miserable as they chase it. 

To quote C.S. Lewis a third time today...

“The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.”

If you haven't read Lewis's "The Great Divorce" yet, you really should. 

When the left tells you they're working joyfully, they're not. They want joy, but they won't allow themselves to possess it, not while the Utopia is still out there. Until then, everyone is guilty of social sins, victims will continue to spring up where convenient and so will their "oppressors," and whoever finds success has to feel guilty for the failure of others. 

But joy doesn't begrudge. It's not jealous. It doesn't demand. It doesn't accuse. It doesn't villainize. 

Joy is now, not later. Stop for a moment and think of your blessings, no matter how small, and all the things that bring you not happiness but contentment and peace, and you'll find joy there. 

And you'll be closer to a Utopia than the left ever will be.