I had the pleasure of re-reading Lord Talon’s Revenge over the weekend, when on break from driving.  By the superversive and estimable Tom Simon.

Here’s an aside that stuck in my mind  (I’m paraphrasing):

False Opposites: Varying the minor premise of a sin or a virtue and declaring it the opposite, while the major premise remains the same.  For example, the wise prefer being right to happiness, and fools prefer happiness to being right.  A cynic thinks he is wise because he prefers unhappiness to being right.

That last italicized last line is deeply true.  Curiously, that insight suggests that cynicism and Chicken-Little style panic are aligned.

I’m not  sure of the bit about the wise and fools though.  Seems to me that preferring to be right rather than happy is one of the ways that smart people can fail to be wise.  What do you think?  Musing out loud, I might say fools prefer short term happiness to long term happiness and the wise the reverse.  Or maybe that the wise are those who find happiness in the right.  Only fools allow them to be in opposition.