If you are a person chasing after self-betterment, Andreas Wagner has written a book just for you! Happily Ever After explores several common entrapments that stand as hurdles to happiness in our modern world. The book is not overly long and is sure to resonate, at least in part, with most people. Wagner’s argument is that we are over saturated with stimuli. Advertisements bombard us with better video games, tastier food, more unique social media outlets, and so on. When we constantly indulge, we rarely have a chance to reset. Particularly with food and sex, Wagner makes the case to try to break our addictions.
The text of Happily Ever After is shored up with current scientific findings that point toward our society of constant satiation. A comparison between pornography and insects driven by instinct involves male beetles that would try to mate with glass bottles because they seemed like a more desirable partner. “So male beetles try to impregnate beer bottles and male humans try to impregnate computer screens.” Comical, sure, but also a sobering graphic of what is going on with a huge percentage of our population in today’s pleasure-dominated society. Although some of the methods to overcome addiction may seem unorthodox, being a slave to addiction is often a difficult and uncomfortable process. For those that find themselves hurt by pornography and abused by their own unhealthy relationship with food, Happily Ever After offers hope.
