Happiness Is a Political Act

In an age that demands we be sad, efficient, and alone, choosing to pursue happiness can be a truly radical gesture. We have been convinced that happiness is a prize to be won, but reality dictates that happiness is political, a form of collective resistance.

What, then, is happiness really—and why should we stop treating it as a private matter? Starting from personal reflections as an activist in a moment of discouragement, Giulia Blasi dismantles the narrative of isolation and searches for a concrete alternative to the sense of helplessness that defines our times.

The result is a book that does not offer easy solutions to complex problems, but instead sketches out a map for navigating our shared crisis, seeking a way out of the “Tapinocene”—the era of unhappiness—where we are crushed by unmet needs, alienated from our own lives, and left feeling lonely in a hyper-connected world.

With the clarity and irony that distinguish her writing, Blasi exposes the toxic ideas surrounding power, the body, work, and life, showing how economic, cultural, and social systems are designed to make us feel inadequate: too fragile, too tired, too alone. Page after page, she builds a journey that blends seriousness and humor, analysis and digression, bound by a single thread: reclaiming happiness as a common good and a right to be defended.