Jennifer Anniston Says It's Our Fault We're Not as Happy as She Is

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In the September issue of Glamour magazine, Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis engage in a scintillating interview/promotion for their upcoming movie, We're the Millers. In the "interview", they discuss hot topics like how nice Jennifer is, how lovely Sudeikis's girlfriend - Olivia Wilde - is, and how lucky they are to have such amazing people in their lives.

It's a real hoot to read, let me tell you. Zzzzzz….

While processing their incredible luck! and joy! and perfect couplings!, the following exchange occurs:

Jason: What would you tell the teenage you?
Jennifer: Don't try so hard. Pay attention. Do your homework. Go to class.

Jason: What would you tell your 20-year-old self?
Jennifer: Not to fret so much. I did OK in my twenties.

Jason: Thirties.
Jennifer: Thirties. Thirties. Go to therapy. Clean up all of the sh-t. Clean up all of the toxins and the noise. Understand who you are. Educate yourself on the self.

Jason: Yeah. Because at that point, anything that you thought was just a habit is actually you.
Jennifer: [But] you can undo a lot of things. If you're not happy, you can become happy. Happiness is a choice. That's the thing I really feel. Like with friends who refuse to get happy, who refuse to rise above the discomfort of where they're at.

Related: Whatever happened to Ross and Rachel?! Where the Friends gang would be today!

Perhaps your friends' dearth of happiness when compared to you might have something to do with the fact that, unlike you, they aren't SITTING ON A GOLDEN THRONE, JENNIFER?


I mean COME ON.

And listen, on the one hand I get what she's saying. People can get sucked into focusing on the negative and that's all the see, even if their life is objectively pretty good. They CHOOSE to focus on the unhappy, thereby making themselves unhappy. We all know these sorts of people, and their self-generated misery. Word up, Jen. Word. Up.

HOWEVER. Need I point out the insanely privileged position from which Aniston speaks of happiness? "Choosing" to be happy is frankly about a quadrillion times easier when, like Aniston, you're hugely successful, financially secure, beautiful, and adored by millions worldwide. When you're Joe/Josephine Schmo, working a thankless, soul-crushing job at Wendy's and struggling to pay rent and eat 3 meals a day, "choosing" to be happy becomes… just a bit more of a challenge. The idea that everyone just isn't choosing to be happy and could - regardless of their circumstances - seems to me the pinnacle of a privileged and out-of-touch person's world view. Sure, your car's getting repossessed and you can't afford to take your very sick toddler to the doctor, but IT'S YOUR FAULT YOU AREN'T HAPPY. Simply CHOOOOOSE IT. Bad choices, proletariat! BAD!

Ehh, just me? Or does this rub you the wrong way as well?

-By Tracey Gaughran-Perez

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