Can socialists be happy?

Personal happiness is not the goal of socialism. Intellectuals do not advocate socialism because they want to be happy. For a concise overview of what socialism is and why some yearn for it, refer to the topic of "Socialism" in The Ayn Rand Lexicon. The excerpt from "Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World" explains, in part: "only reason can ask [questions that challenge socialism in theory and practice] -- and reason, they were told on all sides, has nothing to do with morality, morality lies outside the realm of reason, no rational morality can ever be defined.... [Rational questioning] did not and does not stop anyone; it is not an issue of economics, but of morality. The intellectuals and the so-called idealists were determined to make socialism work." They were taught that "the collective sacrifice of all to all is the moral ideal, [and] they wanted to establish this ideal in practice, here and on this earth."

An earlier excerpt also explains, "The alleged goals of socialism were: the abolition of poverty, the achievement of general prosperity, pogress, peace and human brotherhood. The results have been a terrifying failure -- terrifying. that is, if one's motive is men's welfare."

Seeing such terror, over and over again, wherever and whenever socialism is put into practice, socialist intellectuals can't help but gradually lose hope, becoming deeply disillusioned and thoroughly cynical. That is not a description of a happy person.