Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

That's a point that I couldn't quite articulate -- there's a sort of magical thinking in the western world that tells us to be happy, and if we're not happy, maybe we're not trying hard enough and we deserve to be sick or sad or ... whatever.

I suggest this is a combination of magical thinking, the just world fallacy, and good ol’ fashioned Calvinism, repackaged and commodified for sale under capitalism. :\