This is, as far as I know, an expression used with the intention of cursing someone: “May you lead an interesting life.”
But we no longer see an “interesting life” as a curse; in industrialised countries, we are starving for stimulation. We want to be the target of this curse.
This is what I see: that nobody wants to coexist peacefully; that no one chooses to make a positive – or at least, charitable – interpretation of a word or action when there is scope to take it in the worst possible light.
This imperfect society – which, however, is the closest to perfection we have achieved in the short history of our species – has given us so many stimuli that we have lost our sensitivity. We are desensitised.
And this desensitisation leads us to seek the drunken high of revolution and self-destruction, instead of the peaceful march of reform and evolution.
We are searching for an interesting life.
And we are getting there.