This is a very common phrase that is used as the founding principles of some of the greatest nations in the world. Sounds perfectly logical from the communal point of view, providing a driving force to help propel the society forward do to this motivation to pursue happiness.
Yet, this article is not some random article to prepare my SATs essay paper, nor is this some feeble attempt at improving my written English. I found myself disturbed by this innocently perfect sounding phrase. The SOP (standard operating procedure) of "defining your terms" is obviously irrelevant with google turning out results of "define happy" as "joy" and "define joy" as "state of happiness". I am assuming for the most of us that we understand the concept of happiness.
"So what is so wrong with pursuing happiness? Is it not normal to want to be happy?" My issue here is not with the concept of happiness, but with the concept of the pursuit. Simple, it is like labeling "the best is yet to be" on to your own personal satisfaction, there is and will be no end to this wild goose chase. For there are no limits or rather quantifiable means to measure happiness and being emotional and thus irrational-at-some-point creatures, we humans just do not know when to stop especially when it is impossible to put up a sign that says "this is it" or "this is happiness" in this pursuit.
"So what do we do? Just be happy with our own miserable/mediocre life? That is easy for you to say when you have everything, from the great education that you had been through to being able to afford a collage education. It is easy for you to say when your life is filled up with the glamor that the "American Dream" (or the localized and outdated 5Cs) is within your reach and you are having difficulty choosing which of these red-carpeted paths you will walk down."
(from the atheists... Perhaps?) "Or perhaps you are going to tell me to be satisfied that an unidentifiable God died an non-verifiable death (though many, including me, argue otherwise) for me so I should just be happy because I am part of this great plan that I will never be able to understand. Yeah, sounds really convincing right there."
Sarcasm and cynicism aside (writing an article like this is an obvious magnet for those), all I am putting forth on the table is a mindset change. Where the pursuit of happiness is unnecessary when all that is needed to attain happiness is the right frame of mind. Over idealistically optimistic about the prowess of optimism this argument may sound, the subject of discussion here is still on the "pursuit of happiness". As such, pessimism is not only non-applicable, but also non-desirable. You can be happy or miserable by your own choice, there is no need to spend any effort in this wild goose "pursuit".
What about the motivation to progress then? I will simply propose, "To God be the Glory, The Best is Yet to Be"
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Does satisfaction = happiness?
ReplyDeleteWe are told to be satisfied with everything God has for us, for indeed he will provide more than what we need. But we are to also have a holy dissatisfaction of the state of the world to change it and in so changing have this happiness. So well i guess satisfaction may not necessarily give us happiness (as seen in the mediocrity of many incidents). So where does one find the balance?
I suppose therein lies the issue of definition of happiness. However, TOK junk aside, my personal take that the happiness, or more appropriately termed joy, is not really available for pursuit with the term "pursuit" carrying ample amount of connotation of being self motivated. Isn't this joy of "fixing the world" giving by God and not by any means the result of our pursuit?
ReplyDelete*given by god
ReplyDeleteWhat I think and what I type is apparently two different things... Wow..