The Pursuit of Happiness
Even though I’m English, I’m still objective enough to realise that one of the most important texts of the eighteenth century was the American Declaration of Independence. From the beginning, and in the phrase “we hold these truths to be self-evident” it speaks to our better nature, it is inclusive, and collective.
At the time, the ideas held in the Declaration of Independence were pretty radical - the ideas of human rights that have become expressed in various 20th century declarations were new and to some people disturbing. One of the characteristic features of the American declaration is that it holds that all men (not just Americans) have the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It is certainly true that in Western Europe we have taken to these rights like a duck to water. In the European Union, capital punishment is outlawed, and even in the most trigger happy of the more developed countries its use is reserved for the most serious of cases. Liberty, and by extension, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to a fair trial are the cornerstones of modern democracy.
The pursuit of happiness in the form of increased leisure time and material wealth, could be viewed as one of the myriad of benefits of the industrial revolution and the post-industrial world. But although I like my leisure time, and am not against increasing my own material wealth, I don’t think that these bring me true happiness.
Rather happiness comes, I think, with living a deeply fulfilling life. A fulfilled person occupies their time with worthwhile things - not just worthy things. They live a virtuous life. They may be religiously inclined or they may not, but they have values which they seek to put into practice.
Let us try to go for happiness and not wealth or endless leisure.
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Very relevant thoughts, especially this time of year and coming from someone who doesn’t live in the United States.
I feel like all of humanity, specifically America, would do well to recognize and understand this, and I would also say that a great number of significant men in the past-philosophers, theists, and atheists alike- all lived for the greater virtues of which you speak.