"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"
This is written into the US declaration of independence and is a message that has been broadcast globally yet, what exactly is happiness and is it worth pursuing?
The debate as to what happiness meant when the declaration was signed and what it has come to mean is not new. The modern interpretation of happiness is about momentary pleasures yet, back in 1776 it is more likely to be about general well-being and the possibility to flourish.
I wrote a post a few hours ago about freedom within a society and wrote this:
Freedom is found when we are uninhibited to give of ourselves all we can to the world, only then are the constraints that hold us back as a singular and a piece of the whole removed.
Wouldn't this be life, liberty and happiness? Life would be protected and encouraged to bring its best and be its best and in doing so, wouldn't happiness ensue? But, here is the problem. In a comment on the post:
There is a difference between happiness and contentment. - @roundhere
Indeed there is. Happiness as we know it today is momentary and fleeting, not a generalized concept of well-being. What that means is that the peaks of the feeling of 'happy' become the indicators of what it means to be happy and we should all know, the peaks are impossible to maintain.
Contentment is when one has had enough, it is a balance point between being hungry and over-eating. It is satisfaction, no more want. The peak happiness people seek will mean a continual striving, like an addict looking for a high as high as their first. A chase that will ramp up the dose needed each time but will always fall short.
Happiness also drives for pleasure but limits the work necessary for contentment, the give all of ourselves aspect is removed and the expectation is one of entitlement, happiness is received and it is guaranteed by unalienable right. When the peaks are not constant and the feeling happy returns to the mean, people feel their rights have been encroached upon, they have been oppressed.
But it is in the pursuit that indicates the work toward and not the receiving of. It is in pursuit that the concept of journey, not destination is indicated. The pursuit means consistent work, not consistent return.
It is in our quest for an eternal high and our unwillingness to work for satisfaction of the work itself that controls us, pushes us to be consumers, not creators. We have been manipulated into believing that becoming collectors of what is peddled to us is the way to have life, liberty and happy but, it is this very process that programs us to be robotic, chains us to desks and dulls the senses to the beauty that the world is. Unless peaking on happiness, our life is not reaching its potential, we are oppressed.
We are oppressed but it isn't because of a lack of happy, it is because we are unwilling to work out what we are and our place in this world and give ourselves freely to it. We have bought into the lie of master and authority and think that the maximization of the self will bring on an impossible to maintain high. And that maximization of self based on pleasure is tied to the oppression of others through a process of supply chain optimization to bring the purchasable products of Happy.
Find those who are truly happy in this world and you will see for yourself. It isn't a happy of pleasure nor product, it is one in service to a path. For each this path is different yet, very little of momentary happiness is to be found for it is a movement toward satisfaction, a pursuit of something greater than today. A maximization on the individual to offer all they can to the world.
It is this pursuit that lasting happiness is found and it is in the work and servitude of life itself where passion is held. Happiness is not easy, the balance between hunger and greed a fine line to maintain yet, it is one that offers the full experience of life without limiting the path of any other.
We think we are oppressed because the world does not give us the opportunities we feel we deserve. We are oppressed by expectation and our sense of entitlement that we deserve what we have not worked for. Inalienable rights can't be protected for they are natural and undeniable yet, we deny ourselves happiness through our unwillingness to strive for better.
We are not unhappy because of the universe has dictated it to be, we are suffering because we as a society look to maximize ourselves over the position of others and call it competition. Rather than work to build a community of flourishing, we each look to be better than the next and we will crush each other to prove it.
It is this lie that we have swallowed that holds us back. This falsity of media, corporation and government that continually perpetuate it to play us off against each other, polarize us, limit us, separate us for their own purpose and agenda. It is a protection of their wealth and power, their control over what we think and do and the creation of a continual customer for the trash they sell.
They have taken our inalienable rights and taught us how to alienate ourselves.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]