Are You Happy?

In June of 1776 Thomas Jefferson penned in his declaration the famous “unalienable” or natural human rights that were to be a cornerstone of this Nation’s political philosophy. It wasn’t particularly original. Popular philosophies in the 18th century from men such as John Locke and Francis Hutcheson had reflected on similar natural rights of Man, and George Mason had only weeks before written his Virginia Declaration of Rights using a similar phrase. However Jefferson, with Benjamin Franklin’s advice, had substituted the pursuit of happiness for (the pursuit of) property, the word used by such as Mason and Locke. This pursuit of happiness, which has been quoted a billion times in America, both in political and non-political contexts, is a befuddlement to me. The pursuit of property I understand, but just what does happiness mean? Of course the unalienable right is the pursuit, but in a real sense is it the pursuit of something which is actually attainable?

Are you happy? That is one of the most common questions in the English language, or probably most languages (but certainly not all). It, or an equivalent question, is asked by parents to children, children to parents, spouse to spouse, lover to lover, sibling to sibling, friend to friend, therapist to patient, and so on. Although the asking is easy, the honest answering of it is extraordinarily difficult. It’s so difficult that most people really don’t answer it at all. They may say “oh sure” or “most of the time” or “things are tough” or “I try to be” or “I’m feeling great”. That’s what we might say, but mostly we’re thinking: I have no idea. We might answer with conviction that we’ve been pursuing happiness, but why is it so difficult to definitively answer whether we’re there or not? We’re not even sure what it feels like… contentment?... tingly?... warm?... rich?

One could probably answer with assurance that “sometimes I’m happy and sometimes I’m not”, which might better reflect day to day life. That conclusion may, however, be confusing happiness with, say, joy. We know what joy is. It happens on a roller coaster, shared passion with one’s love, watching a good movie, or eating something delightful for example. It’s entirely acceptable that completely miserable people might have many joyful experiences. I believe the reason it is so hard to conclude whether your life is happy or, said differently, you are a happy person is because there is no such thing as happiness. Jefferson and Franklin’s natural right is directed toward something that doesn’t exist and as such has been a bedrock of continual confusion.

How can there be no happiness? You might say it’s like saying there is no love (at least we know that love and happiness don’t necessarily cohabitate). No, love is real, however I feel the word happiness is a misdirected term. I had an epiphany some time back when I realized that what we call happiness is really the absence of fear.

Fear is the single most driving emotion we possess, and for good reason. It is the primitive emotion for survival. I don’t know if prehistoric men sat around thinking about whether they were happy or not, but I can be damned sure they knew how to be scared, or driven by the panic of starvation. I can also assume that at those times when their needs were met they probably felt pretty good, but those times were not happiness, rather they were the absence of fear.

Today we find fear everywhere, not just in day to day, meat and potatoes survival. Fear is a tool of our economic and political systems. A majority of commercials and news stories in some way merchandise in fear. Crime, germs, investments, child protection, education, jobs, health, beauty, age, mechanical safety, food, weather, corruption, sex, or anybody who isn’t you. Any one of us could write a list as tall as ourselves. On a day or week or month when you shed yourself of most fear how do you think you would answer the question: are you happy?

If Jefferson had stated in our Declaration of Independence that our unalienable rights were to life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom from fear then maybe as some politicians place a gun to the nation’s head threatening to pull the trigger if they don’t get their way, more of us would have a better understanding of who is on the side of the nation’s people and who isn’t.