I am a theoretical physicist and currently Director of 
July 04, 2011
On the pursuit of happiness
On this independence day holiday, I am repeating a post on what to me is one of the most intriguing phrases in the US Declaration of Independence. It is contained in the famous sentence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
I have always found the insertion of the phrase "the pursuit of happiness" as an inalienable right to be appealing. One does not expect to see such a quaint sentiment in a revolutionary political document, and its inclusion sheds an interesting and positive light on the minds and aspirations of the people who drafted it.
While happiness is a laudable goal, the suggestion that we should actively seek it may be misguided. Happiness is not something to be pursued. People who pursue happiness as a goal are unlikely to find it. Happiness is what happens when you are pursuing other worthwhile goals. The philosopher Robert Ingersoll also valued happiness but had a better sense about what it would take to achieve it, saying "Happiness is the only good. The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now. The way to be happy is to make others so." [My italics]
Kurt Vonnegut in his last book A Man Without a Country suggests that the real problem is not that we are rarely happy but that we don't realize when we are happy, and that we should get in the habit of noticing those moments and stop and savor them. He wrote:
I apologize to all of you who are the same age as my grandchildren. And many of you reading this are probably the same age as my grandchildren. They, like you, are being royally shafted and lied to by our Baby Boomer corporations and government.
Yes, this planet is in a terrible mess. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any "Good Old Days," there have just been days. And as I say to my grandchildren, "Don't look at me, I just got here."
There are old poops who will say that you do not become a grown-up until you have somehow survived, as they have, some famous calamity -- the Great Depression, the Second World War, Vietnam, whatever. Storytellers are responsible for this destructive, not to say suicidal, myth. Again and again in stories, after some terrible mess, the character is able to say at last, "Today I am a woman. Today I am a man. The end."
When I got home from the Second World War, my Uncle Dan clapped me on the back, and he said, "You're a man now." So I killed him. Not really, but I certainly felt like doing it.
Dan, that was my bad uncle, who said a man can't be a man unless he'd gone to war.
But I had a good uncle, my late Uncle Alex. He was my father's kid brother, a childless graduate of Harvard who was an honest life-insurance salesman in Indianapolis. He was well-read and wise. And his principal complaint about other human beings was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy. So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, say, and talking lazily about this and that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."
So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."
Good advice.
Comments
"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
Abraham Lincoln
I agree with Abe. I think happiness is an attitude, an approach to life. Which is not to say that there isn't difficulty, struggle, and disappointment. Speaking of attitude, I think it is also good to have "an attitude of gratitude" which for me, contributes to my happiness.
Shalom Mano,
If I'm being an old fart here, forgive me.
I take your (and Uncle Alex's) point, but Jefferson understands "happiness" in this case to mean "vocational prosperity."
B'shalom,
Jeff
If happiness = X
X = Y - Unhappiness, where Y is greater than unhappiness. The greater the Y, The greater the happiness. Unhappiness can happen in so many ways, to a greater or lesser degrees. Therefore telling a person to be happy as some of the articles seem to suggest, appear to me similar to telling a person who is severely depressed 'come on, get a life'. I think the pursuit of happiness is not in and of itself the problem. It is a question of what people think they must do or achieve to be happy. I think the first thing a person must try to do is to reduce or eliminate unhappiness. He/she may need help to do so. Therefore he/she must do something in pursuit of happiness. What the founding fathers probably meant was that every person must have a right to pursue happiness in the sense that he/she must not be prevented by someone or the state putting obstacles in his/her path. In many ways this is similar to the right to life and liberty.
"My purpose is to suggest a cure for the ordinary day-to-day unhappiness from which most people in civilized countries suffer, and which is all the more unbearable because, having no obvious external cause, appears inescapable."
Bertrand Russel, Conquest of Happiness
Russell held progressive, often controversial views on social issues, including sexuality. Vigorously opposed to conventional or religious morality, he sets forth here a rationalist approach to achieving a happy life. - A book Review.
Need I say more?
Manik
I read that a few years ago, and now I make it a point to say it whenever it seems appropriate.
As for "vocational prosperity," if that's how Jefferson defined it, then who are we to argue? Every person has their own version of happiness.
I agree with Peggy and Abe. I heard of a story where twin girls were often locked in a room as punishment from their dad and one of the girls had some serious issues from these events and the other didn't. She used to daydream and began to enjoy the time. So to some degree you can 'make' yourself happy.