Happy is the man who, in the
course of a complete life, has everything he desires, provided he desires
nothing amiss. - St Augustine
Our forefathers pledged
their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to securing freedom from a tyrannical
King George III and establishing a nation that acknowledges and upholds the inalienable
rights of each individual to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Tragically,
over the last 70 years or so, society has moved toward a wholesale rejection of
the complexities of self-responsibility for the simplicity of having King Daddy
III in DC making our decisions for us, telling us what will create the greatest
degree of happiness for the majority of its subjects. Of course, to take away
our inalienable rights, one of the things statists had to do was redefine
“happiness,” which now means the fulfilling of our desires without any thought
of an objective moral order that applies to the individual, as well as the state.
Just as our Supreme Court
often prefers redefining our founding documents according to the latest social
fads and political agendas to discovering original intent, and ruling
accordingly, so the common citizen prefers his own definition of “happiness”
over what the author’s intended.
Newsflash: They were not
guaranteeing our rights to infantilism or making way for a parental (re:
tyrannical) state.
When Jefferson and Co. wrote
of “happiness,” they were referring to pursuing one’s own wellbeing--also
referred to as a well-lived life--which, for them, required living virtuously.
Therefore, in their minds, while pursuing happiness included seeking after
material goods, it went much deeper because happiness depended upon our moral
health.
Writing to James Monroe,
James Madison expressed his concern about misinterpreting, “the pursuit of
happiness” in its application to the interests of society at large (1786):
There is no maxim in my opinion which is more liable
to be misapplied, and which therefore needs elucidation, than the current one
that the interest of the majority is the political standard of right and wrong.
Taking the word “interest” as synonymous with “ultimate happiness,” in which
sense it is qualified with every necessary moral ingredient, the proposition is
no doubt true. But taking it in its popular sense, as referring to the
immediate augmentation of property and wealth, nothing can be more false.
Happiness and Consumption
For us moderns, however,
happiness comes from consumption: in the purchasing of more and more
possessions or in consuming our neighbor’s possessions via a confiscatory system of taxation. Moreover, because we no
longer believe in a divinely ordained and objective moral order, there are no
limitations that may be placed upon our pursuit of happiness. There is only one
“sacred” standard: my desires. If my desires go unmet, I am unhappy. If I am
unhappy, you—either as an individual or individuals collectively represented by
the state—must take care to see that my desires are met. After all, such is my
right as an American citizen!
This redefining of happiness
has opened the doors for an epidemic of consumption: a societal outbreak of
spiritual tuberculosis that is suffocating all possibility for true happiness
for individuals and society. As long as we live our lives divorcing happiness
from virtue, thinking only in terms of our present desires rather than a
well-lived life before God, we will be consumed by death.
Copyright, Monte E Wilson, 2016
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