The State of American Happiness
Call us grandiose, but here at Soul Shelter we like to think we explore some of the essential issues of modern life, most namely the pressing challenge of getting a living while protecting the soul. That one’s no easy matter in this country of ours, perhaps because we’ve all been indoctrinated in the notion of “American Happiness.”
This notion has an inherent philosophical beauty, of course: the concept of equal opportunity; the self-evident truth of one’s right to seek one’s own particular destiny; the ideal of material bounty shared by all; freedom from authoritarian regimes, etc.
But as many of us experience on a day-to-day basis, American Happiness is peculiarly vulnerable to the distortions of capitalism, and can engender troubling lines of logic like the following:
1) ‘This country’s bountiful material rewards come of good ol’ American hard work, therefore… Since my material rewards haven’t yet materialized, it’s because I’m not working hard enough, therefore… If I work as hard as I can and still fail to reap those rewards, well, damn, it’s no one’s fault but my own; i.e. I am not pretty enough, not charming enough, not ambitious enough — or not ruthless enough; i.e. I’m a failure by nature and unfit for the American dream.’
2) ‘I’ve done plenty of good ol’ American hard work and I now have all the material rewards I ever wanted! — but I have yet to experience the warm glow of American Happiness, therefore… I’ve not gained enough to become happy, therefore… I need more, more, more and cannot rest till I get it!’
(Our nation’s greatest playwright, Arthur Miller, wrote a masterful play on this very subject almost sixty years ago.)
This month, we’ll celebrate the birthdays of two legendary American presidents (not to mention the votes we will cast in numerous states for tomorrow’s Super Tuesday primaries), so I thought it timely to offer discussion of this pervasive cultural idea.
The November 2007 issue of The Atlantic Monthly contained a compendium of mini-essays by America’s foremost intellectual, artistic, and political figures on the subject of “The American Idea.” One contribution, by Arianna Huffington, dealt with the American definition of happiness. It requires no commentary. Enjoy.
Watching the news in our celebrity-choked culture, it’s easy to feel that the grand experiment envisioned by our Founding Alchemists — turning a fizzy mix of freedom and responsibility into societal gold — has spun wildly out of control. The promise of unlimited opportunity has given way to rampant narcissism and misplaced perfectionism (and the disappointed self-loathing that inevitably follows the search for a flawless self).
But isn’t this the logical result of the path the Framers set us on? After all, from the beginning, America has been dedicated to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” hasn’t it? So why not lust after fame and Botoxed beauty and hedge fund riches and size-0 jeans? Thomas Jefferson told us to, damn it! Only he didn’t. The signers of the Declaration of Independence assumed that some truths did not have to be proved — that some truths were, to borrow a phrase, self-evident. It was self-evident, for example, that the happiness to be pursued was not the blissed-out buzz induced by drugs or shopping sprees. It was the happiness of the Book of Proverbs: “Happy is he that has mercy on the poor.” It was the happiness that comes from feeling good by doing good.
Happiness today has been reduced to instant gratification. We search for “happy hours” that leave us stumbling through life; we devour “Happy Meals” that barely nourish the body; we believe the ads that tell us that there is a pill for every ill, and that happiness is just a tablet away.
But there is good news. All around the country, individuals are choosing to redefine the pursuit of happiness in ways much closer to the original American idea. More young people are volunteering than ever before, and more and more people, young and old, are including service to others in their busy lives. There are, of course, days when the travails of Britney, Lindsay, and Paris dominate the news, but the American idea, embedded deep in our cultural DNA, is inspiring us to pursue a much less shallow happiness.
See you on Thursday, when Tim will offer a second part to his discussion of Bushido, searching for chivalrous virtues here at home — in the figure of our current president.
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