Happiness is one of the most
commonly contemplated subjects in the world. Everyone wants to be happy, but
there is no set way of achieving it. Some people try to attain it through
adventure and achievements, like climbing a mountain or completing a bucket
list. Other people try to buy things that will make them happiness, which is
the origin of the phrase money cannot buy happiness. Both of these strategies can
work, but rarely create permanent happiness, which raises the question, what
can?
The idea of happiness is closely
related to an idea that is labeled the American dream. The first publicized
mention of this idea was in the declaration of independence which said that all
people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I personally believe that what the authors of
the declaration of independence meant by that was that every citizen of the
United States could attempt to attain happiness in any way they see fit, even
though it may not even be possible to fully attain it. In the United States we
have the ability to gain what we need, and the opportunity to attain happiness.
Now back to my original question,
what can provide permanent happiness? There are probably thousands of theories,
each as likely as the last. In the Euphio
Question by Kurt Vonnegut, he writes about one possible theory of attaining
happiness through technology. Here is a passage from his short story, The gadget is, I think, what a lot of people
vaguely foresaw as the crowning achievement of civilization: an electronic
something-or-other, cheap, easily mass-produced, that can, at the flick of a
switch, provide tranquility. In the Euphio
Question Vonnegut also explains how perfect happiness, would necessarily create
a utopia either as he says in this passage; The
question is not whether euphio works. It does. The question is, rather, whether
or not America
is to enter a new and distressing phase of history where men no longer pursue
happiness but buy it. I think what Vonnegut means by this is that since
pursuing happiness is to a lot of people the meaning of life, what life would
be without it.
One of the reasons I think perfect
happiness is unachievable is in its name. In almost every single way
imaginable, perfection cannot be fully attained. There is always some way to
improve. You could make a more accurate measurement, run a lap faster, buy a
better phone or gadget and you could still do better. As in Nathaniel
Hawthornes, The Birthmark he writes, The momentary circumstance was too strong
for him; he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and, living once
for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present. What I
think Hawthornes meant by this was that attempted to achieve full perfection,
when he had what was already very near perfection, and paid the price for it.
