The current Happiness meme is bullshit.
The commentary is that you are on this earth to be happy. That you should only be doing what makes you happy.
“Follow your heart.”
This sounds nice and would be nice, if it were true. Truth is that humans are not the only inhabitants of this planet, and most inhabitants of this planet put forth massive amounts of effort to survive. To wake up the next morning.
Why then are we so special, that we should be put here for the sole purpose of being happy? What makes humans so unique in this respect?
Granted, for many of us, certainly most in the United States, life doesn’t require the amount of effort that it once did. However, that does not confer any special meaning in itself. No more than your pet dog’s life being super easy compared to a wild wolf’s, confers any special meaning.
Additionally, how does the current Happiness ethos inform people in this world dealing with real struggle and suffering? How does it impact the real injustices, even right here in the United States? What does it say to someone with real horrors in their life, to say that Happiness is the standard of success.
Similarly, it seems convenient that the people who control things in this world, seem to be in pursuit of other things, largely by selling us Happiness.
Happiness has been commoditized, packaged, branded, and marketed to us as some sort of special ethos. Something that, the pursuit of, places the pursuer on a higher spiritual, ethical. And, conversely, if you’re not happy, you fail.
I, myself, could care less about my personal happiness. Take it or leave it. I don’t want my life force, and my time in this life to be spent on self-gratification. That is not growth. That is not progress. Nothing grows without struggle and effort. Muscles don’t. Trees don’t. Babies don’t. Families don’t. Cultures don’t.
Additionally, the converse is also true, lack of effort leads to atrophy, decay and death. Civilizations die. Muscles die. Thus, Happiness, as it is popularly conceptualized is a fairly risky state.
I do believe in Goodness. I would want my struggle and suffering in this life to lend some measure of increase to the Goodness in this world.
That would make me Happy.