Why Are We Here? (Part 4)

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

~ Psalm 16:11

Greetings my fellow Americans!

The third of three “unalienable” rights with which we have all been endowed, according to the American founders, is the Pursuit of Happiness. Now, while there is no denying that “Happiness” is a very subjective and specious target, there can be little doubt of, or disparity in, what is generally meant by “the Pursuit of” it, at least in a cohesive and well-ordered society. What has become a dispute of nation-disintegrating proportions—dare I say intentionally so—is the role of government in objectively guaranteeing, or otherwise equalizing the probability of, the achievement of said state of pleasure, contentment, confidence or satisfaction.

Insofar as those who, conveniently or otherwise, omit the pursuit portion of this unalienable right from their narratives are able to shroud and/or obfuscate their true intentions in the mass emotional turmoil of “social injustice,” we as a nation have virtually dislodged ourselves from the founding anchor of individually-empowering equality of opportunity to mindlessly pursue government-enriching, group- and victim-based equality (or equity, depending on the injustice du jour) of outcome. Suffice it to say, it is clear from the American founders’ inclusion of the phrase “Pursuit of” that theirs was the former intent; that said, and regardless of the object and depth of one’s interpretation of happiness, this mission of life for one was to be fundamentally safeguarded while balancing it with the pursuits of all others to whom this is endowed, a la the right of Liberty.

The government of the United States has never truly had founding legal claim on deciding what was to be pursued, nor on actively prohibiting what it deemed to be unworthy or unjust goals. It certainly had no constitutional standing (and still really doesn’t) in the realm of “discomfort,” whereby one’s right to pursue his version of happiness made another uneasy or “feel bad or inferior.” But Jeff, but Jeff, what about slavery? What about it? What gives anyone the right to lay claim to “reparations” from a particular nation or society for something that not only happened long before any one of us alive today was a party to, and to which tens of thousands of Americans sacrificed their lives in resolving—and at a time when the rest of the world was every bit as embroiled, if not more so, in the practice of enjoining other humans in labor? I would be happy to spend time on another series of papers exposing the harm the so-called advocates of outcome equality has actually done to the breadth of opportunities for happiness which were available to those slighted by the practice of slavery before the government decided to take an active role in this. But I digress.

As with both Life and Liberty, the preservation of the right to the Pursuit of Happiness, within a society, rests as much, if not more so, with the personal responsibility, and self-discipline, of each individual as it does with the government they collectively charter to address and resolve disputes among, and conflicts between, the people exercising those rights. True freedom is never free, and is about the wherewithal to make one’s own choices in his pursuit of this state of being, and to be subject the consequences of making choices which run afoul of his fellow men.

What seemed to best distinguish early America from today was their recognition and acceptance of our true human condition, and that no amount of legislation or external government force is going to fundamentally change it. No person can define Happiness for another, and any social engineering with this goal in mind is doomed to fail, as the best that can be accomplished is for the subjects of such force may go through the motions for a time (and perhaps a very long one), but will eventually revolt under the duress of enslavement to another’s version of societal “perfection.” Our imperfect world warrants some level of government over anarchy, but any lasting peace and harmony will only come as a product of individuals willing to coexist in exchange for realizing their own individual purpose and “happiness.”

Leave a Comment Cancel reply