Purpose and the Pursuit of Happiness
I believe in the right of all Americans to pursue happiness. We identified the right, outlined in our 1776 Declaration of Independence, as:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I believe the pursuit of happiness is what we think of today as “purpose”.
I believe that in order for individual Americans to find their own purpose, the government must secure the right of freedom of opportunity for all Americans.
What is the unalienable right to pursue happiness?
Thomas Jefferson may have started with the idea of the unalienable rights from English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704), who identified the fundamental natural rights as life, liberty, and property. Locke’s thinking of property didn’t just mean land or buildings, but ownership of self. For instance, Locke would believe you have a right to yourself as property, and thus a right to preserve and make decisions for your own life. A congruous concept today might be the right to make your own healthcare decisions.
Jefferson may have been influenced by George Mason’s Virginia Declaration of Rights, June 1776, which includes the statement, “pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
However, Jefferson never commented on his choice of the words pursuit of happiness, or if he did, those comments weren’t preserved. The Constitutional Rights Foundation states that Jefferson elected to use the term to mean freedom of opportunity.
The Declaration of Independence isn’t a legal document, so the courts do not debate the meaning of the term.
Because there is no official meaning of the term, it’s left to us to consider one of the unalienable rights that makes us American.
So far in our thinking of the unalienable right to pursue happiness, we have a right to own yourself and determine your own needs, and a right to freedom of opportunity. There’s still something missing. A right to determine for yourself, and the freedom of opportunity…for what?
The oldest text of which I am aware that examines the pursuit of happiness and purpose is Ecclesiastes. It’s a 3,500-year old Hebrew book, attributed to King Solomon, though experts debate the author, origins, and timeline of the book. The Jewish people had a verbal or oral history tradition and I’m certain the text changed somewhat over time.
Ecclesiastes is a book of philosophical struggle. A couple of highlights:
“I decided to cheer myself up with wine while my mind was still thinking wisely. I wanted to find a way to enjoy myself and see what was good for people to do during their few days of life.”
“All are from dust, and return to dust.”
Solomon considers throughout the book what could give life meaning instead of nothingness. He considers principles of nihilism (a philosophy of, “extreme skepticism maintaining that nothing in the world has a real existence”), and he considers the Creator. In his circular argument he identifies that there is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in their toil.
Finding your purpose gives you passion. Seek your purpose. Eat and drink (I would add, with those you love), and enjoy your life’s work.
Let’s consider the three theories together. Locke wrote to own and make decisions for yourself. Jefferson wrote to pursue happiness. Solomon wrote to enjoy your toil.
Another component of America is government. If we are given an unalienable right to find our purpose and pursue happiness, what is the role of government? Jefferson further identified in the Declaration of Independence that we institute a government to secure the unalienable rights:
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
If our government has a responsibility to secure our right to pursue happiness, what does that look like?
What ‘can’ we do, as a government, to improve Americans' pursuit of happiness?
The book The Politics of Happiness, author Derek Bok, looks at the topic. Bok considers wealth, healthcare, participation in government, and other matters. I would describe Bok’s approach as mostly a governmental programs approach to legislation. I would ask, why would an increased governmental programs approach be our default starting point?
Our approach should be to look at the issue through the lens of individualism. Americans have the unalienable right to be able to make decisions appropriate for themselves, and make a life and living for themselves, enjoying their work along the way. They need to have the means to afford to have children, to buy houses, and to gain education and training for their occupation.
This is good for America. America needs Americans to have the means to make a good living. We need to grow as a nation, we need a high quality workforce, and we need our young generations to be secure in financial resources.
How would we get our young generations started on the right foot, so they can own a home while they are still young, have children along the way, and secure their financial future into their retirement years? Do our high schools prepare our young generations to have this ability? Does going to college give them this ability? Of course the answer to these questions is ‘no’, even though we convinced a generation of youth that going to college would secure their futures.
If we were going to have an incentivized program to secure the pursuit of happiness for young Americans, wouldn’t it be a trades program? Our community colleges and tech schools fill some of this need, but they lack needed capacity.
By trades I mean traditional trades such as electrician, HVAC, and woodworking. But also computer programming, radiology technician, and veterinary technician. Even up and coming agriculture trades like being an urban greenhouse grower, or a digital mapping software technician to enable smart farm machinery, or an agricultural data analyst who considers agriculture market futures, weather/water patterns, and rotational soil needs to make decisions for crop selection.
Our youth could graduate from high school (or complete their GED), and have many choices. Some of the choices—they could join the military. They could work in their family business. They could go to college. Or, with the guidance of their parents and high school guidance counselors, they could gain training and education in their desired occupation.
This program should focus on the future needs of young Americans and industry, and industry should partner with government to sponsor this effort. Funding could include a combination of private scholarships and Pell Grant, to enable our most needy youth access to the training. Our local community colleges, enabled by remote training opportunities we all used during the recent pandemic, could be a logical starting point for distributed training locations.
If we are going to, as a nation, improve Americans’ ability to pursue happiness, we need to enable all Americans to determine a good future for themselves, and enjoy their life’s work.
Freedom of opportunity for all Americans.
Thanks for considering my perspective.
May God bless the United States of America.
