The Pursuit of Happiness

Americans today are on a path to greater happiness.

I realize that sounds like an outrageous assertion and flies in the face of relentless headlines about the death of the American Dream.  But, the happiness I am talking about isn’t the ephemeral burst of retail therapy, bungee jumping or “experience cruises to nowhere”, but of a more enduring kind- one that ultimately leads to more genuine gratification, purpose and lasting pleasure.

The right to the “pursuit of happiness” Thomas Jefferson wrote about in the Declaration of Independence- is the kind that inspires us to develop the virtues of gratitude, grace, and generosity.

I believe the real emerging story is not about the American Dream dying but of being reborn.  The opportunity to pursue a more meaningful life is the potential upside to the downturn.

It’s difficult for us to see this potential right now because we are bombarded by media images that focus on our eminent demise.  We are biased by a perceptual frame work of rampant individualism.  As Bob Dylan sang, “everybody sees themselves walking around with no one else.”  We’ve also bought into a mindset of endless consumerism. A misguided belief that more is more. These forces combine to blind us to some truly significant positive shifts in values, attitudes and action. A new spirit of determinism focused on living a more valuable life is emerging among us, muffled and all but suffocated by a cloying layer of scandal, skepticism, and suspicion.

To see it and sense it requires building some new vision and bandwidth outside our usual narrow spectrum. Once we tap into this broader wave length, we will see that the American Dream is being reborn – a dream that is far truer to our noble character and far more sustainable.

To have our country’s culture defined by consumerism and excesses cheapens our heritage.

Martin Seligman and Gregg Easterbrook have identified the paradox.  After decade upon decade of increased wealth, education, abundance - every objective indicator and measure of personal, family, and life satisfaction have not increased. Contrary to common belief, in study after study there is a surprisingly low correlation between wealth and happiness. This is true not only in the US but also in most other wealthy nations. As our purchasing power goes north, our well being goes south.

The kind of happiness we’ve been blithely chasing creates what Seligman describes as “an endless treadmill of hedonic habituation”. Like a mouse in a Skinner Box  or a junkie on dope, we live our lives chasing the next possession, the next experience, and the next notch on our gun belt. As we rack, stack and stuff it up, we find the things we’ve worked so hard for no longer make us happy. Nothing is ever enough.  Depression is now 10 times as prevalent as it was in 1960 and it hits us as a society at an alarmingly young age, often in teenage years.

Our bloated expectations - far beyond our real needs - fuel a pervasive mindset of failure and disappointment - a negative spiral of not only keeping up, but trumping the Joneses.

Like the crisis of the American diet, far too high in processed carbohydrates, unhealthy fats, and empty calories - so is our pursuit of happiness. It leaves us feeling exhausted, unsatisfied and ultimately not any happier.

In a perverse way, perhaps we should say “thank you” for saving us from ourselves.

So the question to consider is not a new one but an ancient one.   As Aristotle first posed 2,500 years ago during the Golden Age of Athens:

What are the components of a good life for you?