Against the pursuit of happiness, in the Guardian.
Look, the problem is not that you want to be happy. The problem is that you have been lied to about what happiness entails.
Happiness is not a feeling. It's not a passion. It's not a thing that you experience, or that happens to you.
Happiness is an activity, as we know from Aristotle: and the particular activity it is, is the pursuit of excellence.
Go do that and you'll be happy in a new and better way. And you'll live a better life too.
5 comments:
Of course, a Brit would so badly misunderstand what Happiness is to us colonials.
John Adams on Happiness: All men are born free and independent, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.
Eric Hines
Happiness is an activity, as we know from Aristotle: and the particular activity it is, is the pursuit of excellence.
Too many people let the perfect become the enemy of the pursuit.
Chris B. has a very good point.
Grim, I think you might enjoy St-Exupery's last, unfinished book, Citadelle, published in English under the unfortunate title 'Wisdom of the Sands.' It consists of the philosophical musings of the fictional ruler of an imaginary desert kingdom. Hard to summarize--I've been meaning to review it for a long time, but haven't yet. One review I found online is here:
http://www.doyletics.com/art/wosart.htm
The style is sort of...faux-biblical...I'm not sure whether or not that is an artifact of the translation.
St-Ex was killed (disappeared flying a P-38) before he could complete the book.
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