One of our unalienable rights as U.S. citizens is the pursuit of happiness. Unalienable rights come from our Creator.
Recently, I have been pondering on the meaning of the phrase the pursuit of happiness. Progressives misinterpret and distort the meaning of this phrase. Liberals tend to think of “the pursuit of happiness” as meaning “happiness guaranteed”. Neither our Declaration of Independence or our Constitution ever guaranteed happiness to individuals. Happiness is not simply an emotion but is defined in terms of living a good life, living life to the fullest extent possible. ”Happiness guaranteed” is an impossibility. For a person to achieve this happiness needs to be both acquired and accepted within one’s own heart and soul. This cannot be given like a gift. When a person earns an honest living, and is able to provide for his or her family that gives a person a sense of pride and accomplishment. That sense of pride and accomplishment may lead to his or her’s happiness.
Money, even having loads of money, does not guarantee that a person is going to achieve happiness. Remember Scrooge? While certain situations and celebrations can make a person happy these moments in time do not guarantee happiness either.
Based on my experience in having conversation with progressives, they believe that the government must be involved to ensure peoples happiness. Progressives don’t believe that they as individuals have the power to choose their own destiny. Liberals believe that they are unable to pursue and achieve their own happiness on their own. Conservatives and libertarians believe that they have the ability to empower themselves, pursue and achieve their own happiness without assistance from the State. Conservatives and Libertarians believe in taking risks in order to achieve success, accepting responsibility for taking those risks, and not relying on the State to bail you out if you happen to fail when trying to achieve a goal, which may include achieving happiness. Progressives think that the State needs to play referee, promote favoritism toward particular groups in our society, rather than be left to their own free-will having the ability to choose which path is best to take in order to pursue happiness, and ultimately achieve happiness.
My hope is that every person may achieve happiness.
Filed under: Conservatism, Declaration of Independence, God, United States Tagged: conservatives, Creator, Declaration of Independence, distort, empowerment, libertarians, misinterpret, progressives, pursuit of happiness, unalienable right
