Higher than an unalienable right
On role models, the Declaration of Independence, and why it's more important to be good than happy (but happiness is still really good)
Among those who are prone to thinking of government and political power as the main locomotive force of history, there is a high-risk tendency to place one’s own happiness above all other things. To the unlettered person, the Declaration of Independence itself gives license to this idea when it proclaims an “unalienable right” to “the pursuit of happiness”. Thus, they are satisfied to conclude, “If it makes me happy, then that’s the most important thing”.
■ This massively misses the point of that document. The pursuit of happiness is a right, to be sure, but it is more important to be good than to be happy. Nobody cares whether Hitler was happy; he chose evil, and that overshadows everything else.
■ The reason that the pursuit of happiness deserves to be documented as a right isn’t because being happy is itself a right -- it’s because power (usually, but not always, through government) is so often used in bad ways. Some people could be made very happy indeed if they were given unfettered access to the public treasury, unlimited claims to the labor of others, or unconstrained freedom to break the law at will.
■ The moral dimension to life -- the question whether or not to be good -- is dangerous to legislate but absolutely imperative to the success of self-government under the rule of law. The law cannot be enforced at all times everywhere. The vast majority of civilization itself depends upon people choosing to be good for reasons other than the threat of punishment and sometimes in direct opposition to their own happiness.
■ Beyond the imprint of human nature, that’s something we can only gain through training and habits, from families and religious institutions, role models and social structures. It’s often easy to see who has grown up without those influences, because they appear only to ever ask “Will this make me happy?” and never “Is this a good thing to do?”.
■ If we really are in a more atomized age than ever before, then it’s going to take some work to make sure the habits of “good” get their due attention. Without them, a few people will surely take advantage of power when they can get it, and by extension, take advantage of everyone else.