The Pursuit of Happiness

 In the readings for today, both Cullen and Davidson & Lytle explore the pursuit of happiness and what it means to the American people.

           In Cullen's The American Dream, the author writes, "The meaning of liberty, by contrast, sometimes seems all too clear: a celebration of the right to buy - if you've got the cash or credit.  And the pursuit of happiness - is it simply the acquisition of creature comforts?" (39).
Cullen asks his readers that is it really just getting the things that one wants that makes them happy? Can it really be that simple?  I think the truth is that these "creature comforts" are actually really hard to get - that the pursuit of happiness is hard unless people actually try, unless people actually have a vision that they set out to fulfill.  I think that the reason the "American Dream" seems so unattainable to so many people is that they do not know how to be happy, and that alone is the root of the problem itself.

           In The Art of Historical Detection, by Davidson & Lytle, the authors write,
"Francis Hutcheson had suggested that a person's actions be judged by how much happiness they brought to other people.  'Virtue,' he argued, 'is in a compound ratio of the quantity of good and number of enjoyers...that action is best which accomplishes the greatest happiness for the greatest number.'
...According to Enlightenment science, then pleasure was a quality embedded in human nature itself, the pursuit of which governed a person's actions as surely as the laws of gravity governed walking.  Further, since happiness could be quantified, a government's actions could be weighed in the balance scales to discover whether they measurably impeded a citizen's right to pursue happiness as he saw fit.  When rightly apprehended, the science of government, like the science of agriculture or celestial mechanics, would take its place in the advancing progress of humankind" (14).
The authors suggest that the government's actions should reflect the wishes of the people so as to have the most citizens happy as possible.  However, this is difficult when citizens have so many different opinions, because this means that someone will always be unhappy.  Different citizens have different wants of actions to take to pursue happiness as they see fit.  This is hard because at some point, the government has to draw a line, i.e. robbery, murder, rape...even though some individuals believe that these types of things would make them happy.  In all, the government's actions should be for bettering and further progressing the happiness of the American citizens.