Is There Such a Thing as a Happy American?

Is there such a thing as a content American? Is there a fulfilled American? Is there a “Happy American?” Maybe you consider yourself a happy American. Maybe not. If not, what about a happy American’s life is different from yours? Is it wealth, power, social status; an intimate relationship? If you are a happy American, then what aspect of your life do you think most contributes to your happiness? Are you happy all of the time or only in short intervals?

First, we need to define what we mean by the “happy” in Happy American. To do this, we might consider how we describe friends who we deem to be happy. We might say that a certain friend doesn’t have excess stress, they are comfortable socializing, easy going, they are kind to others, not afraid to laugh, comfortable with themselves; they might bounce back from bad experiences quickly. (Of course these are my personal observations and your’s might be different; they might not.) But do any of our lists include “has a lot of money,” “has a lot of friends,” etc.? They might have, but I would contend that money and fame and fortune cannot be part of our definition of a happy American. Indeed the material often get in the way of happiness. Imagine a friend who owns your dream car, but in order to afford it, he spends nights and weekends at work. Is this imaginary friend happy? What does this mean? Even if the rest of our list differed, we must come to the same conclusion that material possessions have no place in our definition of happy. It would seem then, that happy is not something that you have, happy is something that you are. That is the important point to remember.

So, now that we have our lists of what is means to be happy and we agree that happy is actually a state of being, let’s take a look at the “American” part of the happy American. What does it mean to be American? What are the goals and dreams of our people? By what means do we judge worth and success in America? I think it is reasonable to bring up celebrities. There are too many cases of the rich and powerful, acting out and breaking down in public for us to ignore. Think of Lindsey Lohan maybe, or Brittany Spears. Actors and actresses, movie stars, performers, and musicians, harbor mass followings of Americans who are willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to watch them perform. What about cars and houses? For years the American dream consisted of owning a little piece of America, with a white picket fence, and a shiny car in the driveway, and the latest clothes, and the thinnest phone, and the most powerful this or that. So Americans built their culture around that dream. Even in our dilapidated economy, importance and value are attributed to what you own. You are not considered a successful or accomplished American unless you have. If you have not, then you fall into the grey limbo of American poverty that eats away the ethical fibers of the American people while others turn away. In America.

We have two very different concepts competing for territory in the same term, “happy American.” Of course you can both be a happy person and live in America, but if American culture, and your survival in that culture, depends of the constant pursuit of the material, then the idea of the happy American is an oxymoron, and we live in a country that exploits the unhappiness of its people, to gain more material assets, to bring much to few, and at the end of the day, no one is more or less of the person they were at the start. We go to school, we get jobs, we put in long hours and hard work, so that we can get that car or that house or those friends. Some of us never make it, but are constantly tossing at the seductive ebbe and flow of all consuming consumerism. Those who do get the house and the car find out faster than the others: material things did not make them happy. On the contrary, they found that when they finally did achieve their financial goals, they felt lost, with the drive for money finally subdued and the troubles they carried inside for so long intensified.

If real happiness comes from the immaterial and our American culture holds the material as the ultimate judge of personal worth, then can there be a happy American? Does something need to change?

Source Article from http://www.nationofchange.org/there-such-thing-happy-american-1359384739

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