Pursuit of happiness is the desire that seems to have driven man kind to evolve from being mere cave dwellers to residents of magnificent cities who now seek abode on distant planets. It’s the stimulus that triggers man’s conquest beyond mere survival. Unlike animals satisfied at their mere fulfilment of basic instincts, humans seek a deeper purpose of existence. While it is still in debate, what consciousness really implies or are humans any different from animals or not; what remains evident is that existing construct of social exchange revolves around a concept of happiness. Pulling at any single string of this web of desire, you will find dreams of happiness laced at its end. Be it the search of a soul mate, a perfect job, a perfect home or a perfect child, they all conclude at the search of Happiness.
The idea has been part of philosophical debate since the Greek and ancient Chinese Philosophers till modern day thinkers. Yet a localized, contemporary discourse is pertinent to establish its relevance in the extraordinary environment that exists in present times. Particularly, as we huddle through a phase of socio-political upheaval and brace to receive the impact of an unprecedented eco-crisis widening the gulf between our desires and reality.
Despite this idea being pivotal to our behavior we are generally oblivious to its construct and form in popular culture. Capitalism has sunk its teeth so deep into this dream that it rampantly promotes materialism in gab of happiness. Ideas range from earning a certain salary, buying a luxury home, owing a certain car to lunge at the fruit of happiness. In an infoage plagued by the pandemic of commercialism; advertisement and marketing beam constant streams of illusions corrupting thisfantasy to the core. Happiness now is a mere excuse to indulge in an endless rat race disfiguring not just our own physical formbut also the environment.
Happiness as sold by market driven corporate media, cannot validate its self an all-encompassing achievable end state in a world of un-equal wealth distribution. Basic argument that,happiness of one individual may differ from another, hints at an inherently lucid structural core, setting our discourse free from any attempts to generalize it. What we seeks to identify is the core structure/ essence of the concept of happiness and to ascertain whether it remains a valid ideal within our prevailing social structure.
For happiness to be a valid conception, capable of being end all of all our strife, it has to have an inherent stability. Such a state to be unstable and reactive to environmental changes would negate its validity as the end state of all means. Happiness must therefore be a stable state of an all-encompassingequilibrium in which you are at peace with yourself and in harmony with your surroundings. Once such a state is achieved,no external interference by factors that are beyond the individuals control should render him unhappy. This state of happiness once achieved should be capable of sustaining itself provided the one attaining that state does not play a part in destabilizing it. Any assumption that such happiness will be a passive state of existence is negated by the need of an active element (subject human) who constantly seeks to maintain abalance between himself and the perceptional reality that surrounds him.
Identifying stability or its non-reactive nature as a core aspect of happiness is essential to separate it from pleasures. Pleasures are those momentary peaks of ecstasy experienced by humans during a hormone intensive exchange with theirenvironment, essentially to maintain an existential balance. Impulse to gratify these senses is hardwired into our software through thousands of years of evolution; the urge to mate, to reproduce, to eat once hungry, to enjoy a beautiful scenery would provide us with a deep instinctive stimulus for an instantaneous though short lived dose of pleasure. This exchange however will be dependent on the environment, whichis the availability of resources that induces this state of pleasureand is bound to return to a state of unhappiness once internal hormonal balance returns to stock. Argumentatively, if a human gains access to a physical state, that enables a constant stream of pleasures, threshold of his achieving this ecstatic state will start changing. A man who has eaten his fill will not enjoy the pleasures of another meal till he is hungry again and gradually grow numb to excess of availability. Similar relationship can be plotted for any of our biological instinct and similar results are likely to be achieved. History is filled examples that support the argument that excess of pleasure inducing stimuli raises thethreshold of satisfaction rather than creating contentment,spiraling humans towards an uncontrollable moral/ physical degeneration. Argument can be amplified to highlight how this state of plentiful pleasures alone will not only be unsustainable for humans as a whole as and will remain in constant conflict with the environment. Thus, can be fairly concluded, that conquest of pleasures if mistaken for conquest of happiness will not only be untenable but if persisted upon will result in gradual degeneration of both the individual and his environment.
Disassociating the interdependence of happiness and theenvironment enables us to identify self or the subject human as the core active element on which true happiness depends. Immaterial of environment he exists in it is he and how he views himself in the backdrop of his beliefs that true happiness depends on. This conclusion resonates of ancient Greek and Chinese philosophy which regularly debated morality and virtue as inherently connected to the idea of happiness. Evenpsychological literature like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Wants connects human motivation with self-actualization. Association of virtue/ morality with happiness also forms thebackbone of Quranic philosophy and is ingrained within the construct of our idealistic social exchange. Al-Quran at various occasions refers to an end state of having no fear of grieve,which if philosophically examined may be termed as a state happiness. This recommended state is thus dependent on a follower’s perception of reality carved by faith requiring a constant effort to tread the right path as ordained to maintain this state.
Whether or not the ultimate dream of happiness of all beings is same as ascertained by the scripture, liberal values of democracy or data; what is pertinent to understand is that it will have to satisfy the conditions dwelled upon in the above lines.How we can achieve this state of perfect equilibrium is a topic of discussion.
Temporarily Numb 