The Pursuit Of Happiness In The Contemporary Era

Lazy fall days, colorful leaves, cooler weather, birds singing, frogs croaking, crickets chirping, relaxing to the sounds of the outdoors. Waves of water crashing upon each other, fishing, telling stories around a campfire, making s’mores, memories with family and friends; this is what happiness is to me. Happiness is in the eye of the beholder, what brings happiness to one person may not bring happiness to another person. When I think of the word happiness, I think of descriptive words like Contentment, enjoyment, satisfaction, delightfulness, something that makes a person smile. I have always looked at the word happiness as a feeling, an action, never have I thought of happiness as an overall affect. However, it is a proven fact, that happiness can affect the over-all health and longevity of human life. Happy people live longer than those that are lonely, stressed, or depressed.

I believe that one of the ultimate questions that all members of the human species asks is ‘How can I find happiness?’ and reflected in this question is a desire to find a happy, fulfilling, quality life. Many people try to find such happiness through their careers, material possessions, and all manner of other pursuits. What a large portion of these people do not realize is that happiness and the elements necessary to achieve a quality life may not come from place, position, or possession but from attitude. In both Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell and Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell, the reader can see these ideas explored in great detail.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” As you know these words come from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, perhaps one of the greatest documents ever written. However, I do have a little problem with the last four words sentence, “the pursuit of Happiness” because I believe it actually sends an easily misinterpreted message.

Everyone that is living in the world we live in today are all making their best efforts to obtain that which we all want the most, happiness. Many individuals will pursue that happiness, while others manage to compromise that happiness. Everyone has their own methods at trying to achieve happiness, but sometimes they just cannot pursue it and when they realize that what they want, they cannot have. Their happiness will become compromised. When at the same time some individuals can pursue that happiness and achieve what they truly want in life. Other times those who pursue their happiness, end up compromising their happiness in the process. The image “New York, ca. 1962” can be shown to prove what an

“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” as stated in the Constitution as well as stated by the philosopher John Locke, is the basis for the United States of America as we know it today. The notion that all humans were created equal and that all people are entitled to basic human rights came from the various experiences the colonists faced through the Revolution, which was a vital influence in the creation of the Constitution. The revolution was a key turning point in American history, it was when the American colonies rejected the ideals of the British and battled for their independence.

The U.S Constitution, famously known for establishing America’s national government and providing fundamental laws assuring citizens certain basic fundamental rights was a milestone in our countries beginning. In today’s society, especially with all the turmoil happening between people and governing bodies the rights which the Constitution provides is saving many Americans from being treated poorly or as most would say “unconstitutionally.” The Constitution is simply one of the most distinct and brilliant documents to ever see the light of day. Although some may have little to no knowledge of the Constitution, it

Every other Monday morning the workers of the fast food restaurant next door line up in my lobby waiting to cash their paychecks. There is a wide range of ages, races, and sexes; there is no one demographic in the lobby. The conversations are about coworkers not present or about their spouses. They complain about the long shifts or an angry customer they encountered in the drive up this morning. One young woman discusses her daughter’s adventures at kindergarten. There are complaints of the cost of car repairs or a visit to the hospital last week. There are questions of who is working tonight and what time does the bus come, all of these conversations could be happening in any bank lobby anywhere in the United States. The noise level continues to rise in the lobby as more workers enter the building, the energy in the lobby rises as the excitement of the workers increases, today is payday. Or is it anxiety? Are their thoughts, masked behind idle chit chat, of how am I going to pay rent and feed my family? How am I going to make this pay last for two weeks? These fellow humans are the full time working poor.

Some of the most common themes in contemporary biographical films revolve around social life as well as the accompanying problems that living in today's society entails. By making connections to individual personal lives, these films help most people make sense of the world in which they live. In this regard, this paper focuses on the film, The Pursuit of Happyness outlining various cultural issues as well as problems faced by the starring; Will Smith playing Chris Gardner in the movie. Moreover, the paper discusses how such factual films reflect and create popular ideas about social problems.

Throughout history people have been looking for something that made life special, spectacular, or one of a kind. Today, this search is known to the world as the “pursuit of happiness”. The phrase use was heightened during the enlightenment period and lingered for long after. This impact of its use did not only impact the way life was looked at but also impacted the arts during that time and for the future. Two pieces that show this evidence is the novel Candide by Voltaire and the song “Pursuit of Happiness” by Kid Cudi. Both of these works, even though they were published more than two centuries apart, carry the theme of the pursuit of happiness. These pieces are evidence of the unchanging pursuit that mankind goes through.

"The Futile Pursuit of Happiness" was published in September of 2003 by a man name Jon Gertner. It is an essay that discusses the difference experiences of happiness based on what a person believes will make them happy and the out come of their true emotions once the event actually occurs. The essay is based on experiments by two professors, Daniel Gilbert and George Loewenstein. The experiments the two professors performed showed that the level of happiness will not be the outcome because of affective forecasting and miswanting cause disappointment and false excitement in our real search for happiness.

The story of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness directed by Gabriele Muccino portrays a family who struggles with finding enough money to pay taxes and afford living expenses. The movie takes a place in San Francisco during the 80s. The two main characters are the father Chris Gardner and his son Christopher, Will Smith and Jaden Smith respectively. Gardner tries to support his family. But every time he attempts to make things better, they always end up worse. Gardner in the story wonders on "how to be happy?" He earns his money by selling the bone density

For our Economics subject, we watched The Pursuit of Happyness, a movie based on Chris Gardner, a salesman who was not making that much money and eventually experiences homelessness with his five-year old son. He faces problems when his wife is unwilling to accept his goal to become a stockbroker and leaves him. However, he perseveres even under all this stress.

When it comes to predicting how something will make you feel in the future, you will most likely be wrong. In the book Discovering Pop Culture, edited by Anna Romasino, is the article “The Futile Pursuit of Happiness”. In the article, author Jon Gertner talks about how people think certain things bring them happiness but aren’t as fulfilling as they may think. Gertner gives examples by writing about four men that have been questioning how people predict what will make them happy and how they feel after it happens. Among these men are a psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, psychologist Tim Wilson, economist George Loewenstein, and psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Gertner uses facts from scores of

There are many theories surrounding happiness, and the pursuit of happiness. Some believe that an external force must be present to bring about happiness, while others argue that happiness is individualized, and is completely up to a person's internal mindset of whether he or she is able to achieve and maintain happiness. Aristotle, a significant ancient Greek philosopher, believes that happiness requires an action. He affirms that there are many factors that play into someone's happiness; including materialistic things, which help support this state of being. His claim is that happiness is a holistic approach to life and must be achieved by living virtuously with moral character. Aristotle also indicates that happiness is not a moment in time, but rather a journey of exploration by way of living harmoniously, through a pursuit of achieving life’s goals and desires. He adds that a life of happiness is driven by virtue and emotions, which all play a role in achieving optimum happiness.

We began this course with the question “What is happiness? and Can we all achieve authentic Happiness? In our life we are taught many things, but we are not taught how to achieve our own happiness. Over the last five weeks we truly learned what happiness is and I believe we all can achieve authentic happiness in our life. In Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman uses happiness and well being as the terms to describe the goals of Positive Psychology. The desired outcome of Positive Psychology is happiness and well being. We learned from this course how to embrace both our positive feelings and activities to achieve authentic Happiness.