What's the Persuit of Hapiness all about?

Question

I immigrated here (to the US), I luv it, but sometime its not like I thought it would be.

Answer 1

"The Persuit of Happiness" is a phrase which has value because it is contained within the founding documents of the USA. Understanding the extent to which it is possible, or not, requires some level of understanding of where the phrase came from.

Thomas Jefferson "came up" with that slogan as a replacement for "PROPERTY."

You see, the true historic philosophical founding father of the USA is John Locke:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke

He wrote that every man has the right to, "Life, Liberty and the ownership of property." When the founding fathers were creating the USA, they (especially Thomas Jefferson) took the political philosophy of John Locke almost word for word. But they substituted "Persuit of happiness" for "Ownership of property" because they weren't quite sure about the ramifications of using the original wording.

The result is that we have this nebulous idea known as "The American Dream." Some of the lucky ones who experience it got there through property ownership. Others by inventing something. Others by making wise investments in the stock market. Still others by building a business. And, there are even those who got there by engaging in illegal activities, like the Kennedy family or the Sopranos(fictional example).

Consequently, to fully understand WHAT this phrase means, we need to go back to the original text of Locke, which will describe how an individual can combine effort with natural resources (which are unlimited according to Locke, both physical and metaphysical) to create something of value for himself.

Unfortunately, the reason why you are right is because the founding documents lack clarity in these regards. Therefore, upon further evaluation of the phrase "Persuit of happiness" we are left hanging to a certain extent.

Answer 2

The answerer above gave a very detailed formal explanation of the phrase. But simply ask yourself " Do I want to be happy all the time?" In all liklihood you will say "yes".
Then figure out what makes you happy. What kinds of things you want to do to be happy. Pursuit of such activity is the Pursuit of Happiness- doing what makes you happy.

Answer 3

Do not persue happiness, make it come after you. I mean, do not make happiness conditioal and depnding on soem other things, make it a process from within yourself itself. Happiness through external factors may be quick, but they vanish too soon. lasting happiness can only comefrom within yourseolf only, though it may take time.

Transplantation is alwasy painful. if is a human problem only. In the new enviornment, look for only positive things, and alwasy think positive, and be happy.