Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

These are supposedly the unalienable rights of human beings, as stated in the United States Declaration of Independence.

Life. In simple terms, existence. Living. Not being dead yet. Breathing in and out. Going from one day to another. Meeting people. Parting with them. Touching each other in every way possible. Thinking. Feeling. Expecting. Rejecting.

Ultimately the life of every human being is nothing but the sum total of all the connections that they make while they are still a mass of carbon compounds and complex chemical reactions. Even a vegetable on life support in an ICU is connected. Maybe just to the extent where his relatives are wondering about whether or when to pull the plug. Once the plug is pulled, the connection is severed and life is gone.

Liberty. Freedom. No encumbrances. Choice. Will. The ability and the willingness to choose a course of action that one wants.

Life is useless without Liberty. At the same time, if Life is nothing but the sum total of connections, is there ever real Liberty? True Liberty would mean living life on terms of nobody else’s but one’s own. That implies having absolutely no connections with anyone at all. Which in turn means being dead.

So ultimately, it seems like Life and Liberty are forces that pull in opposite directions. Strangely one cannot exist without the other – the dead cannot exert any free will, can they? So all of us exist from one day to another, convincing ourselves that in a small way we are alive and pretend to be rational animals always taking the best choices available for us. The greatest irony of all is the Statue of Liberty. An 111 feet tall lady pretending to be the symbol of liberty for all the world, permanently frozen in time. Without even the choice of lowering her aching hand for a second.

Pursuit of Happiness. Note the use of the word ‘pursuit’. Keep chasing. More than the happiness, it is the pursuit that is the unalienable right of all human beings. It is implied in the phrase itself, that happiness can never be attained. Is it any wonder at all, given that Life and Liberty are constantly at loggerheads?

I normally like to end my posts with a well thought out conclusion. Right now I’m not in the mood. In fact, this whole business of Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness itself is a load of depressing bullshit.