The History of Happiness

 

I say you should never take happiness for granted. However, there are countless fascinating perspectives to be found in its long and thought-provoking history.

Granted, the emotions of fear, love, hate and, of course, happiness are the most basic human emotions. They are doubtlessly central to what it means to be human.

It’s interesting that we didn’t always regard happiness as something natural or even human! Long ago, happiness was seen as something from the gods, and it was definitely better not to be messed around with.

We are in debt to the great minds of history. They developed our modern conception of happiness, transforming it from something mysterious and arbitrary into something to be pursued!

It wasn’t until the city of Athens was democratized in the fifth century BCE that people began dreaming of a happy life that they could influence. Prior to the downfall of the Persian Empire, people thought happiness was out of their power. With all the misery at the time — poverty, inferior medical technology, political suppression and so on — happiness seemed better left to the gods.

After the empire’s defeat, Athens began to blossom. Now a democracy, people began experiencing a new freedom — inspiring them to believe they may have some influence over their happiness.

Socrates and his student Plato believed that people could have more control over their lives, and thus their happiness. they argued that it wasn’t just up to fate, luck or the gods. It was up to the people themselves. To them, happiness was the ultimate goal, far greater than mere earthly satisfactions. Longing for happiness was a natural human tendency,

Aristotle saw things a little differently. He believed that we must look to the world; only there could we unearth our role as humans and the true role of human happiness.

The “Dark Ages” were so called because they sat between the “light” of the Roman Empire and the European Renaissance. But some historians say it was dark because everyone was so grumpy and miserable. During these times, many people had a negative outlook on both life and the concept of happiness. Full of despair, they felt trapped in their own bodies, which frequently caused them pain. It’s not at all surprising that, during this time, the Black Death obliterated almost a third of Europe’s population.

By the fifteenth century, people began to lighten up and started philosophising about life and happiness.

By the middle of the eighteenth century, most people viewed happiness as a natural light, and this is where our modern notion that everyone has a right to happiness stems from.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the American Declaration of Independence states that it’s a self-evident truth that everyone has certain unalienable rights, including the right to the pursuit of happiness. The prevailing belief was that everyone was on their own in the journey toward happiness.

Ben Franklin used wine to illustrate his point, saying that God had given us the opportunity to grow happiness all by ourselves, for example, by cultivating wine. I’ll drink to that!

I still say we all have a say in our happiness. If you’re not feeling happy, go out and change that. Having a bad day? Eat some chocolate! Drink some wine!