Spring 2016
by Enrico Cogno
Happiness is not governed
A great thinker, who recently passed away, Umberto Eco left behind a great deal of truly wise material on which to ponder. Among his many pearls of wisdom I was particularly struck by his reflections on two important subjects: happiness and its opposite, unhappiness.
Said Eco: having included the pursuit of happiness among the rights of man, as stated in the American Declaration of Independence, was a wretched mistake on the part of the founding fathers, because nothing is vaguer than the concept of happiness.
For one person being happy might mean having fun in a discotheque or buying a pair of shoes for another it might mean the thrill of a good book.
Consequently, committing a government, as varied and far-reaching as the American government, to produce happiness, represented and continues to represent an absurdity. This has determined a huge following in the world.
Instead, once again according to Eco, trying to reduce unhappiness to minimum terms could involve an entire nation in a program, a complicated one to be sure, but surely feasible.
Because unhappiness is undeniably the same for everyone: it’s the pain, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, it’s a sick child that we don’t know how to heal …The list could go on and on.
A government that proposes to avoid all this would surely know what to do: ensure medical care, prevent a child with disabilities from being cut out of society, lessen automobile accidents, reduce wasted time due to too much traffic ….
Here too the list is lengthy.
Persons who are not unhappy know very well how to reach happiness. Or, if not exactly happiness, then a sense of serenity.