Christmas in July

We need a little Christmas, right this very minute,
candles in the window, carols at the spinet.

— Jerry Herman

Happiness among Americans has reached a 50-year low, according to a new survey by the University of Chicago.

Although the nation's prospects were bleak, by comparison we were happier when JFK was shot and when the Twin Towers fell.

We're abjectly unhappy now—and worried our children and our children's children will never be happy, as well.

But do Americans deserve happiness? I'm not sure many do. 

Its pursuit might be, as Jefferson believed, an "unalienable right;" but what have Americans done lately to earn happiness? Stockpiled more guns? Denied hungry families food stamps? Locked migrant children in cages?

And what is happiness, anyway?

The Enlightenment thinker Kant defined it as "getting what you wish for."

Simple enough.

But there's a problem: what do you wish for? A pink Cadillac? The Hope Diamond? A seat on the stock exchange? A guest spot on The Bachelor? A house at the beach? A mansion in St. Louis?

"While every human being wants to attain happiness," Kant said, "he can never say decisively and in a way that is harmonious with himself what he really wishes for."

You cannot know what to wish for—what would make you truly happy—because you cannot know what the future may bring. "Omniscience would be required for that,” the philosopher said.

Kant's advice: don't chase after happiness; instead, pursue virtue. 

Act morally—be of good will—and at least you'll become happiness-worthy. You'll find that you never treat other people as the means to happiness; you'll treat them, instead, as fellow human beings. And when you treat other people as fellow human beings, it ceases to matter whether what you do, or don't do, increases or decreases the supply of happiness in the world—yours or theirs. All that will matter is you've added to the world supply of good will—and perhaps made yourself a bit more worthy of being happy.

Acting morally is like pausing to buff a diamond you can never own. 

"A good will is not good because of what it effects or accomplishes, it is good in itself," Kant said. "Even if by utmost effort the good will accomplishes nothing, it would still shine like a jewel for its own sake as something that has full value in itself."

Done anything virtuous lately?

If not, maybe, like most Americans, you don't deserve happiness; don't deserve Christmas in July.