The pursuit of happiness

Is the pursuit of happiness a goal for most of us? Let's take a look.

Religion has lost focus of its goals. Church attendance is down. There are scandals around money, power and sex. Most wars are sectarian based. Few church leaders can articulate the role of religion and few have the courage to speak out against violence or speak frankly with other church leaders.

Government should support the common good, but it doesn't know what that is. It is too involved in serving the politicians, bolstering ideologies, turning a blind eye to corruption. It is broken.

Education is so loaded down with social and political overtones and bureaucracy that it is drowning in it. Should it be training for careers, helping create productive individuals, develop decent human beings of just get through the day?

The family? What is a family? Whatever it is, it can't be counted on to prepare students for an education or get them safely through adolescence. It has no communal goals for happiness or success as human beings for its members.

But here's where capitalism reigns. It, unlike these other institutions, has a very clear goal. Make money by turning every citizen into an avid consumer. It does this consummately. We can never be happy because we never have enough. We must work enough to get enough no matter the cost in human terms. Even our leisure time is spent consuming--entertainment, shopping, sports. We don't see leisure time productive time, as time to expand ourselves as thinking beings.

In fact, capitalism is so successful, it has in effect bought religion, government, education and family.