The happiness problem

by Jon Sullivan - 2025-01-24 - Jonism

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For a couple years being happy 24/7 was great. As 2025 unfolds, happiness seems misplaced.

First - I am happy. I won't let go of happy. If fascists taking my happiness away would be even a miniscule win for them, they won't get it. Call me crazy, but I like being happy. But at the same time I am left devastated and heartsick by the government attack on my friends and family. I find myself emotionally gutted and constantly on the edge of tears. And there have been many tears. So..... If I sometimes seem a bit too happy during the nation's war on common decency, please know that there are waves of anger and disgust and horror seething behind my smile. At 62 I feel like my happiness was so long in coming and I don't want to let it go, even in the face of billionaire Nazis running the country. So, I hope it's okay if I am joyously happy, while also seething with anger.

When I was young I was taught, both at home and at school, that this nation was founded on the idea that all of us were here with innate rights. Not rights given to us, but rather rights that were an extension of human existence. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I was encouraged to say a pledge everyday which promised justice for all. Freedom, I was taught, was my birthright. That the USA, perhaps even uniquely, was a country where we would never live at the mercy of kings and dictators and slave owners. Where no one would be above the law. Where any common person could succeed and prosper based purely on their merit, rather than lineage or grift.

In 2025 that USA is gone. We are wage slaves to an oligarchy that uses machines to craft better ways to grind us down. Our love is only valid if we pretend we are someone we're not. Basic human rights, supposedly inherent in our existence, are now commodities available only for purchase. For too many of my friends and family, freedom is replaced with a struggle just to exist. We work as hard as we can, yet we fear homelessness. When we ask our billionaire overlords for common humanity, we are told that poor people are the problem. When we ask for a living wage we are told that trans folk in our bathrooms are the problem that has priority. Criminals and perverts are lecturing us about the criticality of weeding out criminals and perverts. As a one income family becomes a fleeting dream, we are told women need to stay home and bear children or be portrayed as a failure.

When the most moral among us stand up and plead for compassion, they are angrily told to apologize.

So..... I am happy. So so happy. So fucking happy. Because I know love is love. Because I am surrounded by so many of you who understand the importance of kindness. Because you and I, together and always, seek out and hope for and manifest peace light love joy. As the country darkens, let our light shine on.

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