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The Pursuit of Happiness and the African Society
“Do what makes you happy.”
We hear it all the time, especially in Western media which I am more familiar with. From career choices to divorce, happiness is postured as the primary goal of mankind. Of all consideration, the pursuit of happiness is expected to take pole position every single time. The themes of children’s programs and the deluge of animated feature films produced annually plant this concept in the mind of citizens from way before they can form independent thought — that their happiness is what matters the most and few stories highlight the repercussion of individuality when it no longer serves the collective will.
Can everyone ‘really’ do what makes them happy all the time? No.
Why? Because intrinsic in the word ‘society’ are the rules of engagement that is the glue that holds society together. These rules cover a wide spectrum: from statutory guidelines, to legal boundaries to moral hedges and the wider fence of ethics. Integral to all these metaphors is the attempt by society to define itself by its core beliefs, rein in the excesses of individualism which is antithetic to the social cohesion necessary for the continuity of society. Society cannot exist where the cannibal whose happiness derives from killing other people expresses…
