Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happyness AND EXHAUSTION

by M.S. Choi

• Adapted from my Medium article: https://moonsoo-choi.medium.com/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness-and-exhaustion-e87998b5a5b

Declaration of Independence

Did you know that these three ideals — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — are the fundamental pillars supporting the Declaration of Independence? These are the very concepts that gave birth to the ideology, political thoughts, and the fundamental rights of a new nation — they are meant to liberate us, so we can live our lives to the fullest.

Do they, though?

Who cares about the old-school Lockean philosophy if we don’t have ca$h and bread for our family?

WHO CARES about preaching liberty when the pandemic (and thanks to all the maskless wonderers) has locked us down?

We are all exhausted — 2020 was indeed a terrible year for everyone.

2020 probably wasn’t the best year to talk about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The pandemic has mercilessly taken away countless lives. We are still fighting for greater equality and fighting against still-rampant racism throughout the US. Finally, all of us — left and right, old and young — are severely exhausted, and our efforts to sustain our sense of happiness seem tenuous at best.

To be candid, I am worried about the future of America.

We have truly reached out nadir — politics-wise, climate-wise, and morale-wise. Can we recover?

Founding Fathers were depressed, too.

Because there was little medical advancement in the 18th Century, little was known about various mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. Nonetheless, when we map our current understanding of the mental health issues to what we know about the Founding Fathers, many pieces of evidence suggest the prevalence of depression and anxiety among the Founding Fathers.

Founding Fathers had the responsibility and undue hardship to chart out America’s path for the next few decades — if not the next few centuries — to come. The founding fathers had to define a completely new nation and had to distill the very definition of America into mere 1,313 words (Declaration of Independence) and 4,543 words (the Constitution). The most notable Founding Father who experienced mental health issues, for instance, is George Washington, who witnessed the passing of over 2,000 soldiers at the Valley Forge — where Washington was documented to have experienced hallucination and subsequently “saw” his older brother, Lawrence. John Adam’s diary was full of hints suggesting mania. Albeit born much later after the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, I mean… his portraits scream the very definition of grim and melancholy.

…where do the similarities lie between us and Founding Fathers?

The similarity between the Founding Fathers and us?

I hypothesize that we are in the process of charting a completely unprecedented path - the one that never, ever existed in our history thus far - for the next few decades, if not centuries.

Needless to say, Covid-19 has certainly brought a wide spectrum of seismic changes. In August, a CDC report has documented a worrisome (specifically, quadrupled) increase in the rates of anxiety and depression. Surely, the pandemic has brought ample opportunities for reflection — not just on our career or financial decisions, but also on our life as a whole. And many of us have begun to recognize the utmost importance of taking care of ourselves, both physically and mentally.

One reason, perhaps, that we are experiencing many mental health issues is due to our desire to move forward and upward. When we encounter challenges, they ought to wear us off and leave scars here and there. Gradually, little by little, we will discover a sense of how we can shape the world to be better (and not necessarily in terms of coining our next tech gadget, like iPhone 27). There will be a greater life, liberty, and a sense of happiness waiting for us at the end of the dark tunnel for us all.

Happy 2021!

Citations:

Lazarus, Clifford N. “Mental Illness Was Unknown When the Constitution Was Written.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 13 Feb. 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-well/202002/mental-illness-was-unknown-when-the-constitution-was-written.

“What Did America’s Founding Fathers Know about Mental Illness?” Columbia University Global Mental Health Programs, 17 Nov. 2020, www.cugmhp.org/five-on-friday/what-did-americas-founding-fathers-know-about-mental-illness/.

“What Did America’s Founding Fathers Know about Mental Illness?” Columbia University Global Mental Health Programs, 17 Nov. 2020, www.cugmhp.org/five-on-friday/what-did-americas-founding-fathers-know-about-mental-illness/.