There is a Spectre Haunting Happiness

It is Capitalism!
Wilhelm here...

I've been noticing that a lot of discussions and conclusions that we come to in class involve, a minimal lifestyle, a withdrawal from consumerist culture, separating short sighted pleasures from long standing joy, being "virtuous", a greater sense of community, and a subscription to true individual freedom (or sense of such.)

My question is do we think the constructs of our regulated capitalist economy, combined with our form of representational government, necessarily nourish happiness in concordance with some of the ideals above? Here, we're talking about the realities of the effects on individuals of the American economic, political, and social landscape, not the "America", "Capitalism", or "Democracy" that only lives in vacuums and presidential promises.

Does the American way promote a minimal lifestyle? For me seemingly not. America is about the acquisition of capital, and the subversion of class struggle through class ascendance. In example, we don't look at our lives negatively and say, why does this negativity exist, or should this sort of problem even be a phenomenon? Instead we say this problem is a problem for these kind of people, but if I can just become one of those kind of people, I'll be fine.

In example, when a break in happens within a neighborhood, the family doesn't ask, "well why did the robber rob", or, "what familial and social circumstances create these ethical decisions", no, the family asks their real estate agent can they move to a "better" neighborhood. This, of course, creates a system where the problems never go away, they are just happening to different people.

Furthermore, this class ascendance relies on the exchange of capital, and since capital, for us, is the universal means of acquiring material survival, as well as material happiness, it is to be conserved, and thus, while fiscal altruism is not dead within such a society, one can definitely not say it is "nourished", unless you consider tax cuts and other economic incentives nourishment for altruism. That still promotes the idea of exchange, rather than sacrifice, which brings us to a moral dilemma of what altruism actually is.

Do we, as Americans, separate short sighted pleasures from long standing joy? Do our systems allow for such? Well, quite simply, the marketplace existed before America was founded; however, macroconsumerism did not. Although, I am not saying that the Platonic idea of "American value" necessarily translates into a sacrifice of long term happiness against short term pleasure. Instead, I am putting forth the notion that the political, social, philosophical and technological historical circumstances in which America was founded led to a sort of macroconsumerism which favors fleeting pleasure.

Virtuous? It's hard for me to synthesize an argument here, as virtue is seemingly subjective. It'd take a class discussion to truly understand virtue in the ideological sense, American virtue in a vacuum, American virtue in reality, and then compare it to some other cultures ideas of virtue. A project for another day!

A greater sense of community and connection? America is a world of individuals, right? America abolished the family for the "nuclear" family, a smaller, compact unit perfect for statistics which they use to propagate consumerist culture. America turns the university experience, a melding of cultures and philosophies, into a job track, a glorified pool of tech schools. America encourages party polarization. America has parties in the first place. Individualism, polarization, and competing minority interests pervade every inch our society.

True individual freedom? Do you feel free? Can you do what you want without consequence? No? Where are the consequences coming from? That place that they are coming from, do you feel like you have a say in that place in which you could express yourself directly, for a specific issue, and make a change? How about even be heard?

Should be self evident.