Pursuit of Happiness

I am fascinated that the founding fathers included "the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence.
"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness......"
Endowed by their Creator, unalienable. These are powerful concepts, powerful words. Unalienable - unable to be surrendered or transferred or given up.
These very deep thinkers were hashing away at creating a new country, a new society, and among the lofty ideals considered important was the pursuit of happiness.
Happiness is wispy, it has no real definition, it would not appear to be as solid a concept as life and liberty and yet these guys considered it important enough to include it in the Declaration of Independence of a brand new country. They chose to recognize this concept as part of the fabric of being human and therefore part of the fabric of the nature of this country.
Amazing.
I hear so many cynical people deride the idea of being happy. Like it is a foolish thought, a childish thought. Of course these people have been broken by life and choose to pretend that being happy is not important to them.
This country has "evolved" to the point where it has become much more difficult for the average person to be happy. It is so hard to survive that all of your energy is consumed in getting through each and every day and when you get home you don't have the energy to be happy.
Or to think about being happy or to put together a plan to get you happy.
This is because government has become dysfunctional, essentially useless and callous. This is because the business environment is dominated by major corporations who are greedy and callous. Corporations who when putting a potentially dangerous product on the market weigh the cost benefit repercussions of death related lawsuits against anticipated sales levels.
I want to believe that protection of the little man, that hope and the potential for betterment of the little man, weighed heavy on the minds of our forefathers.
Could be naive. Maybe they wanted to get rich and protect their wealth at the expense of the little man.
I prefer to believe that they were in our corner. It is hard to swallow that men who could come up with lofty goals and ideals, men who could think their way to a new type of life, would also include evil and sinister thoughts and motivations.
If they were supporters of the little man, they would suffer great pain to see how many light years away from the pursuit of happiness we all are. Because of the breakdown of the government they created, because of the corruption of the business environment they encouraged.
Life is short and hard and precious. We deserve to be happy. I believe it IS an unalienable right.
But I don't know how to do it. You can accept all the phony baloney new age thinking that encourages you to live in the now and be grateful. Even if you live in a cardboard box.
I think that is a justification for accepting mediocrity. Or worse.
I think we need to find a way to turn things around so that people truly do have a chance. You have to believe you have a chance in order to pursue happiness. If it looks impossible your spirit is broken and you crawl through life in numbness.
And your life is wasted.
I don't have an answer. I wish I did.
I dig the fact that at one time in this country's history we had leaders who looked at citizens as human beings.
Today we are considered everything but human. We are treated as statistics from the moment we walk out the door in the morning to the moment you get home at night.
Nobody gives a good goddamn about your spiritual well being. Your humanity.
Sad commentary.