#31--THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

“I am a former Marine. I work two jobs. I don’t have health insurance… I haven’t had 4 consecutive days off in over 4 years. But I don’t blame Wall Street. Suck it up you whiners.”
Blog on “We Are the 53%”

The tough guy philosophy expounded by our former Marine has longstanding credibility in American society. We like to expound on how harsh, cruel, and unfair life is, then shrug and do nothing, to show others we can take it. Truly, a thick hide is a valuable asset. If we live on Planet Earth, we must sometimes silently suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, because often, nothing else can be done. Furthermore, nobody enjoys listening to somebody else complain. We all have problems. Still, there comes a time when patient endurance becomes self-inflicted cruelty. Sometimes, the pain becomes unendurable, leading people to seek solutions, and if solutions are available, people take action.
In America, we pride ourselves on rugged individualism to get things done. If Americans had not been tough, we could not have conquered this wilderness continent so quickly. In military situations, with men killing each other, mistakes can be fatal, and petty squabbling over small details can cost dearly. The ability to “suck it up” is essential to the mission. But we have already conquered the continent, the former Marine is back in civilian life, and either our everyday individual efforts are worth the effort, or they’re not. Our country exists to secure the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, for every individual. We have the right to change our government if these rights are denied some, most, or all of us. Working two jobs, with scant time off and no health insurance, can cause that noble feeling of quiet desperation to wear thin. We know that politically, socially and economically, when people work together toward the common good, we all live better.
Why people turn their backs on their fellows is for each individual to answer. All of us, from time-to-time, feel that need. In the ex-Marine’s case, perhaps he feels his military commitment was sufficient service to humanity, and from now on he’ll get his—although from his own testimony, that is precious little indeed. Men come back from war with many issues, and those can include dislike and distrust of the human race. But lest we forget, many veterans have expressed a common ground with Occupy protesters. Each of us must examine his own conscience and make choices accordingly. We can also look to our innate reasoning abilities. The protesters and the Marine probably agree that “sucking up” a drab, hungry, and exhausting existence carries little visible reward, other than the opportunity to go on sucking it up, and trying not to whine.
Our rational faculties cause us to question whether the status quo is providing access to the inalienable rights our nation was created expressly to provide. Working two jobs may provide life, if life is defined by physical survival. There is precious little liberty, though, except the liberty to die hungry and homeless, should a worker (for whatever reasons) stop working. The pursuit of happiness seems out of reach, however, to all but masochists.
The “We Are the 53%” site, where the former Marine blogs, claims to represent those between the 1% ultra-rich, and the 46% who are too poor to pay income taxes. Drawing the line divides the 99% roughly in half, and the attitude of holding Wall Street blameless while expressing outright hostility toward people who are really struggling to make ends meet, right there should solve any problems the 1% might have retaining control of the country. Many of us who earn enough to pay income taxes are little better off than the ones who haven’t made the cut. We can ask ourselves what common sense there is in criticizing and abusing those who are already desperate, just because we aren’t quite that desperate… yet. We can ask ourselves how much we really have in common with the fantastically well-to-do, and if we let them continue to run the country, in what ways they would show their appreciation. We can ask ourselves what good reason there could be for leaving those with unbelievable wealth out of the equation.
In any case, it’s obvious that the super-rich (who alone are doing really well nowadays), could not go on ruling to the benefit of their unmitigated greed, should the 99% refuse to let them do it. The nation’s wealth is concentrated in a tiny demographic, a minority whose wealth grows while the rest of us get gradually poorer, while we watch our opportunities vanish. Our inalienable rights are threatened, and the danger grows. We could regain those rights, strengthen them for all of us, and do it peacefully, if we simply realize how much we commoners have in common. Most of us no longer have access to economic opportunity or social equality. We can work together to get these back. Or we can slink away and “suck it up.”