I asked a friend of mine (Hannah Lingel) at lunch one day, "Why is happiness good?" She did not have an answer. Maybe before continuing to read this, you might want to pause and consider it. Is the goodness of happiness too abstract to justify? Is it a faulty question because it assumes happiness is good? What I have here is an answer to this question, an argument that happiness is good. It is not perfect, and there is always a chance that it is the wrong answer, but this is the answer I believe.
It comes in two major components. The first is this: people who are happy are people who want to be who they are. I will go as far as to say that this is, in fact, the definition of happiness. My favorite band of all time, Relient K, sings that "... it's funny how you find / You enjoy your life / When you're happy to be alive." Fortunate people can be happy just as unfortunate people can be happy. Short people can be not happy just like tall people can be not happy. What separates the two, the happy and unhappy, is that happy people want to be who/how they are.
Now, let me say something is true and not prove it here. Who you are matters. I don't mean this in a cliche "you're important to the world" way. I mean, who you are matters. It matters if you are one way and not the other. People like to say things like, "I can't help it. It's just the way I am," but that is not a good excuse in my opinion. I believe that people can change. While no one can fly, people can be kind. While no one can shoot laser beams out of their eyes, they can be conscientious. The things that really matter in life are the things about you that you can choose to be. So if you choose to be one way and not the other way, that matters.
That's it right there. Those two axioms are the main ingredients in my proof as to why happiness is good. In a terse form, it is simply this: if you are happy, you are more likely to stay who you are, if who you are matters, then it matters whether or not you stay who you are, and in a penultimate step, happiness plays a major role in keeping you who you are. The conclusion is this, happiness contributes to keeping those things which are both good and meaningful the way they are. That's why it in itself is good.
The above paragraph is a bit hard to follow. So I appeal to the character of my friend Sami Nero. It was, in fact, knowing her that allowed me to make this realization. If you have ever met her, you will shake your head in agreement when I write that she is one of the happiest seeming individuals on the planet. Not only is she a happy person, but she is a very good person — for a host of various reasons. Her being happy not only helps define her, but it helps her stay who she is. And that's a good thing. Here it is in a simple syllogism. Sami Nero is good, and Sami Nero is generally happy; therefore, happiness is good.
