When reading The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, a certain quote struck me as the most objective and most interesting was “Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive.” This is a concept I never would have thought to explore or consider before reading this excerpt, but it certainly seems that there is a definitive basis for happiness.
This quantification of happiness made me think of Thomas Jefferson’s “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” One’s right to life is very objective – one has the right to not be killed by others whether it is on purpose or on accident. One’s right to liberty is more subjective, but still can be made objective when discussed as the right to self-autonomy and right to make one’s own decisions. One’s right to happiness, however, has always been super subjective; it seems impossible to ensure that any individual has the right to be happy as there are a bunch of factors which impact happiness, some being uncontrollable such as mental illness. This line, however, made this right much more clear-cut in my eyes. As long as one has the right to anything that is necessary in his or her life, then he or she is being granted the right to happiness.
yea omelas just shows how inherently unequal people view happiness in this world. its something that needs to be “better than others” not on equal playing field. In America it leads to the hierarchical nature of society and the subsequent oppression of others to get to a “happiness” for themselves.
I like how you incorporate Thomas Jefferson’s quote and break down each right that is mentioned while connecting it back to the Omelas definition of happiness. It makes for an interesting thought.
I love the quote that you pulled. It puts more of the work and the emphasis on someone to be in charge of their own happiness. It is a personal chore to judge if something will give you one of the three outcomes.
The Quote that you chose really made me think of happiness in a different way. I think that it is interesting that is you said everyone has the right to happiness and it is their job to achieve it.