INDEPENDENCE

Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

These words written by Thomas Jefferson were immortalized by the success of the American Revolution. But they were by no means any novelty on July 4, 1776. They were not produced out of Jefferson's originality or creativity. It is certainly true that his draft of the Declaration was borne primarily from his own well-developed conceptions about government and its foundations, but he did not claim to be the source of inspiration for the thoughts he set down on paper.

Some years after the Revolution, John Adams complained that Jefferson had written nothing new, to which Jefferson agreed. Jefferson was very familiar with earlier documents containing similar thoughts when he penned the Declaration, such as the piece by Samuel Adams entitled “Rights of the Colonists.” (Verna, 2005) All the political leaders of the Revolution were of one mind concerning the self-evident truths of the Declaration.

1) Human happiness is depending on how much freedom is allowed to pursue their ways of live. People have strong desire to have their individual value and freedom to express themselves. They are willing to fight against any form of suppression that takes away their freedom of liberty. Severe punishment and strict laws imposed by government on individual freedom will only leads a harmful and extreme public reaction.

The issue of China beat down Falun Gong is a typical example. The Chinese government persecuted the members who were practicing breathing exercise in public area. Thousands of members were put in jail(Appleton, 2006). In order to fight for their religious freedom, some member sacrificed their lives by putting fire on themselves. The government's harsh restriction on religion caused such a stir in social harmony. Moreover, it is too subjective for the Chinese government to define the Falun Gongis a religion cult and prohibit the member to practice breathing exercise in pubic area.

Human rights suggested that people are created eaual, and everybody should have the right to live their life. In fact, individual liberty and authority always contradict others. History told us that strict laws and harsh punishment could not suppress human's desire to freedom(Verna, 2005). The Puritans escaped from religious torture, and they could persuade their dream of liberty, and the liberty does not come easy. The American aspect had hard struggle

2) Happiness is a state of enjoyment or pleasure brought on by favorable circumstances or positive outcomes in ...