Pursuits That Aren’t So Trivial

Wendy Kaminer’s reflection on satisfaction (“The Inner You,” Oct. 13) sees Thomas Jefferson “enshrining the pursuit of happiness as a national entitlement” in the same manner, one must suppose, as Social Security and Medicare have been so enshrined. Jefferson would be aghast. He saw the pursuit of happiness not as an entitlement but as an inviolable individual right.

Kaminer further states that Jefferson’s point of view was that the purpose of education is “self-government, not self-esteem.” Yet I am sure that he would contend vigorously that self-government is the only way to bring about self-esteem. The very essence of Jefferson’s philosophy of The Good Society lay in his recognition that self-government and the pursuit of happiness are two sides of the same coin.

Only a Libertarian president could even understand this American fundamental, let alone act on it.

Nicholas E. Spinner

Los Angeles

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The Founding Fathers did us no favor by referring to “the pursuit of happiness,” a phrase misconstrued by many to mean a right to be happy, as though such a thing were awarded along with a birth certificate. The founders would have been better advised to write about the pursuit of wisdom, a much more mature goal.

Sheilah Nelson

Long Beach

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Pursuit of self-satisfaction can be antisocial, even incompatible, with civilized society. Carried too far, it could lead to the law of the jungle, where the strong would be free to devour or oppress the weak.

The will to exert power over others is the most dangerous form of self-satisfaction.

Progress alone will not rid humanity of such evils. We must practice and teach traditional (dare we say religious) ethical and moral values in order to put the goal of self-satisfaction in its proper, subordinate place.

Jim Cordi

Northridge