Freedom and Happiness

Being free doesn’t make you happy. But freedom is necessary for happiness. People who are indifferent to freedom are not happy in the first place. People who don’t have freedom, but want it, can attain happiness in the fight for freedom. Just as there are millions who live in freedom who are neurotic and miserable — despite all this freedom — there are most likely millions more who live under dictatorship or authoritarianism who know how to be happy through struggling to attain what’s theirs: that is, their very lives. I want to see the world become free all over, but even more I’d like to see happiness become the dominant norm. Once that happens, freedom will become an assured and permanent thing. Happy people will never allow dictatorship to overcome them.