Can you be happy and live a virtuous life? The reflection

Is Happiness Really Linked to Virtue? Probably yes. But how do we define virtue today?

Most of us want to be happy and not virtuous. For many of us, the need to live a virtuous life runs counter to the pursuit of happiness. Virtue reminds us, in a sense, of moral obligations to other people, the discipline to contain our desires and other kinds of limitations, not to mention repression. When we say "the person must be virtuous" it seems that there must be repression, while the idea of ​​happiness refers us to the realization of our desires, to individual freedom lived in fullness, absence of limits, restrictions and repressions.

For us, the natural desire for happiness has more to do with the desire for fulfillment. It seems that happiness, when I say "I want happiness" means doing what I want. Is this really happiness?

While the word virtue necessarily presupposes good or just relationships with others or living according to nature. Virtue means this, so here's the distinction.

For us, happiness is an individual matter and, more than a search, it is an obligation. But there is also something strange in this conception. If happiness is an obligation, in the sense that I have to be happy, it is no longer a natural desire of every human being, because what is an obligation is not a desire. It is an obligation "I must be happy". If we feel almost obligated to be happy, or at least to prove that we are happy, happiness has become a burden.

We are more interested in showing others and ourselves that we are happy rather than trying to live a truly happy life.

The most important thing is the appearance, what is on the surface of our life, so today it is almost forbidden to say "I'm sad".

If a person says they are depressed, then sadness is an existential issue, like happiness and joy, while depression is a medical issue, which is resolved with pills, medicines, prescriptions, and so on.

If happiness is combined with virtue, happiness as a commitment is the right life, it is the search for good, it is the search for truth, it is doing the best every day ...

Di Father Ezequiel Dal Pozzo.