Community comes from communing, which expresses the joy of coming together or being together, of being sociable. However, our relationships as we know them are complicated. Armed with joy, we are more inclined to friendliness, and we will overcome many a hurdle more easily. Until this undergoes the transformation to diversity, it will require some changes in our approach to tolerance. To achieve this, the focus of our efforts must shift from the external to internal character.

Our whole way of thinking about relationships is characterized by preference or rejection. Society disintegrates into groupings whose seemingly irreconcilable opposites endanger the preservation of the community. Even in our political activity we speak of struggle rather than effort. Political systems thus reach the limits of their functionality.

Crises, such as wars or stock market crashes, have the positive effect of bringing us together as a society. In the face of such an evil, the usual animosities no longer seem insurmountable or postponable; we move closer together. (Despots have often used this means to consolidate their endangered position) Our task is to let the appreciation of the common become stronger in each individual than the separating, which mostly consists in self-interest, often also in merely being stubborn. The realization that the small, limited self-interest reaches a higher level through the jointly achieved solution requires a certain visionary power. Or let’s say faith in the justice of being, which shows itself in trust in the integrity of the opponent or in the historical truth, once I make a compromise for the sake of peace. It entails social decline when ego, preservation of image, preservation of position of power, populism prevail as motives.

Joy and politics

The construction of political structures has taken place on the basis of incomplete or erroneous ideas about the nature of life. We can assume that they were not conceived and built by all-around happy people. We can attribute the emergence of elites who want to lead others to two motivations: the need to protect and foster or to oppress and exploit. Let us assume that the historical tendency can point in the direction of realizing a happy society. For this we must begin to remember our potential for the highest happiness and begin to realize it in society as well. The more we are captured by the spirit of divine joy, the less external guidance and control we will need. The joy of working for the common good will determine our political consciousness and activities more and more. The state of real freedom will become conceivable.

Joy and Law

The original task of jurisprudence and laws is to preserve and increase the happiness of man. In living together and in society, conflicts can arise so that the happiness of individuals or social groups can be restricted or endangered. In order to avoid this, we have developed the concept of justice, by which is meant that the possibility for the development of happiness of each party to the conflict is guaranteed.

We can ask ourselves how many laws a happy society would need. It is easy to imagine that a minimum of regulations would be necessary. Happy people will come into little conflict with each other, and if that should occasionally happen, it would be a matter of concern to both sides to save the joy, to remove the existing obstacles to joy.

Our present legal understanding, of course, takes into account the state of our present consciousness. This consciousness has begun to develop in times and circumstances that are normally out of our reach. If anything, we are limited to mythological conceptions, where religions and philosophy or common sense have attempted to explain the reasons for our being. Certainly, we have not yet reached the highest level of understanding and try to come to halfway reasonable solutions with partly questionable ideas about human nature. These efforts are to be honored just as it is necessary to establish a better understanding. Real progress towards a happy society requires a re-examination of our understanding and system of law in terms of its original purpose ￚ the realization of joy.

Joy and Religion

Does experiencing pure joy require a religious belief or practice? I think not. But it doesn’t hurt if you belong to a faith community. Then you can use this channel to realize the divine goal of expanding joy.