We welcome Pierre Johnson to his first episode of More Content Talk on this awesome episode. Pierre is a college buddy of mine from San Jose State University. I was fortunate enough to get him away from his busy schedule for this episode. We discuss the famed term, "the pursuit of happiness", and what that means in the context of contemporary America. We do not talk so much about the technical aspects of obtaining happiness (budgeting, work ethic, etc.) because those are dealt with in depth on other podcasts. You can hardly look up a podcast in any topic without being inundated with some magical cocktail of hair brained schemes to tap into your inner billionaire. We instead look at the history of the term, and analyze whether or not it is even still obtainable today. We draw no real definitive conclusions in this discussion. Instead we focus on the realities of the day, and contemplate whether or not it is time for a new framework for thinking, and applying the term. No matter what Tucker Carlson fantasizes about when he goes to sleep, there is no hoard of communists coming to rewrite the constitution. Rethinking cultural norms is not radical; it is hardly revolutionary, and it is certainly not extremism. Yet serious discussions about the dark realities of America's violent past are silenced because they are painted by purists as insults. This is simply propaganda. American culture belongs to every American, not just the parent teacher school board of your perspective district. It is nonsense that it has become a sin to insult the founders or their documents. Constitutions are written to be criticized, and, if they can stand the test of time, they shall endure. However, when injustices have been written into a document, it is the duty of those interpreting it to make it known. Returning to the nation that we once had when George Washington walked the earth means that we have to recognize that the man owned slaves. The fact that this has been mostly censored by loud apologists for slavery is not just the fault of the apologists, but of the academics who are supposed to protect us from such vitriol. It is yet another systemic failure piled upon other failures of the same kind, but concerning different issues. Besides, what does it mean to pursue happiness when you are poor? The saying is almost oxymoronic in that we know damn well that most of these people are doomed. I'm sorry to be the one to say it, but someone has to focus on the worst outcome. Someone must be negative. Someone must look at the loss of opportunity that comes from the consolidation of power. Are there really people who believe they will be billionaires someday who are over the age of ten? You would have to be crazy to think that such a thing remains a possibility today, not when you can only name a few billionaires off the top of your head. Will there be more billionaires? Sure. Is it something you can rely on? Only if you're stoned. Sometimes the inequality seems so great that making your first millions seems an distant dream. I'll never forget the time I had to take my son's piggy bank so I could take the bus to get to work. I remember him asking me about it, and just feeling so embarrassed, as if I was the worst person to ever live. Was I not pursuing happiness when I cashed my son's years of pennies into a Coin Star so I could be in a community theater production of The Taming of The Shrew? Was I not sacrificing everything? Was I not demonstrating that I was willing to go all the way? Would it finally be enough? That night, as I walked home alone in the cold after the show without enough money for bus fare, and still feeling quite ill, it didn't really feel like I had gotten anywhere. But I was certainly pursuing happiness. Now I wonder if that just led me down a path of self destruction. I wonder if I had divorced myself from my career a bit more, not making it synonymous with my happiness, if I would've prospered more.