thanks for bringing this up, i was hoping someone would. i partly agree, there definitely seems to be an element of choice involved in being happy, and also in being unhappy- in fact it seems sustaining ANY emotion over the long term is achieved at least in part by consciously choosing to look at things one way instead of another. maybe that's what makes us who we are -what kind of perspective we choose to have, day after day, year after year. but i believe there's more to it than choice. it's hard to be happy when someone you love is suffering, for example. it's hard to be happy when you're going against important values.
It's never an easy choice. When I think of happiness, I'm thinking more of just being content--of having accepted conditions or being able to face oneself. It reminds me of a question in a book called Peony by Pearl S. Buck. A maid asks another maid, "Is life meant to be happy or sad?" And the other replies, "You cannot be happy until you understand that life is sad."
Things aren't always going to go our way. People we love will suffer. All we can do is bring the best and make the best out of situations. What good does your suffering do for someone else's? You just add onto the suffering. There is a way to be sympathetic and supportive and positive for those you care for who are suffering..
As for going against important values, that is a choice too.. and a choice that can be changed. You exchange one happiness for another I suppose.. Keep the morally bankrupt career with the huge income, or quit that job and lose the six figure salary so that you can face yourself in the mirror.
But we may think of happiness differently, which is natural as we all experience things differently..
I expect good things and bad things to exist simultaneously. Goodness isn't isolated from bad in most circumstances. There's always some opportunity cost, but it's what you decide to make out of the opportunity that determines contentedness.
And that is the responsibility of the individual to determine.
I don't mean to say horrible things shouldn't affect us, but we still get to choose how these things affect our quality of life in the long run.
But this is all based on my own life experience, and my idea of happiness as a result. So it's just my personal opinion.