If I get up on a pleasant morning and have all the nice feelings about trying to keep all my friends around me happy then of course such pursuit of happiness is good for me and good for society.
However when I pick up the newspaper and read about the genocide in Gaza or other terrible injustices, then it will be very stupid and selfish of me if I try to persist with my effort to be ‘happy’ for the sake of it. I can feel very sad about this, or I can feel very angry about this, but surely I cannot pretend that as I am determined to be in a happy frame of mind so I will try not to think about such issues involving great injustice or cruelty.
The issue of course is not just one of any individual’s feelings, but rather the much wider one of development concepts or thinking about what constitutes the good life—something which can have a big influence on people and policy.
As it became increasingly clear that GNP is a very poor indicator of genuine well-being of people, countries and societies, several proposals came up and one of those which appeared very cool to many people was to have indicators based on ‘happiness’ of people and to prepare a happiness index. However on closer examination some of the societies which appeared near the top of this index were also found to be afflicted by many serious problems.
The reasons are not too far to find in our immediate surroundings. When we find that people indulge in all kinds of merry making while turning their eyes away from the injustice all around them and without caring to reduce this injustice or even thinking about this, then one is shocked by the merry making of such people instead of wanting to join them in this. So any outward appearance of people simply enjoying their life in all possible ways can be hardly seen as a manifestation or even approximation of what ideally human life should be.
Hence the key indicator of the society we really need is how many people are concerned about justice and about well-being of all, instead of looking at how many are high-up in the pursuit of their happiness. It is the people who are genuinely concerned about the welfare of all who are likely to contribute in valuable ways to the creation of a better world, not those who are merely on a high on the highway of happiness.
So let us try to create a world of more concerned citizens and more questioning and thoughtful people, instead of vainly finding ways and means of just increasing happiness in a narrow and selfish sense, or engaging in increasing talk and tasks of measuring and ‘indexing’ happiness.
Speaking for myself, I would never feel truly happy if I devoted myself mainly to the pursuit of happiness!
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Earth without Borders and A Day in 2071.
